EDITORIAL 



$10,000,000 NEEDED FOR FOREST RESERVES 



THE next Congress will be 

 asked to provide for an ap- 

 propriation of $10,000.UU0 for 

 use at the rate of $2,000,000 a 

 year to continue the purchase of land in 

 the Southern Appalachains and \\'hite 

 Alountains as Federal Forest Reserves. 

 It is most important that the money 

 be set aside for this purpose. It means 

 much to the future of the whole Atlan- 

 tic seaboard to have several million 

 acres of non-agricultural land from 

 most of which all merchantable timber 

 has been removed, held in reserve 

 under Government ownership, protect- 

 ed from tire and disease and perpetu- 

 ated as productive forest land. All 

 through Xew England and along the 

 Southern Appalachians there is a very 

 strong sentiment in favor of continuing 

 the purchase of these forest growing 

 lands and it is certain that Congress 

 will be urged from many quarters to 

 provide for the appropriation with as 

 little delay as possible. 



The present appropriations for the 

 purchase of lands in the Southern Ap- 

 palachian and White ]\Iountains will 

 cease with the fiscal year, that is on 

 June 30, 1915. There is now available 

 for further purchases about $1,000,000, 

 wdiich sum will be sufiicient to carry 

 the work to near the end of 1915. The 

 area approved for purchase by the Na- 

 tional Forest Reservation Commission, 

 or already acquired, is 1,186,000 acres, 

 the average cost of which has been 

 slightly over $5.00 per acre with an 

 additional expense of approximately 60 

 cents per acre for appraisals, surveys, 

 title examinations and supervision. It 

 is estimated by officials of the Forest 

 Service that with the remaining one 

 million dollars enough additional lands 

 can be purchased to bring the total to 

 more than 1.400,000 acres, wdth an 

 average price not exceeding $6.00 per 

 acre. 



The w'ork was started and has been 

 carried on under the greatest difficul- 



670 



ties as to surveys and titles. No other 

 part of the country is believed to have 

 titles so involved or to present so many 

 boundary complications as do the 

 Southern Appalachain Mountains in 

 which the bulk of this work his been 

 done. This in part accounts for the low 

 price of the land and the relatively high 

 cost of examinations, surveys and title 

 work. 



The Secretary of Agriculture in a re- 

 port to Congress in 1907 recommended 

 the purchase of 5,000,000 acres in the 

 Southern Appalachians and 600,000 

 acres in the White Mountains. The 

 National Forest Reservation Commis- 

 sion in its last report to Congress 

 strongly approves of that recommenda- 

 tion, in fact adopts it as its working 

 program, and recommends that Con- 

 gress extend the appropriations for 

 purchases through a further period of 

 five years at the rate of two million dol- 

 lars per year. 



The American Forestry Association 

 for eleven years labored to secure the 

 legislation embodied in the Weeks law. 

 It has closely watched the execution of 

 the law under the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission and the De- 

 partment of Agriculture and the re- 

 sults which have been accomplished 

 demonstrate fully the wisdom of the 

 program which has been undertaken. 

 Furthermore great good is being ac- 

 complished by the Government in put- 

 ting the purchased lands immediately 

 under administration so that they can 

 be protected from fire and fully utilized 

 as National Forests. 



In view of the achievements accom- 

 plished in the way of purchases and in 

 the administration of acquired lands 

 the American Forestry Association con- 

 siders it appropriate to give full sup- 

 port to the National Forest Reservation 

 Commission in its recommendation to 

 Congress for appropriations at the rate 

 of two million dollars per year for a 



