ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT PACK 



551 



people think of us as raising politicians and . . . 

 other sorts of agricultural products, but we raise 

 timber, also, in New Jersey, and we have a forest fire 

 system which I think is second to none. As Forester 

 Graves can more fully explain, we receive, through his 

 department, help that comes through appropriations in 

 connection with the Weeks Law. This is a benefit re- 

 ceived every year, and it is in that connection that we 

 realize we are a real part of the nation. 



THERE are a great many forestry questions coming 

 up that are of interest and importance. You all 

 know something about the great destruction of the 

 chestnut that has taken place in the East the so-called 

 chestnut blight. Up in our part of the world New Jer- 

 sey and in some other states, you rarely see a chestnut 

 tree that is alive. When you look off across a wooded 

 country, you simply see the skeletons of the former chest- 

 nut trees standing in the air, in most cases without bark. 

 The ravages of the chestnut blight were not stopped, and 

 now, people of North Carolina, you have the beautiful 

 five-leaf pine white pine, as we call it and you want to 

 look out, because there is another great scourge, and that 

 is the five-leaf pine blister rust. It is all over New Eng- 

 land and elsewhere and spreading rapidly. It got a big 

 start before the scientific men spoke out loud about it. 

 You must be wide awake to the danger or you may soon 

 have only sick or dead chestnuts and sick or dead white 

 pines to look at. 



I saw a forest in Massachusetts the other day, coming 

 down through Lenox, beautiful white pine trees, such as 

 you see in some parts of Western North Carolina, and the 

 greater portion of them were infected with this terrible 

 blister rust pest. You will want to be organized in every 

 state in the mountain region for many reasons, but you 

 particularly want to hurry up your organizations so you 

 can properly face this danger. There are other men with 

 greater technical knowledge than I have who will talk 

 about this white pine blister rust at this Congress. But 

 I beseech of you not to underestimate the importance of 

 this terrible calamity which threatens us with the possible 

 extinction of the white pine. 



Now, gentlemen, there are a great many things I might 

 talk about, but you have many more experienced speakers 

 than I people who have a live message and, therefore, 

 I will say only a few words more. The forests of 

 America are increasing in potential importance, particu- 

 larly on account of the great war. Do you realize that 

 in Russia, in the Balkans, in Belgium, in Galicia, in 

 France and England everywhere there is terrible de- 

 struction of forests ? For now on the battle-fields, where 

 whole forests have been felled, there is much the same 

 scene of desolation as some of your mountain-sides used 

 to have when the tobacco crop farmers deadened the trees. 

 But that is not all. England and France formerly im- 

 ported a great deal of their lumber from Russia and the 

 Rhine, and they are now cut off from that source of sup- 

 ply. The ocean freight is so high and the shortage of 

 ships so great that a comparatively small amount of lumber 



has been shipped to England and they are cutting down 

 the fine old picturesque woodland parks over there. One 

 of the most picturesque, as well as the saddest, things of 

 the war is this : there was organized in Canada a body of 

 woodsmen 2500 men or more. Some of them months ago 

 paraded the streets of Ottawa clad in khaki trousers and 

 Mackinaw shirts. They carried saws and axes, or peveys 

 or canthooks, in addition to fire-arms, and those 2500 men 

 have been taken to England they are there now; and 

 what are they doing? They are cutting down the histori- 

 cal old forests -of England because England has to have 

 the timber for mine props and for other necessary things, 

 on account of the terrible shortage of lumber and wood 

 at this time in England. What will England look like 

 when you and I go back there after this great world-war 

 is over and find that the forests have been cut so that 

 we cannot recognize them ? I received word only Satur- 

 day last from one of those Canadian men who is work- 

 ing in the south of England, in the forests, and he was 

 permitted by the censor to send a letter to me. He said, 

 " Really, my friend, we men of British Columbia, who 

 have been used to cutting down the forests of Canada, 

 really feel sad to cut down these magnificent park and 

 shade trees, but such is war." 



NOW, all this has a great relation to the forests of the 

 United States. I do not need to tell you that the po- 

 tential value of our forests will be greatly increased 

 by this terrible destruction of timber and the uses for 

 lumber that will come after the war. So it is important 

 that we think more of our forest reservations more of the 

 great heritage which we should leave to posterity, and we 

 should take care of these estates of the people which mean 

 so much to us, not only from a financial and economic 

 standpoint, but from other standpoints. You, here in 

 this region, have been greatly blessed because you live so 

 near to nature. And I think every one of you will agree 

 with me that the frequenter of the woods, the American 

 forester, the man or woman who can climb these hills and 

 see these grand products of nature, and all true frequent- 

 ers of the woods, are men and women of artistic feeling. 

 The tree has ever been the symbol of life, strength, beauty, 

 and the eye of man cannot continue to look upon these 

 monuments of nature without their beauty being reflected 

 in his life, making him a happier and a better man, and 

 their destruction, ladies and gentlemen, means not only 

 the removal of one of our natural resources from a prac- 

 tical and utilitarian standpoint, but also from the view- 

 point of morality, of happiness, of beauty and of spirit- 

 uality. And I am sure you agree with me, that there is no 

 compensation for such a loss. I thank you. 



The annual value of the farm woodlot products of the 

 United States is over $195,000,000. 



MORE people spent their vacations on National 

 Forests during the summer than have ever done 

 so before, many persons traveling long distances by 

 automobile in order to camp in these public playgrounds. 



