6 FOEEST LANDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



National Government if this new movement is crystalized by you 

 gentlemen and jour associates into law. Some of the States have 

 already acted. We have recently, in New England, had a New Eng- 

 land conference of all six of the New England States, called by the 

 six governors of New England, not merely in regard to forestry, but 

 in regard to other legislation, that state legislation throughout New 

 England may, as far as possible, be made uniform for all the States, 

 and that a confusion of law may not exist. One of the topics there 

 considered was forestry. The papers read and the discussion were 

 submitted to the six state foresters of the New England States, and 

 measures have already been recommended by them for adoption by 

 all the state legislatures. In our own Commonwealth, the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts, active work has already been done for the 

 preservation of our forests. Here, for example, are some of the laws 

 of Massachusetts which I will present to the committee, and as you 

 will see from the cover of this little pamphlet, forest fires, especially 

 as caused by railroads, have been made the subject of particular 

 legislation. We have a forest warden for every city and town in the 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, charged with the execution of these 

 various laws and with the prevention of forest fires. We distribute 

 free to the people instructions how to collect white-pine seeds and 

 how to plant them. We furnish those to schools. We have had 

 applications from outside of our own Commonwealth for books for 

 children with instructions how to distinguish one tree from another, 

 and how they can be preserved. 



The CHAIRMAN. As a matter of fact, the State of Massachusetts 

 is taking care of its own forest problem with its own resources, and 

 is not asking any consideration from the Federal Government? 



Governor GUILD. Because, sir, we have no great tract at the head 

 of our great rivers which demands our particular attention. Our 

 great rivers, the Connecticut and the Merrimac, arise outside of 

 Massachusetts, and the amount of land which would there have to 

 be acquired to the extent of the timber land which would have to 

 be protected is, as seems to us properly stated yesterday by the 

 different speakers at the Belasco Theater at the Conservation Com- 

 mission, beyond the means of any one State to take care of. We are 

 doing this as supplementary work to what we hope the National 

 Government will do, and I am simply quoting this to show that we 

 make this application in good faith, and that we are not relying 

 wholly on the National Government. We have, for example, 23,000 

 acres of state forest reserves in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is not 

 asking for any national forest reserve in Massachusetts, but she does 

 appear here for her sister State of New Hampshire, and asks that 

 the White Mountains shall be protected by national legislation, be- 

 cause, as I understand, in that region some 600,000 acres will be 

 required, and that is beyond the limits of the treasury of the State 

 of New Hampshire to attend to. Furthermore, New England asks 

 for 600,000 acres for her forest reserve, and she is equally anxious 

 that her southern sisters, to the south of us, should have not 600,000 

 acres, but if necessary, 5,000,000 acres for the preservation of the 

 entire Atlantic watershed and for the benefit of all the States of the 

 * Union. [Applause.] 



Mr. WEEKS. It is a fact that 23,000 acres was purchased by a 

 direct appropriation for that purpose, is it not? 



