NEW YORK STATE FORESTRY 



cording to the census of 1909, the latest 

 actual figures available, the number of 

 wage-earners is 734, 989. The value of 

 forest products in that year is given as 

 $1,156,129,000. The forest service esti- 

 mates the present value as approximat- 

 ing $1,250,000,000. The money paid 

 out for salaries and wages was in 1909, 

 $366,167,000, of which $47,428,000 was 

 for salaries and $318,739,000 for wages. 



Surely, interests so large are worth 

 caring for. What are we doing to pre- 

 serve and foster them? 



It was first said by, I think, Gifford 

 Pinchot, that the two great enemies of 

 forestry, of our woodland growth, are 

 forest fires and unwise taxation. The 

 country has measurably been awakened 

 to the fire danger; the United States 

 Forest service notably has done and is 

 doing immensely good and valuable 

 work in this direction and not less than 

 twenty-nine States make annual appro- 

 priations for forestry (including fire 

 protection) ranging in some few 

 States from small amounts, up to $164,- 

 500 in New York last year, and $328,- 

 ooo in Pennsylvania, the total amount 

 in all States so appropriating being 

 $1,340,000. 



The various Forestry and Fire Pro- 

 tective Associations are unceasingly 

 active in fire protection work, led by 

 the example of the great Western For- 

 estry and Conservation Association 

 which embraces the States of Washing- 

 ton, Idaho, Montana, California and 

 Oregon. This association set the ex- 

 ample of printing and distributing 

 among the school children of those 

 States, circulars containing succinct ex- 

 pressive lessons on the fire danger, 

 luridly illustrated with pictures of for- 

 est fires and this example was followed 

 in Pennsylvania in 1912 by the issuance 

 and distribution among the 1,000,000 or 

 more public school, and parochial school 

 children of the State of a fire circular 

 prepared and published jointly by the 

 Pennsylvania Forestry Association, the 

 Pennsylvania Conservation Association, 

 the Philadelphia Commercial Museum 

 and Lehigh University. This circular 

 has been copied and issued in Massa- 

 chusetts by the Massachusetts Forestry 



Association and distributed among 

 the 450,000 public school children of 

 that State, and also in North Carolina 

 by the North Carolina Forestry Asso- 

 ciation and such issue is contemplated 

 in other States the importance of im- 

 pressing on school children throughout 

 the country the danger and the useless 

 and great loss resulting from woodland 

 fires being widely felt. A burned 

 building can be comparatively soon re- 

 built, but it requires a great many years 

 to grow a forest. When fire runs 

 through the woods practically all the 

 young trees are killed and most of the 

 older ones are greatly injured or de- 

 stroyed and so also are all the live 

 seeds and nuts on and in the ground, all 

 the laurel and berry plants, and the 

 humus or mould soil which holds the 

 stored water from the rainfall and from 

 which our springs, creeks and rivers 

 are kept flowing through the burnmei 

 and in times of drought. 



These views are trite and well known 

 to foresters, but we are meeting here to 

 talk to and confer with the public, with 

 many men and women who feel in- 

 terested in the forestry question and are 

 seeking elementary information and 

 to them it is well to say in regard 

 also to the other important question, 

 Unwise Taxation remember that a 

 farmer growing grain may annually 

 harvest and sell his crop and have 

 wherewith to pay his taxes, but the 

 timber grower raises a crop that does 

 not mature for 30 or 40 or 50 years, or 

 more, and the taxes should be adjusted 

 so as to bear on the yield when it comes 

 with the cutting of the timber and not 

 be assessed and made payable annually, 

 for the owner will cut and sell his tim- 

 ber to avoid the annual tax on a crop 

 giving no annual return. 



Legislation of this nature is now on 

 the statute books of New York, Penn- 

 sylvania, Louisiana and Connecticut 

 and is in contemplation in other States. 

 Massachusetts and Ohio have recently 

 adopted constitutional amendments per- 

 mitting such legislation. Other States 

 are moving in that direction and its 

 importance is becoming generally ap- 

 preciated. 



