658 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



finest and most lovely wild flowers. A great many 

 species thrive very well under the conditions just named. 

 Let us continue to bring wild flowers into our homes, 

 for study as well as for the refining efifect they never fail 

 to have ; but let us, too, in every way we can, discourage 

 the wanton picking of them, especially the fatal practice of 

 pulling them up by the roots. 



PHILIPPINE ISLAND TIMBER 



By Arthur F. Fischer, Bureau of Forestry, Manila 



Ar <lifferent times in the past there have ap- 

 peared in the various lumber journals of the United 

 ' States articles to the eft'ect that certain people 

 claim or intimate ownership of large timber concessions 

 in the Philippine Islands. As a matter of fact, about 

 ninety-nine per cent of the standing timber of the Philip- 

 pines is on public land and under the direct control of the 

 Government. Extensive private timber holdings, such as 

 are found in the United States, are unknown there ; in 

 fact, there is no inducement for any individual or companv 

 to attain such timber holdings under the present svstem 

 of Government management of the timber lands. The 

 Government develops the pubhc forests under the license 

 system, such licenses being granted for one year or 

 for twenty years usually, the latter being the twenty-year 

 exclusive license agreements, or concessions, as they are 

 popularly known. All the larger lumber companies of 

 the Islands are operating under exclusive license agree- 

 ments and under such the company has the exclusive title 

 (with the exception of the free use privilege) to the tim- 

 ber on the tract. The system means that if a prospective 

 company shows sufficient good faith a concession is 

 granted to the company, after the necessary advertising, 

 etc., without the company having invested a cent in the 

 timber. At no time has the company any money tied up 

 in the standing timber, as the Government charges are onlv 

 collected on the timber after it is cut. The enormous 

 advantage of this system over private ownership is readily 

 seen when it is realized that the money ordinarily tied up 

 in standing timber can be invested in the logging and 

 milling operations, while the company still has exclusive 

 and full title to the standing timber, making it about as 

 desirable as if the company owned it outright. 



Details as to the obtaining of tracts of timber, location 

 and areas of present tracts ready for development, capital 

 required, and any other information along this line will 

 be gladly furnished by the P)Ureau of Forestrv at Manila 

 to interested parties upon their request. 



BOOKS FREE TO MEMBERS 



An unusual opportunity to acquire some tree, bird 

 and flower books free of charge is offered in a special 

 announcement in the front of the magazine. These 

 books are by experts on the several subjects and are not 

 only desirable in any library, but of service in giving ad- 

 vice and instruction which will save the reader expense. 



McALESTER'S LONE PINE 



MII'X the street was paved in front of the Busby 

 licjtel at McAlester, Oklahoma, someone with a 

 kindly feeling for trees saw to it that this pine 

 was spared. The tree stands in the middle of a wide street 

 with ample roadway on either side and it is protected by a 

 cement curbing and a wire fence stretched on iron posts. 



w 



A TOWN SAVES A PINE TREE 



This stands protected by a high wire fence in the middle of one of the main 

 streets of McAlester, Oklahoma. 



There are thousands and thousands of more symmetrical 

 pines in the forests that come to the very edge of this 

 picturesque hill town in eastern Oklahoma, but this scrag- 

 ged veteran of the woods had prior rights that were 

 respected. He was there among his own kind long before 

 the foot of white man tramped over the McAlester ranch ; 

 he was there before the Choctaws came over from Missis- 

 sippi under treaty with Uncle Sam. Nobody knows just 

 how long he has been on that spot, watching the axeman 

 strike down his fellows one by one. He saw the brick and 

 stone buildings go up on Choctaw Avenue, at the foot of 

 the hill, and when workmen broke ground for the hotel 

 on the very street over which he was keeping his lonely 

 watch he thought his time had come. When they began 

 to la_\- brick on the kindh- turf at his feet he gave up hope. 

 Suddenly he noted something unusual right down 

 below his branches. A workman chalked oft' a ring and 

 set a 1)arrier of artificial stone against the paving that 

 eft'ectively kept his enemies at bay. .\nd so he stands 

 today a lone sentinel, a reminder of time forever gone, a 

 refuge for birds, casting a slanting shadow to momentarily 

 bless the passing wayfarer. 



