318 



Canadian Forcslr)) Journal, July, 1919 



PUBLIC MUST PILOT FORESTRY POLICIES 



Col. Henry S. Graves, head of the United 

 States Forest Service, speaking at Boston on 

 "The Need of Private Forestry," said: 



"If the war emergency had come fifteen years 

 later we would have had great embarrassment 

 in obtaining the lumber needed for general con- 

 struction. Four-fifths of the timber of the 

 United States is in private hands and 97 per 

 cent of our wood comes from that source. Ac- 

 cording to leaders of the southern pine industry 

 the original supplies of southern pine in the 

 south will be exhausted in ten years, and in five 

 years not less than 3,000 mills will go out of 

 existence. Pacific coast timber is already enter- 



ing the eastern markets, and this means that the 

 price of home grown timber has risen to a point 

 making it possible to ship lumber 3,000 miles in 

 competition with it." 



Col. Graves said that in order to obtain good 

 timber the state must direct the work of fire pro- 

 tection and enforce drastic fire laws. He be- 

 lieved that the public should provide a sane 

 system of taxation and should co-operate in 

 such economic problems as over-production of 

 timber, problems of labor, technical questions 

 relating to forestry and a variety of other in- 

 dustrial and technical matters that are encoun- 

 tered in carrying out in practice a systematic 

 programme of forestry. 



FORESTRY PROPAGANDA IN CANADA 



At the invitation of the Pennsylvania For- 

 estry Association Mr. Robson Black, Secretary 

 of the Canadian Forestry Association, addressed 

 a gathering of Americans on Canadian forestry 

 problems and the methods of operation of the 

 Canadian association. Great interest was dis- 

 played in the rapid progress of forest fire pre- 

 ventive work throughout the Dominion, and par- 

 ticularly in the success of educational work. 



Mr. Black explained to his audience that 

 unlike ordinary propaganda, the spokesman for 

 forestry could not promise quick, tangible 

 profit. People accustomed to political and 

 commercial appeals, based upon immediate like- 

 lihood of gain were slow to take up cudgels for 

 a cause that spoke of a social and national 

 profit fifty or a hundred years hence. Yet, in 

 a country where 90 per cent of the forest lands 

 were owned and governed by the people and 

 where timber operators were annual tenants, 

 any advancement of state control of forest pol- 

 icies depended absolutely upon arousing the 

 masses of citizens to their public privileges and 

 responsibilities. The Canadian problem was, 

 therefore, not quite the same as that of the 

 average American state, where only a small 

 fraction of the forest wealth had not been alien- 

 ated and placed beyond public control. 



The methods employed by the Canadian For- 

 estry Association were explained in detail by 

 the speaker, who claimed that one of the basic 



reasons for success in forestry propaganda is to 

 keep the organization free from any govern- 

 mental or commercial affiliation. This allowed 

 perfect liberty to carry on constructive agitation, 

 which, at times, must run counter to govern- 

 mental tradition, and perhaps displease certain 

 commercial interests. Mr. Black described re- 

 forms in province after province of Canada due 

 largely to educational campaigns. 



The Forestry Association, he said, devoted 

 the greater part of its attention to improvement 

 of public policies and administration. At the 

 same time, it initiated and carried out scores of 

 educational enterprises aimed at securing the 

 good-will and co-operation of the individuals re- 

 sponsible for setting forest fires. Scores of thou- 

 sands of school children and teachers, settlers, 

 railroad men, and other classes were reached 

 year by year with attractive literature, and by 

 motion pictures and special public speakers. 

 This was a branch of work, said Mr. Black, 

 which plays directly into the hands of practical 

 rangers and their scheme of patrol, for it went 

 far deeper than mere fear of the law and gained 

 voluntarily what under no circumstances can be 

 compelled by magistrates and fines. 



Leaving out of consideration the overcutting 

 caused by the war, the forests of Denmark 

 yielded a net return varying from 3.9 per cent 

 to 13.9 per cent, and averaging 7.7 per cent. 



