170 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



JOSEPH AUSTIN HOLMES— AN APPRECIATION 



Bv W. W. Ashe 



DOCTOR HOLMES, or Professor Holmes, as he 

 had been known for many years to those inti- 

 mate with him, was not a forester, but the annals 

 of the forestry movement in the United States are in- 

 complete without mention of his influence as advocate 

 and propagandist. He was for many years a prominent 

 member of the American Forestry Association, repre- 

 senting the State of North Carolina as one of its vicc- 



JOSEPH AUSTIN HOLMICS 



Chief of the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, who died 

 recently, was an ardent forest conservationist, and did much to 

 further the movement for the Appalachian National Forests. 



presidents. As State Geologist of North Carolina, he 

 incorporated forestry in his program upon the reor- 

 ganization of the North Carolina Geological Survey 

 in 1891. With an allotment for this branch of work 

 which seldom equalled $1,.500 a year, both for salaries 

 and expenses, he maintained this department, although 

 with many breaks, for more than ten years, or until he 

 practically severed his official relations with the State. 



Under his direction the forestry work was developed 

 along the lines of conservation, although at the date of its 

 inception the greater portion of the forest resources of 

 western North Carolina were considered inaccessible and 

 unavailable for exploitation. Nevertheless, while urging 

 forest exploitation, as was required by law, there was 



uppermost in his mind the conservation of this enormous 

 resource, on which not only the valuable water power of 

 the State was dependent, but from which ultimately the 

 raw material could be drawn for developing and perma- 

 nently maintaining an extensive wood-working industry. 

 Under his direction, studies were made to determine the 

 value and quality of turpentine collected by the then 

 customary method of boxing and by the use of the cup 

 and gutter, the object of which looked not so much at 

 that time toward saving the small bodies of untapped old 

 pitch pine timber which yet remained in North Carolina 

 as toward showing the possibilities of young timber 

 and as an incentive to its protection. In this connec- 

 tion the reforestation of denuded long-leaf pine lands, 

 l)()th by natural restocking and by planting, was con- 

 sidered. A study was made of the growth and meth- 

 ods of management of the short-leaf pine of the 

 coast (Pinus tacda), the results of which have only 

 recently been published. With Mr. Holmes' sanc- 

 tion, studies were made also of the forest flora of 

 the southeastern United States, especial attention be- 

 ing paid to that of the southern Appalachians. Tes- 

 timonials of his interest in these studies are a well- 

 known hawthorn which bears his name, Crataegus 

 holmesiana, and a hickory, Hicoria (Carya) holmesia. 

 The most important forestral project with which 

 his efforts will be associated is the establishment of 

 the Appalachian National Forests. For se\-eral years 

 a large portion of his funds available for forestry 

 work was utilized in cooperating with the Federal 

 bureaus in making the preliminary examinations in 

 furtherance of this measure. The manv features of 

 vakie of the Appalachian Forest appealed to him — 

 their promise, their influence in regulating stream 

 flow by protecting the headwaters of important rivers 

 flowing in so many directions, their elemental beauty 

 and recreational significance, their interesting botan- 

 ical and silvical characteristics. He understood the 

 complexity of the problem of their management and 

 realized the necessity for their rescue by the Federal 

 Government if they were to be saved for the use of 

 the people. If not the original proponent of this far- 

 reaching and vital policy, he was certainly one of its 

 earliest advocates, and forthwith became the prota- 

 gonist of the movement. His agitation of this plan 

 began more than fifteen years before the pas- 

 sage of the Act of March 1, 1911, which authorized the 

 purchase of mountain lands for eastern National For- 

 ests, and his interest in the project continued unabated 

 until it was realized. 



The stimulus which Doctor Holmes, by his enthusiasm, 

 imparted to forestry in the South and East will be felt 

 for a long time to come, and well supplements his broad 

 usefulness as director of the Bureau of Mines. While 

 the promotion of forestry was only one of the many direc- 

 tions in which his energy was expended, the impetus 

 which he added to the movement must always be con- 

 sidered as one of his achievements. 



