FORESTRY ADDRESS TO STUDENTS 



Extracts from an Address on Forestry 

 Delivered by invitation before the Faculty and 

 Student Body of Oberlin College, Ohio, 

 January 16, 1914, by Henry Sturgis Drinker, 

 President of Lehigh University and President 

 of the American Forestry Association. 



In the opening words of this Address, 

 Dr. Drinker summarized, as he did in 

 his address at Tome Institute pubHshed 

 in the October number of American 

 Forestry, the rise and history of the 

 Forestry and Conservation movement 

 in this country, noting the early work 

 in conservation of the American Insti- 

 tute of Mining Engineers, so long ago 

 as 1871, in the appointment of its Com- 

 mittee "to consider and report on the 

 waste in Coal Mining" — the constant 

 warnings that have come from the 

 engineering professions — the Confer- 

 ence of Governors at Washington, 

 called by President Roosevelt and 

 largely the result of the insistent public 

 preachings on Conservation and For- 

 estry of Gifford Pinchot — the calling 

 in 1909 of the first Conservation Con- 

 gress at Seattle and finally the splendid 

 forestry record of the last or Fifth Con- 

 servation Congress held last autiunn. 



In regard to the meetings of this 

 Congress, Dr. Drinker said: "The 

 Congress has addressed itself in its 

 several meetings to many important 

 phases of Conservation. Forestry was 

 given much attention in the first two 

 sessions. Then the one at Kansas City 

 in 1911 was largely devoted, as Presi- 

 dent Wallace expressed it, to the Con- 

 servation of the fertility of the soil and 

 the life of the people who live in the 

 open country. The Congress at Indian- 

 apolis in 1912 was devoted to the study 

 of the Conservation, of vital resources 

 and the health of the people, and finalh' 

 in this last Congress of 1913 Forestry 

 again came to the front, and the 

 principal subjects of discussion were 

 Forestry and our water power re- 

 sources — two full sessions of the Con- 

 gress and a large number of sectional 

 meetings being devoted wholly to for- 

 estry; and at these sectional meetings a 

 set of ten exhaustive reports, prepared 



by Committees arranged for and financed 

 wholly by the American Forestry Associ- 

 ation, were presented on the following 

 subjects : 



Secondary Forestry Instruction in the 



United States. 

 Publicity — Public Education in Forestry. 

 The Framing, Passing, and Enforcing of 



a State Forest Law. 

 Forest Tax Legislation. 

 Fire Prevention by States, by the 



Federal Government, and by Private 



Interests. 

 The Conditions under which Commercial 



Planting is Desirable. 

 Lumbering. 



The Closer Utilization of Timber. 

 The Relation of Forests and Water. 

 Federal Forest Policy. 



"With the above reports by special 

 sub-committees, the General 'Forestry 

 Committee also submitted a general 

 report giving a synopsis of these sub- 

 committee reports, and also published 

 an exhaustive and able report on 

 ' State Forest Organization with special 

 reference to Fire Protection' by Mr. J. 

 Girvin Peters, Chief of State Coopera- 

 tion in the U. S. Forest Service. These 

 reports are without doubt the best full 

 summary ever made of the whole 

 forestry situation in our country. The 

 various committees were composed of 

 picked men, experts on the subjects 

 treated, and the reports are obtainable 

 by application to Mr. P. S. Ridsdale, 

 Executive Secretary of the American 

 Forestry Association, 1410 H Street, 

 N. W., Washington, D. C." 



Dr. Drinker in his address then 

 touched on the early history of the 

 American Forestry Association and of 

 the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, 

 paying tribute to the services to the 

 cause by Dr. J. T. Rothrock and Mr. 

 John Birkinbine as Secretary and as 

 President of the latter Association, 

 founded so long ago as 1886, and then 

 said: 



"These initial movements have now 

 so spread that the Forestry State 

 Organizations and the various Forestry 

 Associations in the United States 



cover : 



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