'•16 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ship than it now is, and forest conservation will receive one of the greatest 

 encouragements that can be given it. »i-=aLe»i 



This is not a Utopian program. All of its elements are now in hand, 

 and steady and persistent efforts will accomplish the complete result, even in 

 the face of national carelessness and individual irresponsibility. 



NEW ENGLAND'S HOPE DEFERRED 



DETV ENGLAND is deeply and unpleasantly stirred bv the failure of the 

 VVeeks law to accomplish any immediate results in the protection of the 

 assumed .I.ln^n"'"'" forests, and especially by the possibility which has 

 assumed alarming proportions that relief may be impossible under the law as 

 1 now stands. The state of feeling will surely become^visible and audble when 

 he people of that section generally become aware of the facts which are now 

 known to comparat vely few. A common impression still is that a \llhZ 



amtZ ''"'''*^ ^"-^ °'^ ^' ^"'^ "•^^•^" ''''''' '"^ ^ customaiVAmeTican 



It is generally known that the first direct proposal to purchase forests 

 in the northern and southern Appalachians wa.s sidetracked by an opTnTon 

 of the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives that such a pur 

 chase would be unconstitutional, but that forests might be pui chased onX 

 watersheds of navigable streams if it could be shown that the maintenance 

 of these forests was necessary to protect or promote the navigabiuty of sucJ 



as a finn, ■ !^ °''^ '•' '''''' *" ^''''''' '''' "^''''^ ">' t^^'^ «Pinio"- iS validity 

 as a final judgment is very doubtful. On this point constitutional la™s 



flTrn^'^^lr "7^' maintained by some strict construction riawyerJ on 

 the committee and outside of it with entire sincerity. It also furnished a 

 good instrument to use with less sincerity in the shai-p politkll gan^e which 

 was played in the House to kill the measure. 

 ft„i7^^ ,7''^^'' bill was constructed to meet this view, for so close was the 



?n orier to wf '''^* IKT""' ^'''''' *« ^« ^"^^^^^ '""^ j^'^'^i'^^y co Jm ttee 

 w^^rAt ° I'^'^^^Z "^^* ^""^ ^'^^^ *^f "-'i^y members who did not know iust 

 where they stood, ,t was provided in the bill that the Geological Survey .shoiUd 



reZTf r*^'' ''■' S",'"''"'*^ ^^ ""^''^ ^^' P™P«««*i' reporting as 'to their 

 lela ion to he navigability of the streams upon whose watersheds they lie 

 a rX '' •■ ^ ""^derstood that the Survey did not care to be d™ into 

 w^n^iV""'' ^^"^ ^''•^'''^y ^^^•^l^'^'i the foresters, the engineers and ?he 

 T\ eather Bureiiu in endless warfare, but the task was reluctantly assumed in 

 obedience to the will of Congress. v-iauLij- dshumea in 



The practical result is that while the experts of the Survey admit the 

 a™;haTThi? "' the destruction that is being'done in the White SoulS^ 

 and that this ought to be checked, they could not, accordin<^ to the last 

 information available, by the method of inVestigation ^-hich thevla^^ adop ed 

 connect it with the navigability of the streams heading in those mounta ns 

 and there is at present reason to expect a report unfavorable, or only parthUy 

 favorable on the White Mountain watersheds. The posit on ?aken^ by tie 

 Survey IS understood to be that the relation of each water.shed must be 

 determined by direct examination of that watershed-that no other factors ire 



parts ?f If. '''T.'°^ ''.^* "'^t ''''' '^''''^P^"^'^ «° other wateLhedfin otSer 

 parts of the world cannot be used to forecast what will happen here On this 

 ground It must be admitted that the White Mountains stfnd smail chance 

 The ultimate results of progressive denudation and of the cuttin- of hard' 



