COMMITTEE'S REPORT 



555 



Appalachian Forest Reserve 



COMMITTEE'S REPORT 



The Executive Committee, appointed September 23, 

 1915, at the meeting at Washington of the various asso- 

 ciations interested in forwarding the extension of the 

 Appalachian Forest Reserve (which action was followed 

 by Congress making an appropriation of $3,000,000 on 

 August 9, 1916, for the purpose), presents this report. 



The meeting followed a call of the American Forestry 

 Association for joint national effort to secure from Con- 

 gress further support for the extension of the work on the 

 Reserve. It was attended by representatives of the 

 following organizations : 



THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 

 MASSACHUSETTS FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 

 SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF N. H. FORESTS 

 NORTH CAROLINA FORESTRY ASSOCIATION- 

 APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB 

 APPALACHIAN PARK ASSOCIATION 

 KNOXVILLE BOARD OF COMMERCE 

 NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE BOARD OF TRADE 

 WESTERN NEW ENGLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

 PENNSYLVANIA FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 

 CONNECTICUT VALLEY WATERWAYS ASSOCIATION 

 SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL CONGRESS 

 NEW HAVEN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 



A Memorial was prepared, and was presented to the 

 Hon. David F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture, at a 

 meeting at his office attended by all the delegates. This 

 Memorial (which was printed in American Forestry for 

 October, 1915), gave succinctly the history of the move- 

 ment which originated in 1899, and showed what had been 

 so far accomplished, and that only approximately $8,000,- 

 000 of the $11;000,000 appropriated by Congress in 1911 

 had been expended. The necessity for further appropria- 

 tion was urged, the unexpended balance of $3,000,000 

 no longer being available, it having lapsed from non-ex- 

 penditure within the time limit set by the Act of 1911. 



The country is to be congratulated on the favorable 

 action taken by Congress in the bill making appropriations 

 for the Department of Agriculture, in which there was 

 appropriated $1,000,000 for the Appalachian Reserve for 

 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, and $2,000,000 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918. 



In addition to the organizations attending the con- 

 ference with Secretary Houston in September, 1915, many 

 other influential bodies throughout the country joined in 

 and supported the movement, and the favorable result 

 has brought widespread gratification as a wise and pro- 

 gressive action forwarding a program of national devel- 

 opment full of promise of good to the agricultural, trans- 

 portation, and business interests of the country, and 

 economical in the fact that any intermission now in the 

 great work on which $8,000,000 has been wisely expended, 

 would result in great loss, as stated in the Memorial 

 adopted in September, 1915, from deterioration by fire and 

 flood, an unnecessary loss that would greatly increase the 

 ultimate cost of properly completing the work. 



The Committee desires to acknowledge with high ap- 

 preciation the widespread and active cooperation of 

 influential organizations and individuals throughout the 

 country as soon as it was requested by the American 

 Forestry Association and also by this special Executive 

 Committee. The necessity for the inception and con- 

 tinuance of the movement for the Appalachian Re- 

 serve has now been made manifest to the country, 

 thanks to the effective work of those cooperating, 

 and on behalf of all who have been thus interested, the 

 Committee begs to express to the members of the Senate 

 and of the House of Representatives grateful and hearty 

 appreciation for the attention given to the letters and 

 statements presented, explaining the need of the appro- 

 priation now made, and for the action finally taken in 

 furnishing the means to carry on this great national 

 improvement. 



Henry Sturgis Drinker, 



President of Lehigh University 

 Philip W. Ayres, 



Forester of the Society for the Protec- 

 tion of New Hampshire Forests 

 Percival Sheldon Ridsdale, 

 Executive Secretary of the American 

 Forestry Association 



Committee. 



CONDITIONS IN MAINE 



THERE is a marked tendency on the part of small 

 owners and speculators in Maine to cut their forests 

 clean for pulpwood, writes a correspondent. Land 

 with $15 an acre of saw-logs to 12 inches will often 

 have $30 an acre of pulpwood left. Taxes are never 

 reduced after cutting the saw-logs. Owners desiring to 

 dispose of their lands frequently now sell all the saw-log 

 and pulpwood stumpage and then turn what's left back 

 to the state. In one instance an owner of 10,000 acres, 



who had determined to put his money into another form 

 of investment, was offered $16.00 an acre, and could 

 not get the $20 that he asked ; and then ran across a pulp- 

 wood operator who offered him $3.25 a cord right 

 through for all soft wood including some poplar and 

 white and yellow birch. Last fall he said they had cut 

 over not quite half his land and had turned in $245,000 

 in stumpage. He will net better than $50 an acre and 

 get cash payment in two years. No wonder he is not 

 interested in conservation. 



