608 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The success of this item depends upon the realization of 

 the people that it is the beginning in the securing of the 

 funds which are necessary just to make fit for use those 

 places now visited by millions who come to the Forests for 

 play and rejuvenation and upon their power to impress 

 Congress with the necessity for making this start. 



It is imperative that this and more money be appro- 

 priated as quickly as possible to prevent the loss of human 

 life. The figures of the Board of Health of Colorado 

 show that in the last three years from 1918 to 1920 in- 

 clusive. 311 people died of typhoid fever. Nearly every 

 case can be traced directly to infection contracted while 

 the person was on a camping trip in the hills. And this 

 means for the most part National Forests. If one hun- 

 dred people per year are killed in this state through the 

 lack of proper sanitation it is probably true that ten times 

 that number are similarly stricken in the remainder of the 

 twenty odd states where are National Forests. If this 

 little appropriation will prevent the death of one half 

 this number it will mean that only $20 per life has been 

 spent to save it. Is not a human life worth at least $20? 



This little item of $10,000 will not take care of the ur- 

 gent needs for sanitation in the National Forests. It will 

 not touch the field of real development to produce recrea- 

 tion as a regular organized forest product a thing which 

 good business efficiency demands. Several hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars are needed at once to even make 

 the present areas used in the Forest efficiently producing 

 recreation machines. But this little drop in the bucket 

 of what should be done will without doubt mean better 

 sanitation in some camping places where conditions are 

 dangerous to human life. This is sufficient reason for 

 this to have every support, every consideration possible 

 from Congressmen and people at large. 



We are reaping an annual profit of ten million dollars 

 worth of recreation from the National Forests without 

 a cent of investment in producing machinery designed 

 for this use. But beyond this we are producing values 

 in inspiration, health and greater efficiency within the 



Nation which are beyond any dollar scale measurements. 



But there is a waste a loss. One hundred human lives 

 per annum in one state are snuflfed out through typhoid 

 contracted on camping trips. Proper sanitation means no 

 typhoid. But funds must be secured to introduce proper 

 sanitary developments. That is what this little appropria- 

 tion of $10,000 if passed, will start out to do. No more 

 urgent need exists in the Nation today than that of 

 proper sanitation in these play areas. 



It has been stated in the press that 75 bodies have 

 been recovered from the Pueblo flood. Hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars flowed into the stricken city for re- 

 lief. The entire Nation responded individually and of- 

 ficially. And yet in the same state the lack of proper 

 sanitation in the mountains yearly takes thirty three per 

 cent greater number of lives than this figure. And not 

 a cent has been forthcoming to relieve this far worse 

 known annual death list. 



Forest Recreation must be safe and efficient. Sanitation 

 is the first consideration. Any advancement which will 

 make it both, efficient and safe, should have sober con- 

 sideration. First, life must be protected by sanitaries, 

 clean water and garbage pits. Then attention must be 

 turned to real organized production of the recreation 

 commodity. This pitiful little $10,000 will do the first 

 only in a few localities but it may mean the saving of 

 scores of lives. It does mean a recognition of this activi- 

 ty within the National Forests and makes a start towards 

 the greater field of development which will equip the For- 

 ests to properly serve the millions who now come to 

 them for recreation. 



So let us get our profit without loss. It can be done. 

 And let us be good business people and invest as much 

 as ten per cent of our annual profit in producing ma- 

 chinery. 



Profit and Loss ! The increase of the former comes 

 with the elimination of the latter especially in Forest Re- 

 creation. Human kindness and good business both de- 

 mand a congressional appropriation for Forest Recrea- 

 tion. 



ANCIENT "MULLAN TREE" TO BE PRESERVED 



'T'HE Mullan Tree, landmark of the old Mullan Trail, 

 ' the first highway connecting Montana and Idaho with 

 the coast, will be preserved to posterity through the crea- 

 tion of a national monument area by the President. 



On July 4, 1861, Captain John Mullan, leader of the 

 party having in charge the survey and construction of 

 the Mullan Trail from Walla Walla, Washington, to 

 Fort Benton, Montana, closed his work at the connecting 

 point of the roads from the east and west, at the head of 

 the Fourth of July canyon, between Wallace, Idaho, and 

 Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. There he marked appropriately a 

 huge white pine tree, which since that time has been 

 known as the Mullan Tree. 



HUGE LONE SYCAMORE DISCOVERED 



A GIANT sycamore is monarch of the Wabash River 

 -^*- bottoms in Gibson County. Eleven feet in diameter, 

 thirty-three feet in circumference and 150 feet high, the 

 lone sycamore stands in the middle of a small field over- 

 looking the Wabash River at a point two miles south of 

 East Mt. Carmel, Indiana. There is no such other tree 

 in Gibson County and nothing like it in this part of the 

 state, so far as is known. 



Measurements and photographs of the tree have 

 been taken recently by Vivian W. Agniel, assistant 

 engineer for the Patoka-Wabash levee, and have 

 been sent by him to the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion for historic record. 



