392 AMERICAN FOEESTRY 



since the cost of the land itself does not become a charge against the timber, 

 it having been purchased for another purpose, and since it could not be 

 devoted to any other use in connection with its water conserving properties. 

 Nor does the tax problem burden their publicly owned tracts. The timber 

 would be a by-product of pure "velvet." 



Doubtless when the state has decided to put an effective brake on the 

 fire evil greater interest will be taken in such state and municipal forests, as 

 will certainly be the case with private enterprise in this field. But where 

 state and municipal interest would probably respond at once, could the fire 

 hazard be largely eliminated, private interest will lag until the tax problem 

 also has been solved. Both problems are today being juggled with by the 

 politicians, and they will continue to be until the public sentiment of the 

 state declares that they must be considered on their merits, and solved in 

 a thorough-going and permanent fashion. 



Such progress as has been made for the betterment of the woodlands of 

 Massachusetts has been well-considered on the whole, and no real retro- 

 gression is possible. Progress has only been temporarily checked by the 

 political situation of the moment. Perhaps in the end it will prove to have 

 been for the best. Already the agencies which have chiefly contributed to 

 the past gains have shown signs of renewed zeal, and plans are being made 

 with care and much forethought to arouse the lagging public sentiment of 

 the state, and to carry on an aggressive campaign against the reactionary 

 element in politics. 



The Massachusetts Forestry Association has been able to accomplish far 

 more for the advancement of forestry in the state than its enthusiastic founder, 

 the late Joseph S. Nowell of Winchester, or any of his devoted co-workers 

 ever dreamed possible in so short a time. Those men and women who had in 

 charge the shaping of the policies of the association, laid the foundation of 

 the forest policy of the state. What they did was not accomplished by 

 sitting in somnolent council, nor through making speeches in public gatherings. 

 The successes of the association were due to the forceful daring of a few 

 leading spirits, often at the sacrifice of personal convenience plus many con- 

 tributions of money when the work of the association demanded greater funds 

 than the treasury could supply. It took nerve and conviction for example 

 to lead the association to employ a forester for the benefit of the state at 

 large after the legislature had more than once refused to create a state forest 

 office. That action served to show the usefulness of such an officer, and 

 the following year the legislators took the hint. 



Since then the state forester's office has seemingly been expected to conduct 

 not only the field work for forest extension, and for fire suppression, but the 

 missionary work as well, and largely single-handed. A renewal of the policy 

 of close cooperation between the forester's oifice and the association will 

 undoubtedly result in far greater advancement than would otherwise be 

 possible. Such cooperation is not as simple in practice as it might seem at 

 first glance. It involves a vast deal of self-restraint on the part of the 

 cooperators. The best intentioned efforts on the part of a citizens' organization 

 may easily be mistaken for meddlesomeness, or a desire to unduly interfere 

 with the official. The forester has a right to expect from a forestry association 

 all the counsel and encouragement that it can give, and if the two agencies 

 come together with a true singleness of purpose to advance the interests of the 

 cause they both are pledged to support, and without any thought or attempt 

 to make political capital or personal aggrandizement out of campaigns they 

 plan together, there will be small chance for misunderstandings to arise. 



The recent lively interest manifested in forestry by so important a com- 

 mercial organization as the Boston Chamber of Commerce is a most hopeful 



