UJITH.AN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



ONE WOMAN'S WORK 



FOR FORESTRY 



Interest in the preservation is the begin- 

 ning of interest in the greater and more in- 

 clusive subject of forest preservation. This 

 big, new country, with its vast extent of wood- 

 ed area, and its apparently inexhaustible sup- 

 ply of timber, has at last waked up to the 

 immediate necessity of guarding its forests 

 from the ruthless encroachrrieiits~6f~ organized 

 capital and the ignorance or indifference of 

 private individuals. The warning cry has 

 gone out from careful students of the situa- 

 tion, a cry based on experience and observa- 



vvorld happier and more beautiful than she 

 found it." 



Field of Women's Clubs. 



The first field of work that naturally opened 

 to Miss Dock was that of women's clubs. 

 Week after week she traveled from city to 

 city in the state, from town to outlying vil- 

 lage, lecturing on forestry, on the care of 

 trees, on the flora of the state, illustrating 

 her points frequently by lantern slides, stirring 

 up wherever she went a genuine enthusiasm 

 for the cause. Trre forestry -question and just 

 what it involves is not generally understood 

 even now, although much less understood a 

 few years, ago. It was not until 1892-93 that 

 the state legislature of Pennsylvania appointed 



tion, that unless prompt' measures are taken, the first Forestry Commission, with. Dr. Roth- 

 this country, in the lifetime >pf a vast number i rock whose name is inseparably linked with 

 of people now living, will experience a tim- *? movement, as its chief. It was part of 



ber famine of severe and long duration. Many 

 states have heard this warning- and ' havt 

 heeded, chief among them being the great 

 Keystone State of Pennsylvania. 



Miss Dock's work to enlighten the women 

 pf the state, as to actual needs and condi- 

 tions. The stage was passed when only the 

 sentimental side could be presented. There 

 was more to consider than the mere economic 

 feature that the preservation of forests would 



J \ bring about the continuance of the even flow 

 3BWW that chief among those who have done , f ^ r . d streams . There were laws 



:mo st for forestry m Pennsylvanm ,s a woman, J h; * - fa understood , conditions that 

 Miss Mira L. Dock. A member ot .the State , Q fa d befo ' re le could 



Forestry Assoc.at.on, on its cowncil, and active b awakened t< ? thg p seriousness of the situ- 

 m its support, she has had the additional L t j The chief aims of the forestry experts 



.honor of being appointed by the governor as j ' b summe d up under five main heads, 

 .one of the state commissioners of fores ry. h commission wishes to secure the 



Miss Dock is fitted by ram-ing and personality . itab ' Ie taxation o f forest lands. In pioneer 

 for the work to which she is devoting her-. ^ timbered tract was a barrier in the 



self. Born ,n the capita city o Pennsyl-; /' f settlement and c i vi i izat i O n. To clear 

 vama, and in touch since her youth with the * fa forestg was fce . firgt dut of thg 

 movements that have added to its beauty * f fc Iand Consequently the state 



and progressiveness, she has become identified ; ; d a tax growing timber. That 



with the forestry question in no forced **&}%& is , on? sin e pa 8 ssed , | ut the tax re . 

 Botany she has loved and studied from g,rl- j and as been F the reason for the re . 

 hood, and her home on one of the principal al f va l uab l e timber that should have 



residence streets possessed among other at- b a!lowe d to. grow untaxed until ready 

 tractions a wild-flower garden. She knew the - f j m , lrket A second object is the re . 

 haunts of all the local' fldra, and could tell forcstration of denuded lands, a difficult prob- 

 just where to find the e,arhe,t hepatieas or . , j necessitating' careful study and 



what spot was made lovely by wake robins , expen d itirre o f t i me and money. To 



or lady's slippers That is she c ould tell- - : ^ educc thc risk of damage to f ores ts by fire 

 but did not, for those who have | heard Miss ,- a natura , coroUaryj involving, the co-opera- 

 pock talk upon the subjee w, I reeall her tion of Tailroads ' and the making. of fire lanes 

 belief that no flower lover should ever revea j h k th , of uucon trollable 



to the general public the seeret haunts ot jj re 



woodland beauties Such revelat.ion is sure to 1 = ] ,he eommi.Moners would .utilize por- 

 be followed by the inevitable, destructuni of tjons of the , state rescrv ,, as san i taria , e spe- 



, 

 the flower in question. \ ear atu-r year while 



f suffere ,. s from tuberculosis, and also 



good Harrisburg housewives were indulging ^ breathing spaces .for the great '.masses 

 intemperately in the doulmul joys ot Spring' o f the -people. 'The ur-ency.of this'' last Miss. 

 cleamng, Miss Dock was tramping to -her fa- Do k ^-madfe evident in the resolution she 

 yorite spots not to tear arbutus ruthlessly off d reccnt , to the Stau . ],- orestry Ass o- 

 from i bed of dead Ua^es. or to ^ uproot rf /$ ; w amcnd jt . charter . SQ 



the delicate spring beautyj-foit to revel m the t]]at t i,e -state lands could be held by the 

 short-lived charm. association in trust for park purposes/ -These 



While she had not ; med deliber- sm:l n cr spac es cannot be included in the grcat- 



ately for public service, her . friends urged woodland tracts,- lying between the gradually 

 upon her the wisdom of using her talents approaching' building line and. the" real coun- 

 in work for her city and st-atc. There are tr _ Vi become the resort of thc tough and the 

 those who remember , ' ; as lramp . Where properly policed, the tough 



she preferred to call it, "at the very outset ;lnd t]u . tramp disappear, and the woodlands 

 of her career, given to a small audience, on arc savcd , o t ]ie people \vho most need 'them, 

 the subject of John liartnim. the . old-time 



Philadelphia lover of flowers .'and; owner of The . Saving of Wetzel's Swamp. . 



a rarely beautiful garden. As a speaker, ]Vliss/! 



Dock is interesting. Her mariner is informal,: O'f- the truth of this statement Miss Dock 

 and she makes each one of her audience feel, could speak from personal experience. A 

 in close personal touch, with licr and with j tract of 'wooded acres .lying' along the .now 

 her subject. Her voice is Defined and pleas'-.- unused- Pennsylvania railroad canal, on the 

 antly modulated, and the enthusiasm she 'Feels 'outskirts of Hafri'sburg, although beautiful and 



to do, and Miss Dock is strong in her ap- 

 peal for club women to study and teach the 

 principles of silviculture to those who are in- 

 different or uninstructed.- 



One way in which women by their organ- 

 ized effort have helped most effectively has 

 been in their support of the Camp Sanato- 

 rium at Mont Alto for the treatment of con- 

 sumptives. This was established in 1902 by 

 the then commissioner, Dr. Rothrock, who 

 started the work with one cabin in a beau- 

 tiful pine grove. Later the Department of 

 Forestry set aside one hundred acres of for- 

 est reserve for the sanatorium, and numerous 

 cottages and cabins have since been erected. 

 Both the erection of cottages and the mainte- 

 nance of patients devolved for a time upon 

 individual generosity, and the clubwomen of 

 Pennsylvania have been most spontaneous in 

 their support. One cottage was erected en- 

 tirely from club funds, while periodicals are 

 subscribed for and many comforts provided 

 by different clubs. So beneficial have been 

 the results from these sanatoria that $300,000 

 per annum has been appropriated by the De- 

 partment of Health for their maintenance in 

 the various forest reservations. 



From 333,015 acres of land in 1903, the 

 state reserves, for which Miss Dock and her 

 colleagues have labored, have increased to 

 809,389 acres. These do not lie in one com- 

 pact body, but are located both as connected 

 tracts and also as separate tracts in twenty- 

 four counties of the state; $300,000 is annu- 

 ally appropriated for :the purchase of land. 

 In 1906 the state college established a course 

 in forestry, and the Yale Forest School is lo- 

 cated at Milford, Pa. Another school is main-. 

 tained by the state department at Mont Alto, 

 Franklin county, upon a reservation. The 

 course covers three years, ten students being 

 admitted annually upon competitive exami- 

 nation. The undergraduates receive both 

 theoretical and practical training, and are 

 placed upon graduation in charge of certain 

 specified work upon the state lands. Among 

 the pioneer instructors , in this school was Miss 

 Jeannette Conklin, who went to the academy 

 in 1905. 



Miss Dock's love for the work and pride 

 in her native state can; be illustrated no better 

 than by the concluding paragraph of a recent 

 article contributed by her to Forest Leaves: 



"At this time of year, when the laurel- 

 bordered cities of Pennsylvania woods present 

 a spectacle that can be matched in no other 

 part of the world, for it is only in eastern 

 America that mountain laurel grows, I wish 

 that Cach of us might be so saturated and 

 filled with the uplift and beauty of our wild 

 gardens and woodlands that we shall be filled 

 with <1 determination to unite in preserving 

 all over our state opert spaces, to be held for 

 the people 'as long as -grass grows and water 

 runs.'." -New York Evening Post. 



for her cause is expressed, in every accent 

 and slight gesture. 



When the Pennsylvania Forestry Associa- 



the haunt of innumerable wild flowers, was 

 shunned by the public for fear of the tramps 

 who congregated there. Recently acquired by 



tion was founded in 1886 by nature enthusi- the city, its name changed from Wetzcl's 

 asts, Miss Dock was one of those who rallied swamp to Wildwood, it is now being trans- 

 to its support. Incidentally, it is worth not- j formed into a center for the growing park 

 ing that the founder of this organization was j system of the city, 

 a woman, Mrs. J. P. Lundy, of Philadelphia. | The General Federation of Women's Clubs, 



When she died last year, Miss Dock wrote 

 of her in Forest Leaves, the official paper 

 of the association: "Mrs. Lundy's devotion 

 to her ideals was not lost, even in her last 

 illness, but carried with her to the very gate 

 of heaven. Her one desire was to leave the 



which met this year at Jamestown, received 

 a very interesting report of the work for 

 forestry, by Pennsylvania clubs, submitted by 

 Miss Dock to Mrs. C. S. Peterson, chairman 

 of the General Federation. Much as these 

 clubs have done, however, still more is left 



ACQUIRE TIMBER LANDS. 



Another forest' holding enterprise has been 

 organized hi Grand Rapids under the title of 

 the 1'eardsley Timber' Company. The com- 

 pany is capitalized at $100,000, of which 

 amount nearly all has been paid in property. 

 The company has acquired the ownership to 

 6,700 acres of timbered land in Mackinac 

 county. 



Those interested in the concern are: G. F. 

 Beardsley, W. G. Herpolsheimer, Charles E. 

 Temple, Fred W. Stevens, H. O. Probasco and 

 Clay H. Tiollisler, cashier of the old National 

 Bank. 



E. J. Franklin, of the Batchclor Timber Co., 

 West Branch, says that the Batchclor mill 

 there is cutting 27,000 feet of maple and beech 

 every day. When the Batchelor Timber Co. 

 bought out the mill of the Gale Lumber Co., 

 at West Branch, over a year ago and refitted 

 it for a long run, the company had 70,000,000 

 feet of timber behind the mill. And it has 

 purchased more timber since than the mill 

 has manufactured since it started. 



