NEW ENGLAND AND APPALACHIAN FORESTS 



473 



nor the lightning struck them ; that no worm had gnawed 

 at the root, or cattle at the trunk; that their branches 

 were not broken, nor their leaves falling from drouth. 

 We found them all standing in their uprightness. They 

 lifted up their heads toward heaven, and sent down 

 to us from all their boughs a leafy whisper of recog- 

 nition and affection. Blessed be the dew that cools 

 their evening leaves, and the rains that quench their 

 daily thirst! May the storm be as merciful to them 

 when, in winter, it roars through their branches, as 

 is a harper to his harp! Let the snow lie lightly 

 on their boughs, and long hence be the summer 

 that shall find no leaves to clothe these nobles 

 of the pasture! " 



The " Hawthorne Pines " stand sentry over the site 



of the " little red house " where Nathaniel Hawthorne 

 wrote "The House of the Seven Gables" and "The Wonder 

 Book." Fortunately, these pines have not yet shown signs 

 of being attacked by the blister rust, although they are 

 within the limits of the area where diseased trees have 

 been found. It would be interesting to read what Beecher, 

 Hawthorne, Catherine Sedgwick, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 

 James Russell Lowell, Edwin P. Whipple, J. T. Headley, 

 J. T. Fields, and the other masters of words, who once 

 lived in the vicinity of Lenox, would have written had the 

 white pine been menaced in their day as it is now. To 

 them the trees of the Berkshire Hills were delightful, loved 

 friends, and one can imagine them exerting their pens to 

 the mightiest efforts in pleas for concerted action in ward- 

 ing off the devastation that threatens. 



$3,000,000 FOR NEW ENGLAND AND APPALACHIAN FORESTS 



yy N APPROPRIATION of $3,000,000 for continuing 

 I \ the purchase of forested lands at the head-waters 

 * ^ of navigable streams in New England and the 

 Southern Appalachians is assured for the next two years. 

 The amendment to the Agricultural Appropriation Bill, 

 providing for this money, $1,000,000 for the present fiscal 

 year and $2,000,000 for the next, passed the House on 

 Friday, August 4, and will become a law as soon as it is 

 signed by the President. 



Thus ends, successfully, a long continued effort by the 

 American Forestry Association, its members, and a large 

 number of actively cooperating organizations, to have 

 Congress provide for the continuation, under the pro- 

 visions of the Weeks Law, of this work, which has 

 been so ably done during the last several years by the 

 Forest Service. 



The various stages of this campaign have been de- 

 scribed in previous issues of American Forestry. First, 

 in the summer of 1915, the American Forestry Association 

 decided to devote itself to the effort to have an appropria- 

 tion bill passed. A meeting was held at Washington, D. C, 

 of officers, members of the Association, and representa- 

 tives of cooperating organizations, and a plan of work 

 decided upon. On September 23 a memorial urging the 

 appropriation was presented to Secretary of Agriculture 

 Houston. Then followed the task of keeping the public 

 and members of Congress informed of the necessity for 

 the appropriation, of enlisting the aid of Boards of Trades, 

 Chambers of Commerce and other bodies. 



On January 28 of this year there was a special hearing 

 before the Agricultural Committee of the House on the 

 measure and powerful arguments favoring it were pre- 

 sented. Later, however, this committee, by a vote of 

 8 to 7, decided not to include the appropriation in the 

 Agricultural Appropriation Bill and it was not in it when 

 the bill passed the House. This was a big disappointment 

 and a serious set-back. However, Senator Gallinger of 



New Hampshire consented to introduce in the Senate an 

 amendment to the bill, and the Appalachian measure, as it 

 has been generally called, was given new life. The Senate 

 adopted the amendment. It went back to the House with 

 the Agricultural Bill. The House refused to concur in 

 the Senate amendments, and sent the bill back. The Senate 

 changed some amendments, but did not alter the Appala- 

 chian one, and all went back to the House. The American 

 Forestry Association thereupon sent letters to members 

 in town and telegrams to those out of town asking them 

 to be present when the vote was taken. 



In the meantime, Chairman Lever of the House Agri- 

 cultural Committee, and other representatives and sena- 

 tors in favor of the amendment, had urged upon members 

 of the House the desirability of continuing the work and 

 the necessity for the appropriation in order to do so, 

 and finally when the bill came up on August 4 the 

 amendment passed. 



The American Forestry Association wishes to express 

 its appreciation of the aid given by cooperating organiza- 

 tions, by interested bodies and by individuals in all that 

 was done to secure this appropriation. There will now 

 be added to the forested lands already secured by the 

 Government in the New England and the Southern Appa- 

 lachian regions a considerable area of very great value in 

 protecting the head-w.aters of streams and in providing 

 for forests in the future in a number of states where the 

 forests have been seriously depleted and where new forests 

 are a vital necessity. 



During the few years that money has been available 

 for this purchase, the work has been done by the Forest 

 Service in a highly efficient manner. Lands have been 

 acquired at low prices in areas where such holdings will 

 be of the greatest public service, and the whole area pur- 

 chased has been included in the Appalachian National 

 Forest, of which Wm. L. Hall, who has had charge of the 

 work since its inception, is the district forester. 



