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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



DIGEST OF OPINIONS ON FORESTRY 



LET US HAVE YOUR OPINION. WILL YOU NOT CO-OPERATE WITH US BY IMPRESSING 

 UPON THE EDITOR OF YOUR NEWSPAPER THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREST CONSERVATION? 



Newspapers are giving fine space to 

 matters pertaining to forestry. The read- 

 ers of American Forestry will do a great 

 work by impressing upon the editor of 

 their newspapers the importance of con- 

 servation at this time. Please send us any 

 comment you see. Here follow comment 

 and news articles : 



CONVICTS IN FORESTS 

 Boston Post 



What should be done, in addition to what is 

 being done, for the prevention of forest fires? 

 It is not only the great financial loss entailed, 

 but it is the irreparable devastation wrought 

 that every effort should be made to prevent. 

 One of the great menaces to our woodland, 

 greatest, in fact, of them all, is the litter of 

 dead timber and accumulated brush. This in- 

 flammable material removed and the danger of 

 forest fires would be lessened considerably. 



It has been suggested that convicts should be 

 employed at this work. The suggestion seems 

 a good one. There can be no objection by labor 

 bodies and the work would be beneficial for the 

 reformation of the men themselves. Certainly 

 convicts can be reclaimed better in the open 

 than cooped up in granite cages so deadening 

 to hope and so full of gloom and despair. This 

 matter of employing convicts in our forests is 

 important enough to attract the attention of our 

 New England law-makers. 



MEMORIAL TREES 

 r T^ HE American Forestry Association has 

 a nation-wide campaign on for the 

 planting of trees as memorials to the 

 nation's heroic dead and the idea has met 

 universal approval, to judge by editorial 

 and other current comment in the leading 

 papers of the country. 



The Trenton, New Jersey, Times says, 

 editorially, that this suggestion has been 



made: 



Every soldier or sailor who dies in the service 

 of his country, the municipality from which he 

 came shall plant and care for a tree in the 

 public parks or along the streets, the tree to be 

 dedicated to the memory of the dead hero. The 

 suggestion is an excellent one and should be 

 taken up and pushed by some one of the numer 

 ous organizations that are engaged in war 

 work. It has both a sentimental and a practical 

 value, and all the more commendable because 

 of the fact that the War Conservation Board has 

 decreed that no bronze or stone memorials to 

 the dead shall be erected until after the war is 

 over. 



YANKEE TREES FOOL FOE 



A make-believe forest stands along the edge 

 of the road at the entrance to the American 

 camouflage station. It looks as natural as 

 the real woods along the fighting front, with 

 the shiny silver bark of the beeches, the rough, 

 jagged trunks of the old apple trees and the 

 sprouting tops of the dwarf willows, says a 

 correspondent of the Associated Press. 



Yet every tree in the camouflage forest lias a 

 steel core within which an observer peers forth 

 to watch the movements of an enemy or a 

 machine-gun is located to sweep forth from its 

 hidden recess. They are only one of the many 

 strange devices to deceive and mystify the 

 enemy which this American camouflage station 

 is sending forth to the fighting army, 

 camouflage station. It looks as natural as 

 ducts of the war, even in the name, which was 

 used for tiie first time by General de Castlenau, 

 Chief of Staff of General Joffre. The word is 

 not good French, but comes from the argot, or 

 French slang, the verb "camoufler" being used 

 by French police to indicate any disguise used 

 to capture criminals. 



APPEAL TO STOP WOOD WASTE 

 St. Louis Globe Democrat 



Julius Koenig, St. Louis city forester, made 

 an appeal to the realtors of the city for co- 

 operation in what he determines the proper dis- 

 posal of trees and branches which annually are 

 cut down and destroyed here. Hundreds of trees 

 and dead branches every year are carted to the 

 city dumps to be destroyed with rubbish or 

 thrown into the river, Koenig claims. 



"In these days of strife, when everyone is 

 asked to retrench and conserve in every possible 

 manner," Koenig said, "it appears that a matter 

 heretofore not considered as important should be 

 brought to the attention of the public and put 

 into immediate practice. 



"Each year hundreds of trees and branches are 

 cut down within the city and are hauled away 

 to the city dumping grounds to be burned or 

 disposed of in some manner which benefits no 

 one. As a matter of conservation, it would be 

 wiser to arrange some means by which this wood 

 could be utilized for beneficial purposes. 



"It has occurred to me that this timber could 

 be utilized to good advantage for heating purposes 

 by those for whom it is difficult to obtain fuel 

 A system could be arranged by which the trees 

 and branches, when cut down, could be taken 

 to some specified location where they could b 

 cut into stovewood and distributed among those 

 who are unable to purchase coal. 



"Such an arrangement would not only help to 

 solve the fuel problem in certain districts, but 

 would also save the city the time and expense 

 of hauling the wood to the dumps. Many people 

 would be more than glad to purchase the waste 

 wood for fuel at any reasonable price." 



Manufacturers Record 



But in America the necessity for reforesta- 

 tion is no less urgent and important to our 

 national welfare. True, we have not been com 

 pelled to use our wood in quantity for fuel, but 

 our consumption in other lines has been enor- 

 mous, and we must be ready to supply our Allies 

 with enormous amounts for wood for aeroplanes, 

 gun stocks and for construction work. Hence 

 it is seen what a drain is imposed upon America's 

 forests. But it will not cease with the war. 

 Rather, from present indications, the demand for 

 wood in most lines will increaes for many years 

 after peace is declared. Hundreds of prospec- 

 tive builders are waiting for the war to close 

 to build houses, and many manufacturing plants 

 which would make frame additions are holding 

 off until after the war. There will be a great 

 demand for wood for constructing and manu- 

 facturing purposes in all countries, particularly 

 devasted France _ and Belgium, which must be 

 immediately rebuilt once victory is attained. 



The situation, therefore, demands the imme- 

 diate adoption of a nation-wide reforestation 

 plan. No greater service could be performed to 

 help the future civilization than to make cer- 

 tain a supply of necessary woods in America. 

 The sooner this campaign is under way the 

 better. Forests cannot be established as can 

 other war-working institutions. We must in- 

 sure a supply of wood for any and all future 

 emergencies by reforestation now. 



WOMEN TO TAP MAPLES 



New York Times 

 Work in the orange groves of Florida and tap- 

 ping trees for maple sugar in Vermont and New 

 Hampshire arc lines of winter work for the 

 farmerette which were discussed at a meeting 

 of the Women's Land Army of America at the 

 Cosmopolitan Club. 



THE NEED OF TREES 



Notwithstanding the exigent state of affairs 

 in which the carrying on of righteous war is the 

 transcendent aim, writes John Y. Culyer in a 

 letter to the New York Sun, our thoughts might 

 well be shared at this season by a considera- 

 tion of the practical value of tree planting, a 

 matter of common interest, as of other neces- 

 saries in fact, upon which health, comfort and 

 happiness depend, such as food for man and 

 beast, water supply, fuel in the form of coal, 

 wood and oil, the means of shelter, etc. Not 

 far removed in its dreadful significance from 

 the appalling destruction of human life abroad 

 is the devastation, and in many instances the 

 complete destruction, of the woods and forests, 

 the parks and gardens of France, Belgium and 

 other fields of the sanguinary conflict in pro- 

 gress. 



* In flur own country we can no longer delude 

 ourselves with the boastful claim of an ex 

 haustless timber supply. The shifting scenes of 

 the lumber interests, the story of which is so 

 startling as evidencing the magnitude of such 

 inroads upon this once incomparable resource 

 as to force upon us the widespread need of repro- 

 duction and the unremitting service of wisest 

 conservation. Great areas of our middle West- 

 ern States once invested with dense forests of 

 valuable timber are now so bare as scarcely to 



yield a local supply of firewood. 



The Middletown, Ohio, News Signal says 



An oak tree is being planted along Tiffin's new 



$100,000 river improvement for each soldier in 



Seneca county who has given his life for the 



cause of democracy on the battlefields of Europe, 



and the suggestion of Mrs. Henry S. How- 

 land of Montclair, New Jersey 



That a tree be planted in the town as a 

 memorial for every soldier or sailor from 

 the municipality who dies during the war 

 occasioned favorable comment at a meeting 

 of the Montclair Town Commission re- 

 cently. The suggestion, made in a letter, 

 was referred to Commissioner Harrison for 

 consideration. 



