LACK OF CHRISTMAS TREES 



807 



owners for speculative or monopolistic 

 purposes public resources of enormous 

 value. Retention of these resources 

 under public ownership is needed to 

 protect the people from abuses which 

 are every day being demonstrated on 

 lands over which the public has already 

 lost control. The proposition is one 

 which the people as a whole would re- 

 pudiate in an instant if they understood 

 what is proposed. The only danger lies 



in the fact that some legislation adverse 

 to the National Forest system may be 

 passed when the public as a whole is 

 ignorant that it is planned or does not 

 understand the meaning. Vigilance in 

 the defense of its interests and intelli- 

 gence in the perception of the true 

 character of masked attacks upon those 

 interests are of fundamental necessity 

 if the public is to protect itself. 



LACK OF CHRISTMAS TREES 



e RICES of Christmas trees in 

 New York, Philadelphia, Balti- 

 more, Washington and most of 

 the cities and towns of the eastern and 

 middle states will likely be higher this 

 year than ever before owing to the 

 great reduction in the regular supply 

 due to a quarantine order of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. This went 

 into effect on November 25 and pre- 

 vents Christmas trees and greens from 

 nearly all of New England being 

 shipped out of the quarantine zone. This 

 is due to the prevalence of the gypsy 

 moth and the brown tail moth in New 

 England and the fear of the Forest 

 Service that they might be spread 

 throughout the east by the indiscrimi- 

 nate shipping of conifers such as spruce, 

 fir, hemlock, pine juniper and arbor 

 vitae used generally, as they are, for 

 Christmas trees and greens. 



The gypsy moth is prevalent in 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts 

 and Rhode Island, while the brown tail 

 moth is in Maine, Vermont, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecti- 

 cut and Rhode Island. 



The quarantine also applies to all 

 forest plant products in the specified 

 area. Of course, if officials of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture examine pro- 

 posed shipments of Christmas trees, 

 greens or other forest products and 

 pronounce them free from either of the 

 destructive moths the shipments out- 

 side the quarantined area may be made, 

 but there is little prospect that the thou- 

 sands of dealers in Christmas trees will 

 take the chances of buying these trees 

 for shipment out of New England, 



when the danger of the trees being 

 condemned is so great. 



For many years the shipment of 

 Christmas trees and greens from New 

 England has been a profitable industry 

 and most of the supply to the larger 

 cities of the middle states came from 

 that section. Consequently the quaran- 

 tine will greatly reduce the supply, and 

 prices will naturally advance consider- 

 ably. 



The Forest Service upholds the 

 Christmas tree custom, but recognizes 

 at the same time, that the indiscrimi- 

 nate cutting of evergreens to supply the 

 holiday trade has produced a bad effect 

 upon many stands of merchantable 

 kinds of trees in different sections of 

 the country. Waste and destruction 

 usually result when woodlands are not 

 under a proper system of forest man- 

 agement. Foresters say that it is not 

 by denying ourselves the wholesome 

 pleasure of having a bit of nature in 

 the home at Christmas that the prob- 

 lem of conserving the forests will be 

 solved, but by learning how to use the 

 forests wisely and properly. The rav- 

 ages through forest fires must be 

 checked, the many avenues of waste of 

 timber in its travel from the woods to 

 the mill and thence to the market must 

 be closed, and almost numberless im- 

 portant problems demand attention be- 

 fore the Christmas tree. 



Germany is conceded to have the 

 highest developed system of forest man- 

 agement of any country, yet its per 

 capita use of Christmas trees is great- 

 est. The cutting of small trees for 

 Christmas is not there considered in the 



