626 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



TREES THE MOST NEEDED OF ALL CROPS 



POINTING out that Nature does not forest, and since the fields productivity began to denude our forests years ago, 



"give" trees to man any more than depends on the vigor of the forest, it is there were many people who warned us 



she gives corn or wheat but merely lends not unreasonable to rank the latter as the against this practice. They told us that 



these things to man who must take care decisive crop. At any rate. Time has shown the day would come when we should 



of them, the Philadelphia North American 

 carried a forceful editorial on "The Crop 

 That Must Not Fail." In part it follows: 



"How seldom any one considers the 

 crop that primarily controls all other crops 

 the tree crop! 



"It is a fact terribly proved by most 

 of the deserts which pockmark this sphere 

 that lack of care for the tree crop has 

 cost more lives and been responsible for 

 more material loss than all wars 

 combined. For all soil fertility 

 is primarily a matter of water- 

 not only the moisture precipi- 

 tated through rain, but that 

 stored beneath the surface and 

 when land is denuded of trees, 

 this latter water supply, which is 

 the more vital of the two, gradu- 

 ally sinks to a point beyond reach 

 of the roots of food-bearing 

 plants. 



Men do not seem to learn 

 through force of example, how- 

 ever, and even experience is an 

 over-rated teacher. So, starting 

 as a nation in 1776 with an esti- 

 mated 900,000,000 acres of virgin 

 forest, we have in the 146 years 

 of our national existence proper 

 ly used one-fifth of this; negli- 

 gently permitted another fifth to 

 be destroyed by fire, and crimi- 

 nally wasted a third fifth in what 

 can only be called slaughter. 



Is it to be wondered that men 

 like Pinchot and Pack have felt 

 it a first duty to their country 

 to cry out against such waste! 

 Yet one cannot wonder at the 

 attitude of the average person, 

 for this average person never has 

 thought of trees as a crop the 

 most necessary of all crops, in 

 fact. 



Nature doesn't give trees, any 

 more than she gives corn, wheat, 

 potatoes or cotton. She lends 

 these riches, and man is to live 

 on the interest earned through 

 his care and labor. 



us that nations which desire to stand and 

 prosper cannot permit their tree crops 

 to fail. 



\ogates Himld More forest fires oc- 

 curred in 1921 than during any previous 

 year of record, but, owing to improved 

 methods of detection and extinguishment 

 the area burned over was below the av- 

 erage in extent. Notwithstanding abnor- 



Forest Protection 



deeply feel the loss of the timber we were 

 wasting so shamefully. 



Today we are confronted by a stiua- 

 tion which is the outcome of our early 

 recklessness. Very wisely we are ad- 

 vised by Charles Lathrop Pack, president 

 of the American Forestry Association : "If 

 the business men of the Lake States want 

 a forest experiment station, and want to 

 get a start to put 20,000,000 acres of land 

 to work growing trees, now is 

 the time to speak." This may 

 sound a little bit like belated ad- 

 vice, but it is, in view of past 

 prodigality, the best advice to be 

 had. 



The only question is whether 

 we are going to give heed to it 

 any more than we gave it to the 

 men who years ago advised us to 

 be saving of our timber. 



Boston Herald The president 

 of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation says coal strikes will have 

 no terrors when municipalities 

 own woodland from which they 

 can cut fuel. 



Tampa Times A timber de- 

 nuded land is a lost land, unfit 

 for habitation, cultivation or the 

 sustenance of animal life. The 

 problem must be attacked on a 

 national scale. It is not a re- 

 gional or a sectional subject. 

 Every part of the country must 

 do its share. The first important 

 need is an intelligent conception 

 of the magnitude of the pro- 

 blem. The second is the realiza- 

 tion that labor, time and money 

 must be expended. 



Fox In the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. 



Geneva, N. Y., Times Charles 

 Lathrop Pack, president of the 

 -American Forestry Association, 

 admits that the rail and coal 

 strikes are bad things, but sees 

 in the condition which they cre- 

 ate an added impetus for the 



Those who neglect or misuse these loans mal drought, public carelessness was planting and maintaining of forests, pub- 



fail. Nation after nation thus has failed. 

 Whole civilizations have crumbled from 

 such causes. We do not pretend to any 

 knowledge of the decrees of destiny, but 

 any one with eyes to read can gain 

 definite knowledge of the undermining 

 factors. 



Foremost among these, in every instance, 

 has been lack or neglect of field and 



chiefly to blame. Clearly the American 

 public still lacks appreciation of its great 

 natural heritage. As a people priding 

 ourselves upon our practical outlook, the 

 market value of our timberlands in yield- 

 ing lumber for building and other pur- 

 poses must be apparent. 



Detroit Ntws ^Undoubtedly when we 



lie and private. 



The municipality which has a well 

 conducted forest preserve is less at the 

 mercy of a shortage in other fuel sup- 

 plies than other communities. The private 

 property owner who systematically culti- 

 vates and utilizes his wood lot need have 

 no great anxiety over diminishing coal 

 piles or gas depletion. It is true that 



