189 



First Steps in Indiana Forestry. 



Stanley Coulter. 



It is uot meant Ijy the title choseu to intimate that much preparatory 

 work uloug fore.stal lines has not been done in the state. The work of 

 awakening popular interest in forestry has been well done, it not, perhaps, 

 overdone. In the schools by direct instruction, through the stimulus of 

 arbor day exercises and by the wise and vigorous activity of the Indiana 

 Foi'estry Association, practically every community has been reached. Upon 

 the Forest Reserve the State Board of Forestry has conducted a large 

 series of experiments and has collected a vast mass of data touching prac- 

 tically every phase of wood-lot management. Its reports and press bulle- 

 tins, together with its educational contests, have served to increase and in- 

 tensify interest in the movement for the conservation of our remaining 

 forests. I suggested that perhaps this preparatory phase of the work had 

 been over-accented, for rhere is such a thing, on the one hand, as spending 

 so much time on preparation as to leave none for accomplishment, and on 

 the other, by overstimulus to incite to ill-considered and poorly planned ef- 

 forts. In Indiana the latter has been the case. An examination of the facts 

 shows a very large number of instances of tree planting ; plantings run- 

 ning up to the hundreds in number, into the thousands of acres in area and 

 containing hundreds of thousands of trees. A review of the inspection of 

 plantations as given in the reports of the State Board of Forestry reveals 

 an activity in tree planting tliat is positi\'ely marvelous and almost incred- 

 ible when the retvirns or rather lack of returns are taken into account. It 

 is a sad fact but a true one that approximately 70 per cent of these plant- 

 ings are total failures. In them, the total crop sold at the highest price 

 would not equal the cost expended upon them. The remaining 30 per 

 cent can only be regarded as partially successful. Only in a small fraction 

 ol the cases can the stand be regarded as representing the full capacity of 

 the area. The schools also have had arbor day exercises for years, exer- 

 cises which have doubtless been helpful and stimulating in many ways, but 



