1901 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



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that the law be amended so that " all the land 

 in the Forest Preserve, together with whatever 

 buildings or other public improvements may be 

 there, should be assessed to the State." * * * 

 True farm lands would in no way be interfered 

 with by this, but the timber producing areas 

 within the preserve might thus more easily be 

 secured to the State. The importance of this is 

 increasing annually more rapidly than ever 

 now that the market for hardwoods is improv- 

 ing, for : 



"So long as the operations of the log jobbers 

 are confined to the removal of one or two 

 species the protective character of the forest 

 was not seriously impaired. But with the ad- 

 vent of these other industries, requiring more or 

 all of the species growing there, it is evident that 

 large areas of standing timber are threatened 

 with extinction. It becomes more imperative 

 each year that the State shall acquire the terri- 

 tory in order to prevent such results, and also to 

 inaugurate some conservative forest policy 

 whereby it can supply the people with this 

 much-needed product without ruining the 

 source of supply. To accomplish this the State 

 must first acquire the land by purchasing them 

 as fast as they are offered for sale ; and this can 

 be done gradually without interfering with in- 

 dustries already established." 



A paper by Dr. B. E. Feruow of the Cornell 

 Forest School entitled "Adirondack Forestry 

 Problems," is an enlarged edition of an article 

 which appeared under the same title in The 

 Forester for October, 1900. The paragraphs in 

 this report which are new, explain the work on 

 the plantations of the Cornell tract, and criticize 

 what Dr. Fernow calls European methods of 

 forest management in the Adirondacks. These 

 passages, he makes it plain, are meant for the 

 work of Messrs. Pinchot and Graves and of the 

 Federal Department of Agriculture. We by no 

 means agree with them, and it seems somewhat 

 strange to find them printed in the same volume 

 with a paper on the ' Working Plans for the 

 State Preserve,' by O. W. Price, the superin- 

 tendent of working plans in the Division of 

 whose present methods Dr. Fernow so dis- 

 approves. This last article should be, to those 

 to whom forestry is an unfamiliar field, the most 

 suggestive article in the volume. We commend 

 it to all who are interested in this present ques- 

 tion of allowing cutting on the New York Pre- 

 serve. 



Two articles on the "Sanitary Benefits of the 

 Adirondack Forest," and the " Adirondack Cot- 

 tage Sanitarium," by Dr. E. L. Trudeau, de- 

 scribe the results in curing and arresting con- 

 sumption which have thus far been obtained at 

 Saranac Lake. These have an especial interest 

 in this connection now that the State of New 

 York has decided to undertake the institutional 

 treatment of tuberculosis. Of the remaining 

 papers that of the State Entomologist, Dr. E. 

 P. Felt, on "Insects Injurious to Forest Trees," 

 has already been noticed in The Forester for 

 November, 1900. 



Dr. John GifTord's paper entitled " Forestry 

 on Sandy Soils," deals with a subject about 

 which little of value has been written in this 

 country. Dr. GifTord's ability to deal with it is 

 already known to those who have read certain 

 of his earlier articles and his report on "Forestry 

 on the Coastal Plain of New Jersey." The drift 

 of his paper is indicated in the first sentences : 

 " There are vast areas of sand lands throughout 

 the Eastern United States, especially along the 

 coast and in the neighborhood of the Great 

 Lakes. They exist in such quantities and are 

 in such a deplorable condition that their treat- 

 ment should be a matter of national concern. 

 Sand lands may for a time produce good agri- 

 cultural crops, but for reasons which I shall ex- 

 plain more in detail later, they are far more fit 

 for the production of forests." Dr. Gifford 

 takes up first the improvement of soils by forest 

 growth, and then the fixation of sand dunes. 

 The experience of European countries in deal- 

 ing with tasks of which we' in this country are 

 only beginning to realize the importance, is 

 largely cited. 



Report of the Forester for 1900. By Gifford 

 Pinchot. From the Annual Reports, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. Pp. 9. 



The Report of the Forester for 1900 can be 

 obtained by application to the Department of 

 Agriculture. The last year's very remarkable 

 advance in all things relating to forestry has 

 been led by the Department of Agriculture and 

 has registered itself in its work. The following 

 extract from the summary of principal results 

 will indicate how much is being done : 



" During the year applications were received 

 for working plans for 48,078,449 acres, personal 

 examinations on the ground were made of 2, 103,- 

 670 acres, working plans were begun upon 1.325,- 

 000 acres, plans were completed for 179,000 acres, 

 and 54,000 acres were put underfmanagement. 

 In accordance with the request of the Secretary 

 of the Interior, the'preparation of a working plan 

 for the Black Hills Forest Reserve was begun as 

 the first step toward conservative lembering on 

 the national forest reserves. The working plans 

 already in operation under the supervision of 

 this Division were all continued, and the char- 

 acter of the work was in nearly all cases much 

 improved. 



"Planting plans were prepared for 59 land 

 owners in 11 States. A unique and most prom- 

 ising study of the effect of forest cover on the 

 flow of streams was begun in southern California 

 through the courtesy and cooperation of the 

 Arrowhead Reservoir Company of San Bernar- 

 dino. Studies of forest fires were made in 26 

 States, and the grazing investigation requested 

 by the Interior Department for the national 

 forest reserves was inaugurated. Working plans 

 were also begun for the New York State Forest 

 Preserve. 



" The investigations of the growth and repro- 

 duction of commercial trees were continued and 



