ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT CHARLES LATHROP PACK 



In welcoming the members of the American Forestry Association, attending the Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting, 

 and the United States and Canadian delegates to the International Forestry Conference at Washington, D. C, January 

 18 and 19, 1917, President Charles Lathrop Pack of the American Forestry Association said: 



IN the name of The American Forestry Association, I 

 welcome you to this Forestry Conference at Wash- 

 ington. You have come hither in answer to our invi- 

 tation. Some of you have come long distances, and man}- 

 have done so at the cost of considerable personal incon- 

 venience. You are here to consider some of the vital ques- 

 tions of forest conserv-ation, and the better protection and 

 use of this great fundamental resource of the United States 

 and Canada. Among the delegates appointed from Ontario 

 and Quebec and from each of many States of this coun- 

 try, we recognize many familiar faces. You are experts 

 in forestry and natural resources, and representatives of 

 National and local organizations concerned in the devel- 

 opment and use of the forests. Coming from Canada 

 and from many States, this Conference is, in effect, a meet- 

 ing of the representatives of the citizens of these States of 

 the Nation and of the people of Ontario and Quebec. 



This is a trying time with 



THE FOREST AND 

 PREPAREDNESS 



those who would protect the 

 forest. New enemies are at 

 work, and you are here to devise 

 plans, ways and means to better protect the forests and 

 better keep and use the great timber resources, which are 

 so valuable and necessary to the economic progress of 

 the United States and Canada. The conservation of the 

 forests is an important factor in National preparedness in 

 this country. If the great test of war comes to our 

 people, it wll be as vital to have natural resources avail- 

 able as to have men and ammunition. 



We must have natural resources in abundance back 

 of our Navy and our Army for adequate defense. The 

 life of a Navy and of an Army would not be safe without 

 it, and conservation, particularly of the forest and the 

 mine and the soil, is a constructive principle essential to 

 the end that we may be prepared. 



I will not undertake before men of your wisdom and 

 experience to discuss any of the details of the important 

 questions you are here to consider. These will be taken 

 up during your deliberations, and I congratulate you on 

 the program you are to hear and consider. 



Expert investigation has 



THE WHITE PINE 

 BLISTER 



established that the white and 

 other five-leaved jjines of the 

 United States and Canada are 

 threatened by the white pine blister, a fungus disease 

 imported from Europe. Already the disease lias been 

 found extensively in New England and in most of the 

 Eastern and Northern States of the white pine belt, and 

 to some extent in Ontario and Quebec. 



What you may here consider and determine will 

 have a large influence and effect for better or worse 

 on the future of the white pine, which is admittedly 



our most valuable northern lumber tree, as well as one of 

 the most beautiful. I need not urge upon you the import- 

 ance of j^our deliberations. 



The great war in Europe has 



THE WAR AND FOR- 

 EST ECONOMICS 



increased the importance of the 

 economic value of the forest. 

 German}' has ever been in the 

 lead in the practice of dealing scientifically with these 

 matters. One of the interesting mysteries of the pres- 

 ent conflict is the source from which the Central 

 Powers obtain the nitro-cellulose necessary in the manu- 

 facture of smokeless powder. This, as you all know, is 

 ordinarily made from cotton. Germany does not now 

 have access to the world cotton market. We have infor- 

 mation which would indicate that in this emergency the 

 nitro-cellulose used now by Germany is made from wood. 

 The ordinary black powder is composed of fourteen to 

 eighteen parts charcoal, made from certain varieties of 

 wood. For strategic purposes, of course, smokeless 

 powder is preferred on the battle-fields, but very great 

 quantities of black powder are consumed daily by the 

 contending armies. 



We refer to rosin and turpentine, so largeh' the product 

 of our .Southern pine forests, as "naval stores," but now 

 rosin is employed in large quantities in filling the space 

 between the bullets in shrapnel shells, so that when the 

 shells explode the missiles will be evenly distributed in 

 all directions. 



Gun-stocks, fomierh' made almost entirely from 

 walnut, are now made from birch, red gum and other 

 woods. MilHons of such have during the past few years 

 been made in America. The pecidiar st}'le of warfare 

 which the great war has brought forth, necessitates the 

 use of enormous quantitiesof timberfor trench walls, trench 

 floors, braces and stays. Millions and millions of feet are re- 

 quired for buildings behind the fighting lines, for hospitals, 

 for housing non-combatants, for temporary storehouses and 

 the like. Enormous quantities of forest products go into 

 mine props, bridges and for other military preparations. 

 The ingenuity of Germany has taught her to make a 

 soft and satisfactory absorbent as a substitute for absorb- 

 ent cotton for surgical uses, and it is made from wood 

 fiber or cellulose. Nowadays, enormous quantities of 

 cordage and ropes and burlap, rugs and carpets are 

 manufactured fronj wood fiber and wood pulp. Some 

 may not know it, but many a person, even in this audience, 

 is wearing articles of clothing that are now made wholly 

 or in part from wood fiber. Some beautiful fabrics for 

 ladies' evening wear are made largely of wood fiber and 

 cellulose. The new uses and the increased old uses for 

 the products of the forest increase the economic value of 

 the forest, and add to the importance of all the questions 



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