SPREADING THE FORESTRY IDEA 



625 



enior of New Hampshire, Albert O. Brown, who was for 

 ten years President of the State Tax Commission, pointed 

 out the serious situation when the taxes on timber be- 

 come a factor in the early removal of forests before they 

 are mature. Ex-Governor Robert P. Bass and S. F. 

 Langdell, President of the New Hampshire Pine Lum- 

 I)ermen's Association, both spoke for the principle of a 

 deferred tax on timber, or a yield tax, to be paid when the 

 timber is cut and the owner has the wherewithal to pay. 

 It was pointed out that not infrequently it is unprofitable 

 to hold growing timber in New Hampshire except for 

 speculative purposes, because the annual tax rate is some- 

 times greater in value than the annual growth on the tim- 

 ber lot. 



The most notable single contribution was that from 

 Mr. W. R. Brown, of the Brown Company, Berlin, N. H., 

 President of the State Forestry Commission, on the re- 

 sults of a very careful experiment in the costs of brush 

 burning in spruce woods that his company made in co- 

 operation with the United States Forest Service. This 

 paper will be printed in full in the Journal of the Society 

 of American Foresters and will undoubtedly receive very 

 wide reading. The point in general is that the cost of 

 brush burning in the woods in spruce operations is ap- 

 proximately $1.05 a cord, which is prohibitive. Another 

 notable contribution was that of Mr. Allen Chamberlain, 

 of Boston, upon the traditions and history of Monadnock 

 Mountain, which we hope will find expression later in 

 book form. 



A marked feature of the meeting, that lasted three 

 days, was the hospitality of the City of Keene. At the 

 opening session the Chamber of Commerce and citizens 

 provided a public dinner, to which were invited not only 

 the members of the Society and the State Forestry Com- 

 mission, but also by special invitation through the 

 County Farm Bureau the leading farmers and land own- 

 ers of Cheshire County, who were present to the number 

 of nearly two hundred. These were addressed by Pro- 

 fessor Richard Fisher, Director of the Harvard Forest 

 School and of the College Forest at Petersham, and by 

 Professor James W. Toumey, Dean of the Yale Forest 

 School. Both used lantern pictures showing in detail 

 how a woodlot may best be managed for profit. The 

 pictures of thinning and conditions before and after- 

 ward were clear and convincing. At this dinner the 

 Mayor of Keene, Major Orville E. Cain, presided, and 

 presented two deeds of land, one to the State Forestry 

 Commission, being a gift from Mr. Joel E. Poole, of 

 JaflFrey, N. H., of a road in finished condition from the 

 highway to the State Forest Reservation on Monad- 



nock Mountain, and the other a gift to the Society for 

 Protection of Forests from Mr. William Pearson, of 

 Keene, and his associates, of a new forest reservation of 

 eleven acres in extent, at the summit of City Hill in the 

 town of Nelson, N. H. Read Admiral J. B. Murdock re- 

 sponded for the State Forestry Commission, of which he 

 is a member, and Allen Hollis, Esq., responded for the 

 Society as its President. 



There was an excursion led by Professor Toumey to 

 the one thousand acre tract of the Yale Forest School 

 located three miles southwest of Keene. A visit was 

 made to the extensive nurseries of seedling forest trees 

 of the Keene Forestry Association. About forty persons 

 visited the famous Pisgah Forest of five thousand acres 

 in the southwestern corner of New Hampshire, twenty- 

 five miles from Keene, and saw the largest groves of 

 primeval pines and hemlocks that remain standing in 

 New England. A visit was made to the valuable pine 

 and hardwood forests on the Five Mile Drive around 

 Keene that have been so long preserved and held for 

 public enjoyment by Miss Mary B. Dinsmoor, and a 

 visit was made to the famous pine plantation in West- 

 moreland, a tract of three acres planted forty-five years 

 ago at a cost of $35 for land and planting, for which 

 the present owner paid $1,000. It is estimated that each 

 acre now carries from fifty to sixty thousand feet board 

 measure. Other visits were made to the reservations of 

 the State and of the Society for Protection of Forests on 

 Monadnock Mountain, and to the interesting pot holes 

 near Keene on the tract of one hundred acres that the 

 city will acquire as a Municipal Forest. 



The meeting was attractively housed at the Keene- 

 State Normal School, through the courtesy of the State 

 Board of Educaion and the principal of the school, Mr. 

 Wallace E. Mason. The guests were lodged in the dormi- 

 tories, and a general school holiday atmosphere pre- 

 vailed. 



Among the topics for consideration were larger ap- 

 l)ropriations by the State for the purchase of forest land, 

 new forest taxation laws, the extension of purchases in 

 the White Mountains and Southern Appalacians under 

 the Weeks law, larger appropriations throughout the 

 land for the suppression of forest fires, a renewed and 

 vigorous effort to control the white pine blister rust, 

 which is advancing throughout New Hampshire, except 

 where currant and gooseberry bushes have been removed, 

 and a pledge to Colonel Greeley to support him heartily 

 in his efforts to secure through Congressional and State 

 action the establishment of a National forest policy that 

 will provide a timber supply for a great people. 



