2S4 



THE FORESTER. 



December, 



of present neglect. The article in ques- 

 tion says : 



"An authority, Dr. C. A. Schenck, 

 the eminent forester, in one of his in- 

 teresting monographs asks, ' What is 

 forestry?' and answers that no one seems 

 to realize the scope and meaning of the 

 term. Present conditions in the commer- 

 cial and industrial world and in the South- 

 ern Alleghenies point to the rapid de- 

 struction of the virgin woods. The stu- 

 dent of forestry is taught, and experience 

 has proved the teaching to be true, that 

 deforested land, patricularly in a moun- 

 tainous country, is the direct cause of de- 

 structive floods. The interference and 

 absorption by the trees distributes and 

 regulates the rainfall. In the dry season 

 the trees protect and hold back the evapo- 

 ration of the innumerable and minute trib- 

 utaries to the springs, watercourses and 

 rivers, thus regulating and preserving the 

 water supply, without which regulation no 

 region can long remain attractive or 

 profitable. 



" By the present system of lumber opera- 

 tions the virgin forests of the South bid 

 fair to be soon destroyed. As the authority 

 on the subject has indicated, if the forests 

 are lumbered out rapidly as at present and 

 if the fires are allowed to rage unchecked 

 as at present, the same condition will 

 speedily prevail in the South that now 

 prevails in the lake states. There will 

 not, it is claimed, be any sudden collapse 

 of the lumber industry either South or 

 North when the virgin forests are destroyed 

 if we are to permit them to be destroyed, 

 The forests will be logged over three or 

 four times; trees that are not worth taking 

 now will be worth taking a few years 

 hence, and so on. Gradual slackening of 

 the industry will take place. It will slowly 

 step down to the level which it occupies 

 abroad. The mills will be supplied with 

 short logs about ten inches through on an 

 average. Lumber will be much more ex- 

 pensive as the supply will not equal the 

 demand. 



k ' Such seems the future of the forests 

 and the lumber industry of the South. 

 From an innate love of nature and sense 

 of its beauty, every one regrets the seem- 



ingly inevitable doom ; the woodman, per- 

 haps, more than the townsman. 



" For the commonwealth, forestry'as a 

 permanent business is extremely desirable 

 for climatic and economic reasons, the 

 forests acting as a source of national health, 

 steady water supply, and revenue from 

 land often not fit for any other production. 

 The people as a whole are interested in 

 conservative, lasting forestry. The in- 

 dividual owning forests is solely interested 

 in money-making forestry, conservative or 

 destructive of forests as the case may be. 



" It would be an impossible task to in- 

 duce individuals to come to the aid of the 

 country in regulating the lumbering and 

 other operations which threaten its well- 

 being, and hence the project of a Great 

 Southern National Park in which the for- 

 ests will be conserved and timber cutting 

 be regulated on correct and economic prin- 

 ciples by wdfich means an object lesson 

 will be given to the country and a strong 

 argument offered why the forests through- 

 out the land should be placed under forest 

 wardens appointed by the State. 



" The establishment of such a Southern 

 National Park somewhere in the Blue 

 Ridge or Great Smoky Mountains would 

 mean the care of the forests and a stimu- 

 lation of their growth, and regulating the 

 cutting of the trees at maturity ; the 

 building of good roads through what are 

 now inaccessible woods and mountain 

 heights; the building of inns and hotels 

 at convenient points, inducing a vastly in- 

 creased travel from the North and South 

 on the part of tourists and others; the 

 more or less permanent residence of 

 wealthy citizens who would be disposed to 

 build homes in various localities in this 

 region as they are already doing to some 

 extent ; the perpetuation of the beauty 

 and healthfulness of the region and its 

 elaboration in the way of making its most 

 beautiful localities more accessible to the 

 great mass of the people. 



" It must not be supposed that lumber- 

 ing or bark gathering would be materially 

 interfered with. The Park project, if suc- 

 cessful, would seek to conserve these in- 

 dustries. Under the present system they 

 bid fair to hasten their own undoing by 



