020 JOUUNAI, OF FORESTRY 



Our methods have been somewhat diftereut from those pursued by the 

 Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture for reasons that are 

 neither inexpUcable nor difficuh of comprehension. I know well with 

 what zeal for the public interest and devotion to duty my associates 

 have done their work. Although the avenues to publicity as to their 

 accomplishments in forest fire suppression and economic timber-sale 

 administration are very restricted, I am confident that any impartial 

 observer would commend the results attained. 



Men engaged in forestry work in the Indian Service since 1^10 have 

 received co-operation and friendly support from many men connected 

 with the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture and the 

 generous sympathy and assistance of individual foresters not con- 

 nected with the Federal service, but no recognition of their work has 

 come from the Society of American Foresters. I am not presenting a 

 complaint. To me personally it matters not that an enterprise with 

 which I have been connected has been one of "homely joys and destiny 

 obscure." My pronounced egotism makes nie about as impervious to 

 praise as to criticism. I had never given more than a passing thought 

 to this significant silence of the Society until 1 read Mr. Sherman's 

 article in the Journal. Then the thought occurred to me: 'Tf the 

 me rbers of this Society are primarily interested in the maintenance of 

 the forest cover on these lands within Indian Reservations, why is it 

 that the Society never has and does not now lend its support to the 

 Indian Service in the effort that the said Service has been making 

 diu"ing the |)ast ten years to preserve the forest character of lands 

 chiefly valuable as protection forests or for the production of timber?" 

 I conceive that the Society of American Foresters should be more 

 keenly interested in the broad phases of sound forestry practice than 

 in the mere expansion of the area administered as National Forests. 

 If such be the case the Society should certainly stand ready to sponsor 

 any movement that aims at the furthering of sound forest manage- 

 ment on Indian lands. 



If, as indicated above, the immediate inclusion of all non-agricultural 

 lands on certain Indian reservations within National Forests is inad- 

 visable from economic and moral standpoints, why cannot the Society 

 lend its moral support to the administration of these lands as Indian 

 forest lands? If there are non-agricultural Indian lands about to be 

 opened to private entry or purchase and the immediate inclusion of 

 these lands within National Forests is not practicable, would it not be 



