STATE WORK 



311 



New York 



Robert W. Higbie, a New York lumber 

 merchant, urges the need of purchase by the 

 state of i,ooo,oco acres of Adirondack lands. 

 Of the four and a half million acres in 

 the region, one a half are now owned by 

 the state; 1,000,000 are virgin timber and 

 their purchase is out of the question ; a 

 half-million are privately owned; and a 

 half-million are occupied by the villages. 

 The remaining million Mr. Higbie would 

 have the state purchase. "They are at pres- 

 ent being denuded, and practically no effort 

 is being made to replant trees thereupon. In 

 the hands of private individuals it cannot be 

 expected that any scientific effort will be 

 made to replant the trees which have been 

 cut down. Returns cannot be secured from 

 such replanting for from fifty to seventy-five 

 years, and the average investor cannot 

 afford to wait that length of time. The 

 capital outlay also is too great for most 

 private enterprises. And then the fire risk 

 attached to the possession ai forests is 

 such that the average company does not 

 desire to assume it. As a consequence the 

 lumber supply is diminishing, and a lumber 

 famine, in the absence of such a policy of 

 conservation as is proposed, will be inevitable. 

 There will also be a lack of such regulation 

 to the water supply as can be secured only 

 by a good forest growth. 



"None of these objections to entering the 

 forestry business, which apply to private 

 enterprise, are applicable to the state. The 

 state can afford to wait for a return, and 

 an investment made by it in forest lands 

 will yield a rich return in the future. It 

 can afiford to assume the fire risk. With 

 the splendid fire law which we at present 

 have, this risk would be comparatively small. 

 The state would not need to insure forests 

 any more than it does its public buildings. 

 In possession of large quantities of land, it 

 would not be ruined should there occur a 

 fire in one portion of the forest lands, as 

 would a private enterprise with the land 

 concentrated in one or two places." 



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Oregon Forests First 



Oregon forests have incalculably greater 

 wealth as a state resource visible than any 

 other industry here. Stumpage valuation 

 of the standing timber in the state runs into 

 the hundreds of millions of dollars, whereas 

 the market value of this timber, 'when man- 

 ufactured, the figure that must be brought 

 into the state to get the timber, on the cur- 

 rent prices of lumber, ranges from $5,000,- 

 000,000 to $7,000,000,000. Yet no important 

 laws have been passed with special reference 

 to the fostering of this industry, its pro- 

 tection, encouragement, or recognition in any 

 form whatever, save that a state board of 

 forestry has been created. 



For the protection of fish interests, from 

 which only a small sum is realized annually, 

 state laws have been passed and officers 

 named to study needs and guard against ills. 

 Inspectors are authorized to keep fruit or- 

 chards and their product in clean, marketable 

 condition, because it is found that disease, 

 when started in a neglected orchard, spreads 

 to harm the careful worker. State veter- 

 inarians inspect live stock and spend much 

 time protecting this industry. A large ap- 

 propriation is made for agricultural educa- 

 tion and the advancement of farm life. 



Against all of this interest on the part of 

 the state for various sources of wealth, the 

 timber owner and lumber manufacturer finds 

 himself receiving no consideration whatever. 

 One negligent owner of forty acres of forest 

 land might start a conflagration that would 

 destroy in a week $100,000,000 of timber, or 

 even more. Thousands of acres of burned 

 and cut-over forest land in the state are idle, 

 losing every year to future generations sev- 

 eral million dollars. In the regulation of 

 log driving on creeks and larger streams, the 

 cutting in forest and mill, and all other 

 problems that affect the present and future 

 of Oregon's peerless timber wealth are un- 

 touched by state statute, and no fostering 

 effort is made in behalf of the great Doug- 

 las fir. 



Members of the conservation forces be- 

 lieve that the state has within its own hands 

 the power to accomplish great things. About 

 four-fifths of the standing timber in the 

 state is on private holdings, and with this 

 the state will have to deal, as the- national 

 government treats only with the national re- 

 serves. Grasping this possibility, and realiz- 

 ing what timber means to the state, the two 

 conservation organizations will give forestry 

 and the lumber industry first consideration 

 for the next year or two. All other conser- 

 vation will not be put aside, but forestry will 

 have first place, until a code of laws has 

 been framed which promises the greatest pos- 

 sible returns to the people of the state, and 

 perpetuation of the forests on land that is 

 not more valuable for other purposes. As 

 the work progresses, the recommendations 

 contemplated will be given out for discus- 

 sion, to insure the broadest publicity, so 

 that by the time the next legislature is in 

 session, whatever is put before the law- 

 makers will be known to the people. — Port- 

 land Telegram. 



tt< kit |t< 



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Pennsylvania Convention of State Foresters 



The foresters of Pennsylvania's state board 

 held their third annual convention at Har- 

 risburg on the ist of March. In his open- 

 ing address. Governor Stewart said that 

 "from one end of this country to another the 

 vital question which is uppermost in the 

 minds of both the officials and the people is 

 the question of the preservation of our for- 



