i8o 



THE FORESTER. 



August, 



Third. That the uncontrolled destruc- 

 tion of the forests is in progress and 

 should be stopped. 



Fourth. That the experience and his- 

 tory of those sections and countries 

 where the forests have been conserved 

 show that improvement has resulted. 



Fifth. That such conservation and 

 improvement should be made by gov- 

 ernmental regulation and protection. 



Sixth. That it is the imperative duty 

 of man and of government to prevent 

 the excessive waste of wood. 



Seventh. That the dense ignorance 

 that prevails in regard to forestry should 

 be dispelled, (a) by organizations like 

 the American Forestry Association and 

 the Southern California Forestry and 

 Water Society ; (/>) by a free diffusion 

 of forest information through the press ; 

 (V) by the establishment of schools of 

 forestry in our universities. 



America, of all great countries on the 

 globe, was originally the most thickly 

 wooded. Her primitive forests were of 

 immense extent. But opulence made us 

 profligate. The last census showed a 

 forest area reduced to 481,000,000 acres, 

 and that still being reduced by an annual 

 output of twenty billion feet of lumber, 

 being ripped out by thirty-odd thousand 

 sawmills and careless annual fires denud- 

 ing hundreds of thousands of acres. 



Restrictive legislation has been slow 

 in the United States. In 1817 the first 

 Congressional action was taken and that 

 restricted the cutting of Oak and Red 

 Cedar. When the Timber Culture Act 

 of 1873 was passed, it was a great step 

 forward, and although over 5,000,000 

 acres were entered under it in one year, 

 it was a failure so far as the propagation 

 of forests is concerned in this arid South- 

 west. My acquaintance with hundreds 

 of timber culture claims in this district 

 leads me to assert that in not a half dozen 

 instances were the trees planted and 

 grown as the law provided. I don't be- 

 lieve there are 100 acres of forests in 

 Southern California as the result of that 

 law. 



As others will cover the general forest 

 conditions and national needs, this paper 



is curtailed to a brief review of the con- 

 ditions in California, to the end that this 

 State may more effectively co-operate in 

 this forest movement. The dependence 

 of the valleys on the forest-covered 

 mountain watersheds has not stayed the 

 hand of the axeman nor the fires of care- 

 lessness or maliciousness. Neither has 

 there been rational legislative action. 

 In this matter of forestry, California has 

 had spasms and spurts, but little system- 

 atic growth. 



On March 3, 1885, a State Forest 

 Commission was provided for, but after 

 an existence of 54^ months of political 

 turbulence (at a very large expense to 

 the State, $33,495 of which was spent on 

 forest stations), the commission was 

 abolished ; and on March 23, 1893, they 

 turned over the forest station experiment 

 work to the State University, and ap- 

 propriated $4,000 to be used for that 

 purpose 



To day we have in California two 

 State Forest Stations ; one in Santa 

 Monica canon, of 20 acres, and one 

 near Chico, of 29 acres. The general 

 character of the trees in the former is 

 the Eucalypti. In the latter the conifers 

 predominate. I am familiar w 7 ith the 

 work and conditions at these stations, 

 especially at Santa Monica. I have only 

 good words for their management. 

 With the money at their disposal for this 

 purpose the Agricultural Department of 

 the University has done faithful, eco- 

 nomical service. 



But the provisions under which our 

 State maintains these stations are far in- 

 adequate to the importance of the sub- 

 ject. It is a wrong policy at all times 

 merely to keep in existence any depart- 

 ment of state. There should either be 

 support enough to make that depart- 

 ment increasingly useful with good re- 

 sults, or else abolish it. On the floor of 

 the Assembly, in the session of '97, I 

 amended the appropriation bill to pro- 

 vide for $8,000 to carry on this work of 

 propagating and experimenting in fores- 

 try, but Governor Budd vetoed the ap- 

 propriation. Since that time these sta- 

 tions have been simply kept alive on such 



