298 



THE FORESTER. 



December, 



is going about the work of bringing to the 

 attention of farmers, manufacturers, in- 

 vestors, the public generally, and lastly, 

 but also first and always, the politicians, 

 the true state of the case; of making them 

 realize that liberal appropriations for sur- 

 veys, and a revision of the laws regulating 

 the ownership and use of water and of the 

 forests at the streams' sources, will mean 

 the possibility of filling with a thriving 

 agricultural population, demanding the 

 manufactures of the East and supplying 

 the country with products of which many 

 now have to be imported from abroad, fully 

 seventy million acres of land that are still 

 desert. The Congress has carried on its 

 work of arousing and educating public 

 opinion in regard to these facts by holding 

 meetings in those parts of the country 

 where irrigation was being praticed or in- 

 troduced since 1891, but this autumn it 

 was thought possible to hold a session 

 farther east. Chicago will be one of the 

 chief gateways to the arid region when it 

 is reclaimed, and it was found last month 

 that the business men of that city, as well 

 as other people, fully understood and ap- 

 preciated the value and importance of the 

 program which the Irrigation Congress is 

 advocating. 



j* 



Work of the Amer- Although the importance 

 ican Forestry As- , 



sociation and the of a proper care and use 

 Membership. of the water supply and of 



the preservation and maintenance of our 

 forests is obvious to many men and women 

 in all parts of the country, a great deal 

 must still be done before the average voting 

 citizen has here a definite conviction of his 

 own. And yet nothing short of this will 

 suffice in the long run. The problems that 

 may be brought under the heads of forestry 

 and irrigation strike too deep among our 

 habits, ideas, and laws concerning the 



management of public and private prop- 

 erty, for this to be denied. Fire laws may 

 be passed, but until the people generally 

 not only understand but feel, and are 

 ready to make others understand and feel, 

 that fires are nothing short of a curse, fire 

 wardens will surely find excuses for not 

 prosecuting, and the laws will remain as 

 dead letters on the statute books. Until 

 the land owners in every State and on every 

 watershed realize that forestry is what is 

 called a practical proposition, the woods 

 will continue to be mismanaged and wasted 

 as heretofore, and the streams will continue 

 to surfer. 



To build up and educate a widespread 

 and sturdy public interest in these matters 

 is more than any other the object of the 

 American Forestry Association. Its suc- 

 cessful activity in the work in which it is 

 engaged is bounded only by the limits of 

 the funds at its disposal, and by the number 

 of people with whom it is in touch. It is 

 accomplishing a great deal, and yet, com- 

 pared to what might and should be, very 

 little. If every member of the American 

 Forestry Association would undertake to 

 add three or four members to its list dur- 

 ing the next couple of months he would 

 do his share in much more than quadru- 

 pling its efficiency for the year 1901. 

 The Association needs one thousand a 

 year more to distribute properly literature 

 which it is now unable to make effective 

 use of, and should also have another 

 thousand to defray the expenses of lec- 

 tures. The Association has no strength 

 or power apart from its members. It and 

 the different State Associations can do no 

 more than express in the most effective 

 way the efforts of those who believe in its 

 objects. What the Association accom- 

 plishes will be in proportion to their 

 enthusiasm and efforts. 



