16 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION, 



Report of the State Forester 



ALFRED GAS KILL. 



The State .Forester is the active agent of the Forest Commis- 

 sion in performing all the .duties which by law devolve upon the 

 Commission. He exercises a general supervision of the Forest 

 Fire Service, through the State Firewarden, but gives most of 

 his time to aiding and advising forest owners and shade tree 

 interests, to developing the State forest reserves, and to keep- 

 ing up an active educational campaign on behalf of the trees and 

 forests. Forestry demands a long look ahead and much patience. 

 Full recognition of the importance of the subject, and of the 

 State's interest in it, are apparently still far off. 



WHAT WE ARE WORKING FOR. 



It has been said that "in this country forestry succeeds every- 

 where but in the woods." The remark suggests the presence of 

 mature forests and a desire to reform logging practices without 

 due reference to economic conditions. 



In New Jersey approximately 2,000,000 acres, or 45 per cent 

 of the total upland, is still wooded. But the forests, especially 

 those in South Jersey, are so degraded that they must be valued 

 in the past and in the future rather than in the present. We 

 have to create through forestry the forests in which more and 

 other forestry may be practiced by and by. It goes without 

 saying that a community having 337 people to the square mile 

 needs to develop its forests to the utmost that there may be 

 shaded playgrounds, pure water. and lumber, and that there 

 shall be no waste places. 



The means by which this end is to be attained appear per- 

 fectly plain. A favorable soil and climate produced forests which 

 were partly harvested long ago and have since been kept in 

 subjection by fire. We still have all that is necessary to make 

 trees grow, manifestly the control of forest fires must be our first 



