No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 467 



The CHAIR: The next thing in order is the report of the Commit- 

 tee on Forestry, by Dr. J. T. Rothrock, Chairman, 



The SECRETARY: That report is in my hands also. Dr. Roth- 

 rock will not be here. 



On motion, the report was received and placed on file. 



The report is as follows: 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY, 



BY DR. J. T. ROTHROCK, Chairman. 



In the first week of the new year 1905, there was convened in 

 Washington one of the most notable gatherings ever held in that 

 city. It comprised, on the one hand, the practical business men of 

 the entire United States, representing railroads, lumbering and the 

 pulp wood industries, to say nothing of live stock interests, includ- 

 ing horses, cattle and sheep. There were present also on the other 

 hand those who, ten years ago, would have been recognized as mere 

 forestry agitators; who were regarded then as men without defi- 

 nite ideas as to what was desired or how to attain it even if they 

 had known. In all there were about 1,000 delegates. The Presi- 

 dent himself endorsed the call for the meeting and also made the 

 leading address before the Forestry Congress in the National 

 theatre at Washington. This Forestry Congress was notable, not 

 only because of the number of representatives, but because the 

 foresters on the one hand and the leading business interests on the 

 other had come to recognize that neither alone was equal to the 

 great task before it, of restoring the waste places of the country and 

 maintaining a perpetual supply of timber for our national indus- 

 tries. 



This meeting is alluded to merely to show that forestry has passed 

 beyond the domain of theory or doubt and reached a recognized 

 place as one of the most important movements of this period. It is 

 particularly gratifying to note that, after the years of tribulation 

 and labor which the advocates of forestry in this State have had, 

 Pennsylvania was, in that distinguished meeting in Washington, 

 accorded the leading place in the roll of states for the work already 

 accomplished. 



This seems to be a proper place to state, that after twenty years 

 of agitation, the State of Pennsylvania has now attained every pur- 

 pose that it had in view when the agitation commenced. It is rarely 

 indeed that anything which amounts to a revolution in our thought 

 upon a particular branch attains the object for which the movement 

 was started within the life-time of the generation which began the 



