128 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the forests. The development of the sec- 

 ondarv svstem will take place naturally 

 as the development of each locality in 

 population and wealth calls for it, and m 

 some forests it will not be called for at all 

 until after it has reached an advanced 

 stage elsewhere. The primary system, 

 however, is called for on all forests just as 

 rapidlv as it can be supplied. The plans 

 now prepared for the individual forests 

 call for the building of over 30,000 miles 

 of trails and nearly 7.000 miles of roads 

 at an estimated cost of over $3,000,000; of 

 over 16 000 miles of telephone lines, at an 

 estimated cost of nearly $1,000,000; of 

 over 5 000 miles of fences, at an estimated 

 cost of nearlv $600,000; and of other per- 

 manent improvements, including rangers 

 quarters, of over $1,000,000. With the 

 further amounts needed for fire lines, 

 bridges watch towers, tool stations, and 

 other purposes, the cost of the present es- 

 timated needs of the forests reaches a total 

 of over $7,800,000. 



A Supervisors' Meeting 



A meeting of the national forest super- 

 visors and forest assistants of District 5 

 of the Forest Service, which includes 

 practically the state of California, was 

 held in San Francisco on December 13 to 

 16. Papers prepared by members of the 

 District Forester's office opened to ani- 

 mated discussion by the supervisors the 

 most important phases of national forest 

 administration and management in the 

 district. 



The first paper, "What Does the Forest 

 Service Mean?" was presented by the dis- 

 trict forester, F. E. Olmsted. After point- 

 ing out that the forest officers of the dis- 

 trict are guardians and business managers 

 for 29 million acres of public lands, whose 

 resources are worth over $200,000,000, with 

 other hundreds of millions of dollars 

 worth of property directly or indirectly 

 dependent upon their wise conservation, 

 Mr. Olmsted called attention to the fact 

 that in the absence of the national forest 

 policy, these lands would now be mainly 

 in individual ownership; the great bulk 

 of the timber locked up for investment <r 

 speculation by large private owners, and 

 when in process of logging, being cut de- 

 structively for the sake of the highest 

 immediate money returns; grazing lands 

 also concentrated and managed with ref- 

 erence solely to the profit of a few indi- 

 viduals, and other public lands, including 

 those of peculiar value for the develop- 

 ment of water power, taken up in the 

 same way; in short, everywhere a ten- 

 dency to concentrate wealth in private 

 hands, accompanied by exploitation of 



each resource for a single purpose, with- 

 out consideration of possible adverse ef- 

 fects upon other individuals or the pub- 

 lic. As against this method of dealing 

 with natural resources, there had devel- 

 oped during the last fifteen years, under 

 the leadership of one man, a conception of 

 far-sighted, comprehensive, orderly devel- 

 opment of national forest resources for the 

 benefit of the public, and by the public. 

 This, however, was merely the foundation. 

 It is now the task of the forest service to 

 raise the superstructure, which must be 

 done largely through the joint efforts of 

 the men who are handling, on the various 

 forests, the individual problems. 



Assistant District Forester T. D. Wood- 

 bury, in a paper entitled, "Silviculture's 

 Future Work," laid emphasis on the fact 

 that it has hitherto been impossible to 

 bring the forests to a high state of pro- 

 ductiveness through the application of for- 

 estry, which is brought about by cutting, 

 because a restricted market has made it 

 necessary to concede much to the pur- 

 chaser, in order to make any sales at all. 

 It was pointed out that at present the 

 most important matter is careful study of 

 thf problems involved in marking the 

 trCwS for cutting, but that with a broad- 

 ened market there will come improved op- 

 portunities for the practice of forestry, 

 which can be taken proper advantage of 

 only if full and precise knowledge of 

 stands, yields, and silvical properties has 

 been accumulated. There is also the for- 

 est regeneration problem of the district, 

 with its 2,000,000 acres of denuded forest 

 land, of which about 1,400,000 acres will 

 reforest itself from seed trees, while about 

 600,000 acres will have to be artificially 

 reforested. 



Papers on "Silvics of the Future," by 

 Louis Margolin, forest examiner, and "For- 

 est Reconnaissance," bj'^ Swift Berry, of 

 the district office, dealt further with the 

 silvicultural work of the district. 



Dr. E. P. Meinecke, consulting patholo- 

 gist of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 pointed out the importance of combatting 

 tree diseases through provision for forest 

 hygiene. This was further considered by 

 forest ranger John Miller, in a paper on 

 "Forest Insects and Methods of Fighting 

 Them." 



Other papers, presented by O. C. Merrill, 

 chief engineer of the forest service, W. B. 

 Huber, Associate District Forester Coert 

 du Bois, and Assistant District Forester 

 John H. Hatton, discussed problems relat- 

 ing to water power, forest fire protection, 

 and national forest grazing, while prob- 

 lems relating to forest products were pre- 

 sented in papers by C. Stowell Smith, Carl 

 A. Kupfer, and A. K. Armstrong. 



