736 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



WHAT THE GOVERNORS OF THE LAKE STAl 



HON. J. O. PREUS 



Governor of Minnesota 



OUR first concern, in any attempt to conserve and develop our forests, must be 

 that of finding some way of preventing, or at least reducing, the forest fires 

 which recur at altogether too frequent intervals, above any money consideration 

 involved, is our duty to prevent loss of human life and to protect the families 

 and homes of those who are trying to develop these portions of our country. 

 From a property standpoint, the potential value of young growing timber destroyed 

 is undoubtedly much greater than the value of mature timber lost. 



The organization of our State Forestry departments demands the best thought 

 of those interested in the State's welfare. In so important a matter, we must cast 

 aside both sentiment and politics. We must be sure we have just the right man 

 at the head of these departments, and those fully qualified are scarce. A forestry 

 official must not only have the technical training, but he must have executive abil- 

 ity of a high order. He must be able to deal with the different classes of people 

 who come into the forests, or who have interests there; railroad executives and 

 employes, lumbermen, campers, hunters and settlers, some of the latter foreign born 

 and ignorant. He must be something of a police executive, for he must enforce 

 the fire laws firmly yet fairly. He must be a teacher, for fire prevention involves 

 education of the public. And he must be ready and able, if emergencies come, to 

 direct efficiently the large bodies of men needed for fire fighting and sometimes for 

 rescue and relief work. 



Forest development is another large but distinct problem. Besides fire protec- 

 tection it involves such questions as classification of lands and soil survey; super- 

 vision of lumbering operations; draining swampy timber lands (for drainage may 

 kill the timber and promote fires), and finally reforestation. Whether tree planting 

 on a large scale can be better undertaken by the State or by private parties is a 

 mooted question. Generally large undertakings of this kind can be done more effi- 

 ciently by private enterprise. But there is little inducement to private capital to 

 go into tree planting when taxes must be paid upon growing timber twenty-five to 

 fifty years before there is any return upon the investment. The present tax system 

 not only makes tree planting prohibitive, but it encourages the cutting of immature 

 timber. A production tax would make it to the timber owner's interest to let the 

 trees grow as long as possible. 



HON. JOHN J. BLAINE 



Governor of Wisconsin 



WISCONSIN is, and has been for several generations, a large producer of 

 forest products. The upper twenty million acres of this State was covered 

 with a merchantable forest of pine, hemlock, cedar and varieties of hard woods, 

 like birch, maple and elm. The southern fifteen million acres was a forest of hard 

 woods, in which the oaks predominated. The presence of this great acreage of mer- 

 chantable timber resulted in the establishment of a wide diversity of wood-using 

 industries, and many of our cities and towns owe their existence and prosperity 

 to these industries. The sawmills, pulp and paper mills, furniture and sash door 

 factories, and many smaller wood-using establishments have always offered, and 

 still offer, a livelihood to thousands of Wisconsin citizens, and were these industries 

 to cease to operate it would reduce the possibility of employment very materially 

 in many of our cities, such as Sheboygan, Wausau, Oshkosh, and many others. Of 

 equal importance is the fact that farms cannot be operated without lumber, posts. 



