EDITORIAL COMMENT 87 



TJie Lumber World Reviezv has done and is doing a great service by 

 opening its pages as a forum for discussion of the question of a per- 

 manent timberland poHcy. The fifth issue, containing such discussion, 

 is before us, and brings, besides a clever, suggestive analysis of the 

 origin of private property by the editor, two contributions by foresters 

 who come to the agreement, implied rather than directly expressed, 

 that not much may be expected from private timberland owners in the 

 way of providing for the future. Professor Recknagel, to be sure, 

 merely interprets the viewpoint of his employers, the Empire State 

 Forests Products Association, based upon the resolutions printed else- 

 where in this issue. He concludes that New York State is in a differ- 

 ent position from other States in the Union and should be allowed very 

 largely to "paddle its own canoe." "We already have all the restrictive 

 legislation which is needed, and we are on the way in this State to 

 remedy the defects in our system of conservation and to provide the 

 amelioration essential to secure the practice of forestry throughout the 

 State." This seems to us a rather optimistic attitude. 



Professor Hosmer considers that, before a broader national policy 

 can be developed, six things may precede, namely, better protection 

 from fire; a comprehensive timber census; a program of forest land 

 classification ; promotive measures by the Federal Government, partic- 

 ularly for the benefit of small holdings like farm woodlands; juster 

 methods of forest taxation; continued acquisition by the Federal and 

 the State Governments of additonal land for public-owned forests. 

 The long-time element, however, and financial considerations lead him 

 to the necessity of State forestry in the end. 



B. E. F. 



The University of Washington Forest Club Annual for 1919 con- 

 tains the following sentence : "One of the greatest needs of the College 

 of Forestry and Lumbering is a larger enrollment, and particularly 

 larger graduating classes, so that the college can fill more of the calls 

 for positions in forestry and lumbering." This is gratifying, and to the 

 casual reader might appear to signify that forestry practice — construc- 

 tive forestry — silviculture has at last arrived in the forest. We are 

 afraid this conclusion is a mistaken one, and the call for positions has 

 been and is for logging engineers to practice "destructive forestry." 

 That this interest is prominent in the institution is apparent from the 

 whole contents of the Annual, which contains mainly accounts of log- 

 ging operations and cognate subjects. Silviculture, as far as we could 

 find, is mentioned only once as practiced in Dalmatia ! 



B. E. F. 



