736 



A^IERICAN FORESTRY 



State Forester. Since the beginning of 

 1912 Maryland and New York have 

 amended their forest laws, and Ken- 

 tucky has passed its first complete law 

 It is exceedingly gratifying that sub- 

 stantial progress is now being made in 

 the South. Unfortunately, however, 

 none of the Southern States, except 

 Maryland, has hitherto been able to 



qualify to receive Federal aid and fire 

 protection under the Weeks Law. It 

 is hoped that during the coming year 

 progress will be made in those Southern 

 States in which practically nothing has 

 vet been done. 



*From a paper read to lumbermen and 

 foresters at the National Conservation Con- 

 gress, Oct. 3. 



FOREST AREA LARGELY INCREASED 



^^^HE President has issued a procla- 

 €^) mation making alterations in the 

 ^^^ Superior Naitonal Forests boun- 

 daries, the net result of which is to in- 

 crease the gross area of the Forests 

 from 910,000 to 1,27G,100 acres. The 

 corrected boundary includes 380,555 

 acres of new land, while it eliminates 

 14,455 acres previously included. 



The Superior National Forest lies in 

 the northeastern corner of Minnesota, 

 between Lake Superior and the Cana- 

 dian line. At present it contains little 

 timber of merchantable size, practically 

 all of the original stand having been 

 removed or destroyed by fire before the 

 National Forest was created. The 

 Government is, however, holding and 

 protecting the land for the sake of the 

 future yield of timber which it will pro- 

 duce under forestry methods. 



Practically none of the land has any 

 agricultural value, and unless used to 

 grow trees it must remain a mere waste. 

 To grow timber it must be protected 

 from fire. The areas now added are 

 in general character similar to those 

 ])reviously embraced within the Forest, 

 and will be ])rotected and administered 

 along the same lines. 



The eliminated portions are made up 



principally of private holdings and con- 

 tain too small an amount of land suit- 

 able for forest purposes to make it 

 worth while for the Government to re- 

 tain the areas in the Forest. Through- 

 out the Superior Forest the percentage 

 of alienated land is heavy, and the same 

 is true of the portions newly included, 

 so that the amount of Government- 

 owned land added to the Forest is much 

 less than the gross area figures would 

 indicate. 



Under the proclamation the elimi- 

 nated lands are withdrawn for classifi- 

 cation, following which they will be re- 

 stored to settlement and entry by the 

 Secretary of the Interior after such 

 notice as he may deem advisable and 

 as he may determine this course to be 

 compatible with the public interest. 



There is one other National Forest 

 in Minnesota, called the Minnesota and 

 situated at the headwaters of the IMis- 

 sissippi, about Lake Winnibigoshish. 

 It contains about 295,000 acres, and was 

 created from Chippewa Indian lands 

 after the virgin timber had been cut 

 of? under forestry regulations. In con- 

 sequence it has a much more promising 

 growth of young pine and Norway pine 

 than has the Superior at the present 

 time. 



