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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



"The steady decrease in our forested land, the losses 

 by forest fires and disease, the growing acreage of cut- 

 over lands unforested but serviceable only for forests, 

 all emphasize the need of a forest policy which will pro- 

 vide for proper protection of our forests, for reforesta- 

 tion, and for investigation to determine the best means of 

 perpetuating them. 



"Our citizens have in the last two years been brought 



to a realization of what a vital factor in the prosperity 

 of the country our forests are ; they know how greatly 

 our forest holdings have been decreased and they appre- 

 ciate the danger of the disappearance of our forests. 

 It is time, therefore, for prompt action, so that our for- 

 ests may be so managed and protected, that they yield 

 timber as a periodical crop, and that our waste lands 

 be restored to forests wherever possible." 



MORE FEDERAL FOREST LAND URGED 



FURTHER purchases by the Government of forest 

 lands in the Southern Appalachian and White 

 Mountains to relieve the present shortage of timber 

 in those regions are advocated by the National Forest 

 Reservation Commission in a report just issued, entitled 

 "Progress of Purchase of Eastern National Forests." 

 This commission is the body authorized to pass on tim- 

 berland purchases made under the Week's law, and is 

 composed of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Interior, and 

 War, and four Members of Congress. 



"The supply of spruce in the eastern United States 

 available for paper stock is nearly exhausted," the pub- 

 lication states. "Eastern building material is no longer 

 adequate fully to meet industrial demands, the future 

 supply of hardwoods is threatened and will not be suffi- 

 cient unless prompt measures are taken for maintaining 

 the productivity of the hardwood forests." 



The situation can be helped materially, says the report, 

 by arranging that lands not suitable for agriculture of 

 which there are 30,000,000 acres in the eastern mountains 

 shall be used for growing timber. Of this 30,000,000 

 acres approximately 1,800,000 acres have been purchased 

 by the Government under the provisions of the Week's 

 law, which authorizes the acquisition of lands on the 

 headwaters of navigable streams for inclusion within 

 national forests. 



Appropriations totaling $11,600,000 have already been 

 made under the Week's law, and the expenditure of all 

 but about $300,000 of the amount available for purchas- 

 ing lands has been authorized by the commission. 

 Twenty-one purchase areas, with a total area of approxi- 

 mately 7,000,000 acres, have been designated in nine 

 States in the important hardwood and spruce regions of 

 the Appalachian and White Mountains. In 17 of these, 

 purchases have been made. Since the purchase program 

 was developed other States, including Kentucky, have 



enacted legislation authorizing the acquisition of lands 

 for national forest purposes. To carry out the purchase 

 program as outlined by the commission an appropriation 

 of $2,000,000 per year for a period of five years, begin- 

 ning with the fiscal year 1921, has been recommended 

 by the commission. 



The average price of the 1,841,934 acres whose acqui- 

 sition has been authorized by the commission is $5.26 

 per acre. The Government is getting good value for 

 its money, the report states. While some of the lands 

 purchased have been cut over and burned, but at present 

 support a stand of young timber from which no immedi- 

 ate returns can be expected, others have a large amount 

 of merchantable timber. All of the lands bought are 

 capable of producing valuable crops of timber. During 

 the fiscal year 1919 receipts for timber sold from the area 

 then acquired 1,347,660 acres amounted to $71,942 

 under the conservative method of cutting practiced by the 

 Government. The timber that was sold was very largely 

 salvage, and it is expected that the returns from timber 

 sales will steadily increase. 



In addition to the financial return, the establishment 

 of national forests results in a decided benefit to naviga- 

 ble streams through the modifying influence of (the 

 forest cover on erosion, according to the report. It 

 states that the newly created forests are being widely 

 used for recreation by residents of the near-by cities and 

 that they are meeting other important economic needs. 

 Watersheds which supply domestic water to seventeen 

 municipalities are owned in whole or in part by the Gov- 

 ernment. In addition, twenty-nine municipalities secure 

 their water supply from lands which have not yet been 

 acquired but which are located within the forests. Gov- 

 ernment control assures the sanitation of such watersheds 

 without interfering with the use of the land for timber- 

 producing purposes. 



PAN-PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS 



A PAN-PACIFIC Scientific Congress is to meet at 

 ** at Honolulu from August 2 to 20, 1920. Its pur- 

 pose, in the words of its chairman, Herbert E. Gregory, 

 of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum at Honolulu, "is 

 to outline scientific problems of the Pacific Ocean region 

 and to suggest methods for their solution; to make a 

 critical inventory of existing knowledge, and to devise 

 plans for future studies. It is anticipated that this con- 

 gress will formulate for publication a program of re- 

 search which will serve as a guide for co-operative work 



for individuals, institutions and governmental agencies. 

 It is to be hoped that forestry will receive its fair 

 share of attention in the proceedings of the congress. 

 The United States has a very real interest in knowing 

 more than at present of the forest resources of the 

 Pacific Islands and shore lands. This is true not only 

 because of our forest holdings in California, Oregon, 

 Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Philippines, but 

 because with the growing depletion of our own timber 

 supplies, the resources of other countries will become of 





