THE SITUATION 7 



forest resources by establishing in one form or other forest depart- 

 ments; but the function of the majority has so far remained an educa- 

 tional one; only a few have added the duty of administering the fire 

 laws, and a very few have charge of State forests. 



While 13 States now boast of State forests, with the exception 

 of New York and Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, the areas 

 so set aside are nominal ; the last two States with 400,000 and 277,000 

 acres, respectively, remaining not far from a nominal recognition of 

 the policy of State forests. We all know how disappointing the de- 

 velopment has shaped itself in New York State. 



I may only quote from one who knew best : "Forest life in New 

 York is apparently a melodrama; the actors, in some instances, are 

 the creatures of stage managers, and change as the heads in Mexico, 

 but we remain as unsettled as Mexico." 



The utter incompetence so far shown by the Empire State in de- 

 veloping a rational policy, at least as regards State forests, has become 

 notorious. The park idea, without economic conception, is still 

 uppermost. 



Perhaps the two forest schools which the State maintains may even- 

 tually be able to educate the people to a different attitude. 



The only State that may be said to have developed a really business- 

 like forest policy and carried it practically to a tolerably worthy issue 

 is Pennsylvania. 



Having acquired around one million acres of State forest, it has 

 provided a real organization of technical men for forest management 

 on its holdings. 



Yet even here we can not be sure of a systematic continuance of the 

 policy of purchase, planting, and management. At least activity in the 

 first direction has come to a standstill. And since under the law, the 

 policy inaugurating the purchase of lands has specifically in view "the 

 preservation of water supply at the sources of rivers of the State and 

 the protection of the people and their property from destructive floods" 

 — there is a possibility that the management for timber supply may at 

 any time be considered outside the defined purpose and the matter be 

 treated as in New York. 



The States of the southern pine region, derive at present from their 

 forest resource an annual product valued at over $300,000,000 ; they 

 furnish half the lumber cut in the United States. 



In view of the magnitude of these forest interests, the installation 

 in four or five of these States of State foresters with a combined ap- 



