114 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



appointed b}' the board, and thus placed upon a basis 

 of merit rather than politics, such executives ha\-e not 

 failed in a single instance to faithfully and \'igorously 

 perform their duties. Fire protection has become an 

 actual fact, rangers give honest service, forestry educa- 

 tion and general knowledge is advanced rapidly, and the 

 confidence of the public is secured. 



By contrast, in those states which have either blindly 

 or with deliberate intent combined state forestry with 

 other departments, subordinated the forester to a chief 

 whose head is full of a number ot other interests, and 

 removed the stabilizing element of the board, state 

 forestry has either failed to develop or has received a 

 severe setback. Equally poor results have followed when 

 a state, although retaining a separate forestry depart- 



ment, resorts to the principle of direct appointment of 

 the forester. From close study of the actual results of 

 state forestrj' since its first beginnings, these conclusions 

 stand out in a manner absolutely convincing. Only igno- 

 rance of the facts or wilful desire to coiTupt and make 

 partisan use of forestry departmental machinery and 

 appropriations can form any excuse for reorganizing a 

 State Forest Service established along these lines. Yet 

 strong efforts are being made in more than one state to 

 do this very thing. Let the friends of efficiency and of 

 honest government beware of these specious attempts 

 and hold fast to what is good; or in another decade we 

 shall face the task of reconstructing our forestry depart- 

 ments on the same lines as at present, from the ruins of our 

 attempts to "better" them by fusion and reorganization. 



IN THE FRENCH FORESTS 



HD. JEWETT, a graduate of Wyman's School of 

 the Woods, and well known by foresters, who 

 is now a member of the American Ambulance 

 Corps serving in France, writes : 



"At our present location I am fortunate in being near 

 some small forests where I have a chance to see some of 

 the French forestry in practice. Some of the Service For- 

 estier men are in the woods here and the Boche prisoners 

 do most of the work. About all the hardwoods are oak 

 and beech but the beech, especially, seems better than 

 what we have at home. There is a beautiful pine (mari- 

 time) ntarsery about eight years old. The spruce planta- 

 tions here are failures because the soil is the poor limestone 

 variety. The woods are all divided into compartments, 

 etc. such as we studied in "Working Plans." There has 

 been a small mill erected near our camp where they are 

 turning out lumber for war purposes; mostly boards for 

 portable houses and heavy timbers for dugouts, etc. There 

 are many German prisoners worldng in the mill and they 

 seem to be glad they are not in the trenches. Wood is 

 certainly valuable here as we camiot even pick up the 

 dead wood in the forests, and each camp has a regular 

 wood ration. Thej^ have made thinnings in many of the 

 woods for fuel and when the operation is finished the 

 woods look like a park. The leaves are about the only 

 part of the tree not used. The French foresters seem a 

 good lot but I can't talk very fully with them because of 

 my slight knowledge of the language. I hope to see more 

 of the real French forests before coming home." 



rpHAT England and Germany, with their realization of 

 -'- the need for conservation of national resources, are 

 far more particular about the use of creosoted 

 timber for heavy construction work than the United 

 States, and the lesson for the United States in this atti- 

 tude, is a feature of a forest service bulletin issued by 

 the United States Department of Agriculture in co- 

 operation with the American Wood-Preservers' Associa- 

 tion, the bulletin being written by R. K. Helphenstine, Jr., 

 of the federal forest service. 



MONEY FOR ROADS AND TRAILS 



SECRETARY HOUSTON has amiounced the amount 

 allotted to each State from the million dollars to be 



spent during the fiscal year 1918 in constructing roads 

 and trails within or partly within the National Forests. 

 This money is part of the ten million dollars appropriated 

 by the Federal Aid Road Act to assist development of 

 the National Forests, which becomes available at the rate 

 of a million dollars a year for ten years. 



The allotments as approved are as follows: Alaska, 

 $46,354; Arizona, $58,604; Arkansas, $9,803; California, 

 $140,988; Colorado, $62,575; Idaho, $108,730; Montana, 

 $70,042; Nevada, $19,296; New Mexico, $42,495; Oregon, 

 $128,111; South Dakota, $8,092; Utah, $41,167; Washing- 

 ton, $91,944; Wyoming, $40,684. A total of $9,995 has 

 been allotted to Florida, Michigan, Miimesota, Nebraska, 

 North Dakota, and Oklahoma. The group of Eastern 

 States — Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, North and 

 South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia — 

 in which the Govenmient is prnxhasing lands for National 

 Forests, receives $21,120. 



In maldng allotments, it is explained, ten per cent of 

 the amount available for 1918 is withheld as a contingent 

 fund. One-half of the remainder has been apportioned 

 among the states in amoimts based on the area of the 

 National Forest lands in each state, while the other half 

 has been allotted on a basis of the estimated value of the 

 timber and forage resources which the Forest contains. 



THE number of fires suppressed on National Forest 

 lands durmg the calendar year 1915 was 6,324, as 

 against 7,018 in 1914, and an average annual number 

 of 4,759 during the past five years, says Henry S. Graves, 

 Chief of the Forest Service, in his annual report just 

 published. While more than the average number of fires 

 occurred, the timbered area burned over was but 155,416 

 acres, or 30 per cent less than the average per year for 

 the period 1911-1915 inclusive. The average loss per 

 fire was $60.41. Forty-four per cent of the fires were 

 confined to areas of less than one-quarter of an acre. 



