612 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Of the present forest area the South Atlantic and 

 East Gulf States have 99,000,000 acres; the lower Mis- 

 sissippi States 78,865,000 acres, and the Pacific Coast 

 States 62,586,000 acres. Not all of this is productive 

 now, in fact little more than half now bears saw-timber, 

 but it is reasonable to expect that at least half of it can 

 be made productive in the future. 



If, then, 250,000,000 acres of forest were producing 200 

 board feet yearly we would have fifty billion feet an- 

 nually, enough to meet our prospective requirements for 

 both domestic use and export. 



This is the thing to do now, while we still have 

 2,200 billion board feet of merchantable timber, suf- 

 ficient to support a yearly cut of 40 billion feet for 55 

 years, make eflfective a national forest policy which will 

 safeguard the future of the American Lumber Supply. 



To go into the details of such a forest policy would 

 carry one far afield. Various measures have been pro- 

 posed and fully discussed in the various lumber trade 

 journals. The essential thing to do is to keep a forest 

 on the land and to reforest areas which are better suited 



to growing trees than for any other purpose. 



The history of the lumber industry in this country 

 shows a migratory movement from the East to the Lake 

 States, to th South and thence to the Pacific Coast. This 

 is its last stronghold. All this has come to pass in two 

 generations. At present we have enough remaining tim- 

 ber to last perhaps two generations more. Thereafter 

 we will have to depend for future supplies upon home- 

 grown products. Meanwhile we will pay for our past 

 laxity by heavy freight charges on every thousand feet 

 of lumber shipped across the continent. Since the bulk 

 of our people live in the East and half of our remaining 

 timber supply is in the West, this freight charge is today 

 in excess of what it costs to manufacture lumber on the 

 Pacific Coast and offers a substantial margin of profit for 

 home grown timber of equal quality. 



We have the forest land, we can keep it producing 

 trees, we can replant such areas as are denuded. If we 

 do not delay in adopting a proper forest policy, we can 

 assure by the practice of forestry the future of the 

 American lumber supply. There is no other way. 



CORVUS THE CROW 



(Continued from Page 602) 



When in their movements southward or toward the sea- 

 coast they cross a mountain range, they choose a certain 

 gap through which the great flock pours. This seems to 

 be good evidence that Crows travel by well-known land 

 marks. Solitary Crows are exceedingly rare. Wherever 

 we find one Crow that is a good place to look for more. 

 A lone Crow perched on a tree is usually a sentinel keep- 

 ing watch and ready to give warning to his companions 

 who may be engaged in some nefarious business, but 

 occasionally in late autumn or in winter a single Crow 

 seems to have been left behind. Whether he has been 

 ostracised and driven out by his companions for some 

 violation of Crow ethics, if indeed Crows have any eth- 

 ics, or whether he has merely lost his way, no one can 

 say, but in some such cases the gregarious instinct asserts 

 itself and he joins a flock of his smaller kin. Crackles, 

 Blackbirds or Starlings, flies with them, alights with 

 them, feeds with them, and, for aught I know, roosts 

 with them, seeming to find companionship in this insig- 

 nificant company, while they usually ignore him, al- 

 though they sometimes follow where he leads. 



Sometimes in the spring, when Crow food is scarce and 

 the youngsters in the nest are clamoring, the parents 

 visit the farmyard in search of young chicks. Working 

 together they soon outwit the old hen. One attracts 

 her attention in front and she rushes to the attack, while 

 the other slips up quietly behind and makes off with one 

 of the callow brood. This maneuver, frequently repeat- 

 ed, continually deceives the simple, distracted mother 

 until the brood is much depleted or the farmer shuts 

 them up. Sometimes when a Crow on a nest-robbing 

 expedition is mobbed by small birds he flaps slowly 



away, followed by the excited songsters, while his mate 

 steals in from behind and appropriates the eggs or young 

 from the unwatched nest. A correspondent writes that 

 in one case the Crow flew heavily away, with nest, young 

 and all clutched in its claws. All these depredations of 

 the Crow are evident. Every one knows that it pulls 

 sprouting corn, and many farmers have suffered from 

 its attacks on melons and small fruits. Game preservers 

 well know its liking for the eggs of ducks and pheasants, 

 but its benefactions to the human race usually pass un- 

 noticed. It is a militant slayer of many of the worst in- 

 sect pests known to man. Locusts, grasshoppers, potato 

 beetles, weevils, caterpillars, army worms, cutworms, 

 white grubs and many other first-class pests are de- 

 stroyed in myriads by the Crow. He spends far more 

 time in this beneficial work than in all his injurious ac- 

 tivities put together. Crows in normal numbers are a 

 benefit to the land, but when too abundant their in- 

 jurious habits multiply. It behooves us not to extermi- 

 nate the Crow but to see that its numbers do not unduly 

 increase. 



The Crow is proscribed in every country, and nowhere 

 is protected by law so far as I know, yet he persists and 

 increases in numbers in spite of man's persecution. In the 

 midst of civilization his cry is the one dominant note of 

 the wilderness that still remains. This morning as I 

 crossed Boston Common the caw of a Crow came over 

 the rumble of the city street, and the sable bird flapped 

 down to the top of a tall tree by the frog pond, calling 

 loudly to another in a tree near by. 



Thoreau says of the Crow : "This bird sees the white 

 man come and the Indian withdraw, but it withdraws 

 not. Its untamed voice is still heard above the tinkling 

 of the forge. It sees a race pass away but it passes not 

 away. It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature." 



