104 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



so that it would be thrown into conference and quoted John Hay as having 

 said that a very few people joining together in the United States Senate 

 can kill almost anything. He closed by saying, 'Therefore I urge that every 

 patriotic citizen throughout the length and breadth of the land who believes 

 in tlie future timber supply of the Appalachian chain, north and south, shall 

 get letters from influential people in each senatorial district in the United 

 States to senators to urge that the bill for this purpose known as the Weeks 

 bill shall pass at this session of congress." 



F. W. Rane, state forester of Massachusetts, spoke of recent develop- 

 ments of forestry in that state. He described the reforestation work which 

 is being done. The state lends money to the state forester whereby he may 

 take up lands and set them out with trees. Title is turned over by the attor- 

 ney general to the state forester and these lands are set out, a ledger account 

 being kept of the cost of labor, seedlings and transplants, and the owner 

 may redeem them at any time within ten years by paying the absolute cost, 

 plus foTU' per cent upon the investment, to the state. The state thereby is 

 simply loaning money in order that we may build up our waste lands and 

 bring them back into forests. We have in Massachusetts like many other sec- 

 tions of the country a natural forest country. Taking these natural con- 

 ditions w^th the assistance of simple forestry we can bring about w^onderful 

 results. Mr. Rane discussed also the question of forest fires, describing the 

 personal work which he had done to secure competent men for forest wardens 

 in the several towns of the state. Meetings are held in different sections 

 of the state to which the expenses of the wardens are paid. These meetings 

 are for the purpose of instruction and discussion. This year there is a bill 

 before the legislature to regulate the handling of slash. 



S. N. Spring, state forester of Connecticut, followed Mr. Rane. He spoke 

 of the forest fire problem as one of the chief problems of Connecticut. The 

 laws are somewhat similar to the laws of Massachusetts, and the principal 

 work of the forester during the first year after he is in charge has been in 

 bringing that service to a greater state of perfection. The other thing which 

 has been foremost has been the laying by experimentation of a sure founda- 

 tion for the practice of forestry. The experiments have been along the 

 lines of the handling of woodlands. This was essential for the complete 

 regeneration of the forests of Connecticut because of their worn out condition 

 through constant cutting and in view of the encroachment of disease. Mr. 

 Spring said that he had made arrangements to give special study to the 

 chestnut bark disease. There is no known treatment thus far for this disease 

 and it is probable that if it extends as it is extending now most of the chest- 

 nuts in the state will be killed. Something must be done to replace the chest- 

 nut and the only possible solution the speaker sees is for the state forester 

 to take over a section of badly injured land and start at once experiments 

 which will give results for the use of the people in the state. The speaker 

 expressed his belief in the dominating importance of educational work and 

 said that he was not so keen on legislation as the forester of Massachusetts 

 but that he was keen on developing experiments, the results of which will give 

 us something definite on which to work. 



E. A. Sterling, forester of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, described 

 the work of that company in planting and in protecting water properties 

 which are held around the company's reservoirs. Much is being done also in 

 wood preservation. Creosote plants have been built and ties and timbers 

 creosoted. This work is not new in the west but it is rather new in the east. 

 Judging by the results on the western roads and abroad it is believed that 

 the life of cross ties will be increased by one-third and in some cases doubled. 



