1040 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



was filled with veneration for his works. I hope that 

 the people of Kiangsu will follow his example. I, heing 

 confined to my official duties, hope that, in the future, 

 when released from my post, I may learn the method of 

 agriculture and forestry under Mr. Bailie." 



hi the service of Anhwei Province under Governor 

 ilan is Forester P. C. King, a recent Chinese graduate 

 (;f Cornell, whose efTorts are now being directed towards 

 the wide extension of forestry in his province. While 

 the leaders of the reforestation movement in China will 

 undoubtedly meet with many difficulties and discourage- 

 ments which are inseparable from pioneer work of all 

 kinds, there is every reason to believe that the work has 

 made a sound and permanent beginning and that future 

 decades will show a very different and much happier 

 state of affairs from that which the present generation 

 has inherited from its ancestors. 



NoTK. Much of the credit for founding the Nanking 

 Forest School belongs to Major Geo. P. Ahern, former 

 director of Forestry in the Philippine Islands. In 1910 

 Major Ahern visited China and was impressed by the 

 vast areas of country entirely bare of any tree growth. 



A little later he wrote to Hon. Amos P. Wilder. 

 .\merican Consul General at Shanghai, as follows: 

 "While in China last fall I was impressed with the need 

 of a Forest Service of that country. It is one of the cry- 

 ing needs of China today. If Chinese students, trained 

 ill American methods, later on found a Chinese Forest 

 Service it will mean that the development of their for- 

 ests will be along modern lines. It will mean another 

 link in the chain of friendship that now binds America 

 and China." 



By conferences and correspondence Major Ahern then 

 .-'rranged for the entrance and maintenance of Chinese 

 students in the Philippine School of Forestry and a num- 

 ber of Chinese have since been under training there. 

 Last Fall Major Ahern suggested to the authorities of 

 the Nanking University a plan for establishing a school 

 of forestry at Nanking, the plan was approved and he 

 was asked to participate, but illness prevented his accept- 

 ance. The school was opened last March under promis- 

 ing auspices. The Editor. 



Land Speculators Block Settlement 



DURING the last decade, the Forest Service has 

 classified as agricultural and opened to public 

 entry more than 15,500 individual scattered 

 tracts of lands in the national forests, comprising more 

 than 1,700,000 acres, says an article by the Chief For- 

 ester, published in the Year Book of the Department of 

 Agriculture, just issued. Within the last two years, in 

 addition, several large blocks have been eliminated aggre- 

 gating more than 2,500,000 acres, while nearly 2,000,000 

 acres more are now under consideration for elimination. 

 All the remaining agricultural land in the national for- 

 ests is confined chiefly in isolated tracts scattered here 

 and there; to restricted areas requiring irrigation, where 

 water cannot be obtained ; and to certan river bottoms 

 and benches which are not covered with very heavy and 

 valuable timber. 



A constant pressure is being brought to bear on the 

 (k)vernment by private individuals who want to acquire 

 possession of these heavily tinil)ered agricultural lands, 

 single quarter-sections of which often have a value as 

 high as $20,000 for the timber alone. In spite of the fact 

 that some of these lands have soil suitable for agricul- 

 ture, to throw them open as homesteads would not result 

 in farm development. This has been proven over and 

 over again where lands of this kind, acquired under the 

 Homestead Law, are today held not by homesteaders but 

 by lumber companies, who promptly purchased them 

 from the settlers as soon as title passed from the Gov- 

 ernment a speculative process which eflFectively pre- 

 vents men of small means from acquiring land and 

 establishing homes. 



The Government is withholding from agricultural 

 entry all such heavily timbered land until after the tim- 

 ber is cut ofl. As soon as this is done, the land will be 



opened to entry and settlers will be able to acquire it 

 directly from the Government without cost, instead of 

 having to pay from $40 to $60 an acre to land specu- 

 lators. For example, on the Kaniksu National Forest 

 in Idaho and Washington, the Government's timber 

 sales have been made to include much of the remaining 

 timbered agricultural land. Within eight years fully 

 ] 0,000 acres will be made available for settlement. Per- 

 manent homes will be established by the settlers, and 

 there will be available for the use of communities ap- 

 ].roximately $225,000 for roads and schools, their legal 

 share of the proceeds from the timber sales. Private 

 ownership of heavily timbered agricultural land blocks 

 farming development, says the article ; Government own- 

 ership insures such development under conditions that 

 give opportunities to the small settler whose only capital 

 is his strength and courageous perseverance. 



One of the most serious agricultural problems of the 

 northwest today is the development of the logged-of. 

 lands in private ownership. In Oregon and Washington 

 alone more than three million acres of such logged-off 

 lands are lying idle, although much of this area has fine 

 agricultural soil and a climate that insures abundant 

 crops and the development of thriving communities. Yet 

 in this same region hundreds of settlers are seeking to 

 find places in the national forests, usually remote from 

 trans])ortation, high in the mountains, where the climate 

 is harsh and the soil relatively poor, simply because the 

 good lands at lower levels outside the forests are held 

 by the speculators at prohibitive prices. The true solu- 

 tion of the problem of agriculture in such sections is to 

 develop the rich logged-off private lands that lie outside 

 the forests, and not to throw open the non-agricultura! 

 lands within the forests. 



