412 AMERICAN FORESTRY CONGRESS. [Xo\^ 



AMERICAN FORESTRY CONGRESS. 



THE fourth annual meeting of the American Forestry Congress 

 was hekl at Boston, Mass., under the auspices of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, on September 22 and three 

 following days. The local arrangements were conducted by a 

 committee of which Mr. William C. Strong of the Horticultural 

 Society was chairman. The President, Mr. Warren Higley, of New 

 York, delivered an able address on the aims and objects of the 

 Congress. Many valuable and interesting papers were read and 

 discussed by members from all parts of the States, all of which will 

 no doubt in due time be published to the world. The paper read 

 by the Eev. N. H. Egglestone, Chief of the Forestry Division of the 

 Department of Agriculture, on " The State of Forest Legislation in 

 the United States," revealed in a striking manner the necessity for 

 immediate and stringent intervention of the Legislature not only to 

 prevent the wholesale waste of forest products, but also to repair the 

 damage done to the national interests by the encouragement in 

 every way of forest extension. Here are some of Mr. Egglestone' s 

 facts and figures in regard to the forests of the L^nited States 

 and the rate of consumption they were at present undergoing. 

 He says "the census gives the amount of lumber cut in 1880 

 as 18,000,000,000 feet. Last j^ear the cut had increased to 

 28,000,000,000, which would lay bare an area of 5,600,000 acres, 

 equal nearly to that of Xew Hampshire." Altogether it appears 

 that the forests of the country are subject to annual drains of 

 50,750,089 acres, which clear a wooded surface equal in extent to 

 the area of all the New England States torrether with the small 

 States of New Jersey and Maryland. Little wonder that the 

 Congress proposed the appointment of a Committee on Forest Legisla- 

 tion, with ex-Governor Morton, of Nebraska, at its head, to draft 

 suitable laws both national and State for forest conservancy. In 

 every way the meeting appears to have been a very successful one, 

 and will no doubt do much to intensify the public interest, which 

 is already strongly attracted to the vital subject of forest 

 preservation. 



