EDITORIAL 



549 



pletion of reclamation projects (Public 

 289) was advocated by the administra- 

 tion." 



The Bulletin closes with a notable 

 paragraph : 



"It is unfortunate that the Interior 

 Department has absolutely refused to 

 approve rights of way for municipal 

 water supply, irrigation, and water 

 power wherever the lands affected are 

 believed to be valuable for water power. 

 This policy has continued for a year. 

 It amounts to the absolute stoppage of 

 water power development throughout 

 the arid west, and has done much to 

 create the totally false conception of 

 conservation in that region. The Forest 

 Service has wisely rejected the pro- 

 posals of the Interior Department look- 

 ing- to the establishment of the same 

 policy in national forests." 



Mr. Ballinger has not hesitated to let 

 the country know that he has very de- 

 cided opinions upon conservation, and 

 it was gathered from repeated state- 

 ments that one of his ideas is to open 

 up resources and prevent the discour- 

 agement to enterprise that would fol- 

 low unwise restrictive measures. True, 

 this idea was not the Secretary's own 

 by right of discovery, because it is part 

 and parcel of the conservation program 

 as it was arranged by those who were 

 its true originators. But it seemed as 

 unmistakable as anything the Secretary 

 has put into words — and the Secretary 

 is inclined toward calling a spade a 

 spade at the very least — that he was 

 practically and theoretically opposed to 

 a sort of conservation which nobody, 

 after all, was advocating. It is there- 

 fore somewhat disconcerting to find that 

 in one direction he appears to be de- 

 termined to restrict, instead of prop- 

 erly developing, the use of one of the 

 great resources of which he has control. 



^ '^ '^ 



Two Remarkable Examples of Reforestation 



THE illustrated article by Mr. Hov- 

 gaard in this issue of American 

 Forestry on the "Reforestation of Den- 

 mark," together with the pictures and 

 notes of forest plantations in the Karst 



of Austria, may well arrest attention. In 

 both of these instances, so different and 

 so widely separated, effect has followed 

 cause, not once but twice ; first, when 

 the forest was stripped away and the 

 land was laid waste, and second, when 

 the forest was replaced by painful ex- 

 periment and the land became again 

 productive. In both cases, too, the evil 

 effect of forest removal, as well as the 

 good effect of forest restoration, has 

 been shown in a very definite influence 

 upon local climate ; agriculture was 

 stopped or impoverished when the forest 

 masses were removed, and was revived 

 and developed as they were put back. 



But, of course, the chief lesson so 

 powerfully enforced by these examples 

 is that the possibilities of forest pro- 

 duction are almost unlimited. The work 

 in Denmark and in the Karst was done 

 not only against the deterring weight 

 of general indifference and incredulity, 

 but to some extent in defiance of expert 

 opinion. In Denmark particularly, it 

 was sheer pluck and insistence, backed 

 by patriotic sacrifice and the outlay of 

 private funds, which converted the dev- 

 astated heath to woods and pastures and 

 fields, through unfaltering belief in the 

 forest as a crop and as a protector and 

 improver of the soil. 



In the Sandhill region of Nebraska 

 a problem of similar difficulty confronts 

 the American forester, and it is a source 

 of satisfaction that in Brussels, Bel- 

 gium, this month, an American pro- 

 fessor of forestry will be able to pre- 

 sent the results of successful national 

 work in that region, before the Inter- 

 national Association of Forest Experi- 

 ment Stations. But the opportunities 

 are endless, and barely a beginning has 

 been made in the work of reforesta- 

 tion here. There is great encourage- 

 ment, therefore, in the successful ob- 

 ject lessons furnished by Denmark and 

 by Austria. 



^ ^ "^ 

 Sharp Practice in the Basket^willow Industry 



CONDITIONS have beeen brought 

 to light in the basket- willow industry 

 which are exceedingly unsatisfactory 

 both to the grower and to the consumer. 



