246 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



PRAISE FOR HARDING S CALL TO 



IMPORTANCE of forestry to the farmer 

 so well brought out by President Hard- 

 ing in welcoming the delegates to the 

 farm conference in Washington was taken 

 up by the newspapers in their editorial 

 co-operation with the American Forestry 

 Association's educational campaigns. 

 The importance of forestry to the en- 

 tire country has now become, thanks 

 to the editors' cooperation, the most 

 talked of subject in their columns. 

 The editors are eager to print facts 

 and figures on this big subject as part 

 of their public service. Some of the 

 comment follows : 



Washington Post: At the opening 

 of the farm congress the other day 

 President Harding directed the at- 

 tention of the farmer to the impor- 

 tance of forestry. In the early days 

 of the "go West, young man," peri- 

 od of the nation's history trees were 

 in the way. Agriculture was the 

 big thing, and the clearing of the 

 land for corn and wheat was the 

 hardest part of the job. In those 

 days every farmer had a woodlot, 

 but they are scarce today. A man with 

 a walnut grove has a fortune, so great 

 is the demand for that timber. 



Now the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation meets in annual session to 

 mark the fortieth anniversary of its 

 organization in 1882 at Cincinnati. 

 In those days the man who talked 

 scientific forestry did not make much 

 progress, as no one took -him seri- 

 ously. But today the center of the 

 lumber industry is nearing the Pa- 

 cific coast. The average farmer will 

 spend $1,000 a year on improvements 

 on his place. Instead of going out to 

 the "lower forty" for his lumber he 

 goes to town. He also goes to town 

 for his fuel nowadays. 



President Harding did well in di- 

 recting the attention of the farmer, 

 and therefore, the country, to the need 

 of putting idle acres to work growing 

 trees. That is what the American For- 

 estry Association wishestodothrough 

 a national forest policy. Such legis- 

 lation is before the Congress. "We 

 must have forest products close to 

 the point of consumption," says 

 Charles Lathrop Pack, president of 

 the Association. Another 40 years 

 may be too late. A little legislation 

 would not be a dangerous thing. 



been mined from our forests instead of 

 raised and harvested. There is no way for 

 the miner of minerals to renew the con- 

 tents of his mine, so he takes out the good 

 ore and lets the shell cave in. There is a 

 way to renew the products of our forests, 



Have a Care, 



Golf Players! 



A TLANTA JOURNAL. The recent 

 .^ Forestry Congress in Atlanta, coup- 

 led with the growing interest in golf on 

 the part of the public as well as players, 

 makes particularly timely some statistics 

 compiled by the American Forestry Associ- 

 ation regarding golf sticks, where they 

 come from and what goes into their mak- 

 ing. 



Thus far the advocates of forest conser- 

 vation have been generous enough not to 

 look with extreme disfavor on the use of 

 wood for golf clubs, but if golf continues 

 to win adherents at the rate it has in the 

 past few years, and 'the factories are 

 forced to double their output of shafts 

 for golf clubs, one hesitates to say what 

 will happen. 



Since two million people in the world 

 are said to be handling golf sticks every 

 week, and sipce this number are said to 

 own fMn ten to sixteen million of them, 

 the amount of wood used for their pro- 

 duction, it can be told at a glance, is no 

 small quantity. 



Golfing enthusiasts as yet have nothing 

 to fear from the eflforts of the Forestry 

 Association to conserve America's timber 

 supply. And should matters reach such 

 a pass that a movement is started to re- 

 strict the unlimited manufacture of wood- 

 en golf clubs, the patrons of the old Scotch 

 game can always play one trump card. 

 They have but to introduce the conserva- 

 tion leaders to the nearest links, let them 

 play their first nine holes and the trick 

 will be turned. Once a golfer, always a 

 golfer. The veriest dub will yield what- 

 ever conservation principles he may have 

 in unqualified allegiance to the sport that 

 is at once his glory and his despair. 



Editor's Note: The thousands of golf 

 players among the Association's members 

 suggest no golf course is ideal unless it has 

 several tracts of woodland on or around 

 it. Golf courses and woodlands are first 

 cousins. 



Tuscaloosa S'ews and Times Gazette : 

 The Country Gentleman suggests editorially 

 that the only way to insure a permanent 

 lumber supply is to revise the methods oi 

 handling timber. In the past lumber has 



but because there were so many to begin 

 with we have regarded them as inexhaus- 

 tible, taking out the timber recklessly and 

 leaving the stumps and cut-over areas to 

 burn or lie idle. Reforestation, now sought 

 earnestly by those who appreciate the value 



of forests to a nation and the menace which 

 hangs over the remaining forests of the 

 United States, is really the process of 

 growing crops and harvesting them. It is 

 really a very simple problem from the ma- 

 terial side. The hard part lies in convinc- 

 ing farmers, foresters, lumbermen 

 and even city-dwellers that the prob- 

 lem is theirs, that they are all indi- 

 vidually responsible for the nation's 

 future supply and immediate fores- 

 try policy. 



Rochester Democrat Chronicle: 

 Unless most of the country dwel- 

 lers and a large part of those- who 

 are housed in cities become aroused 

 to the necessity of replacing the for- 

 ests, there is serious trouble ahead 

 for both city and country. Within the 

 last few years there has been some- 

 thing of such an awakening. One 

 of the concrete results of this is the 

 Snell bill which is now in Congress. 

 Congressman Snell, its sponsor, is 

 from the forest region of Northern 

 New York and is familiar with the 

 forest needs. It is up to the public 

 generally to get back of this bill and 

 see that it is put through as the first 

 of many remedial measures that mus' 

 be enacted. 



Atlanta Journal: As a peculiarly 

 interesting phase of the reforestation 

 movement now astir throughout the 

 United States, Chief Forester Gree- 

 ley urges the wisdom and advantage 

 of each community's having a forest 

 preserve of its own. This counsel is 

 not visionary or theoretic, but all 

 compact of the hardest common 

 sense. Failure to replenish the dwin- 

 dling forests will lead to agricultural 

 impotence and industrial stagnation 

 as certainly as the way of the prodi- 

 gal son led to rags and husks. No 

 region has more at stake in this mat- 

 ter than Georgia, with her primary 

 interests in the soil, the conservation 

 of which depends vitally on the nat- 

 ural protection which forests afford. 

 By acting betimes every county and 

 town in Georgia can acquire a for- 

 est reserve which a few generations 

 hence will be invaluable as a civic 

 investment and at the same time of 

 immense worth to farming inter- 

 ests. 



Louisville Courier-Journal: The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture insists that bird life 

 is so necessary to farming, and fruit grow- 

 ing, that the soil industries actually are 

 menaced by continued destruction of re- 

 maining timber tracts. National Forests, 



