190 1. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



1 39 



forest conditions, past and present, exist- 

 ing systems of taxation, the logging opera- 

 tions now in vogue, and what methods, if 

 any, are adopted for the purpose of repro- 

 ducing forests totally or partially destroyed. 



But it would be a grave mistake to infer 

 from the preceding remarks that nothing 

 whatever has been done either by individ- 

 uals or by the State to call attention to 

 forest supplies as factors in the wealth of 

 the people. For many years there has 

 been in existence a Bureau of Agriculture, 

 Statistics and Mines, whose annual reports 

 throw a great deal of light on the natural 

 resources of Tennessee. On it there 

 could be very successfully engrafted a 

 most admirable system of forest super- 

 vision and at the same time a saner method 

 of enforcing the numerous laws passed for 

 the protection of fish and game. 



According to the report of this Bureau 

 for the year 1S74, there were at that time 

 in Tennessee 13,268,789 acres of forest 

 land, or almost one-half the entire area of 

 the State. In the meantime, however, the 

 enormous material development of the 

 commonwealth, including the exploitation 

 of its coal and iron fields, has brought 

 about an unprecedented growth of all 

 forms of industry, and the corresponding 

 demand upon our forests has told sadly 

 against their future welfare. 



The list of trees of commercial impor- 

 tance found in Tennessee includes many 

 species of oak, ash, beech, birch, buck- 

 eye, cedar, chestnut, wild cherry, Cot- 

 tonwood, cypress, dogwood, elm, fir, 

 gum, hickory, linden, locust, maple, 

 mulberry, pine, poplar, sassafras, syca- 

 more, tupello and walnut. These are, 

 of course, of varying degrees of value, 

 and are employed for numberless pur- 

 poses. Even the much-despised Black 

 Jack Oak of the "Barrens" is not with- 

 out its use, for during the Civil War it 

 was not unusual to manufacture saltpeter 

 from its ashes. Our once extensive cedar 

 forests of middle Tennessee are fast dis- 

 appearing before the onslaughts of the 

 fence-builder, the basket-maker and the 

 leadpencil manufacturer legitimate de- 

 mands surely, but little is being done to 

 replace the trees thus taken, while the 



stately poplar, which is without rival any- 

 where, bids fair to be relegated to the I. 

 accessible portions of the State. 



That something must be done is plain 

 enough. Never was there a better oppor- 

 tunity for some statesman to come forward 

 and couple his name with a legislative act 

 covering this whole subject. For notwith- 

 standing the fact that the bulk of our for- 

 est lands belongs to private owners, their 

 influence on our rivers, climate, wealth 

 and general well-being causes the 01 

 everywhere to become a matter of public 

 interest and concern. 



Fires have been described as the sreat- 

 est enemy of the forest, and this has been 

 especially true of Tennessee forest fires. 

 But notwithstanding legislation on the 

 subject, we have not yet reached the point 

 of creating a fire patrol, and our lands 

 may still be classified as they were by the 

 pioneers, who grouped them under the 

 three heads: "Mountain lands, river 

 lands and k barrens.' ' Unless a more 

 conservative plan of lumbering is intro- 

 duced, it may not be very long before the 

 third group will alone survive. Adding 

 to the destructive form of lumbering now 

 in vogfue the further enemies of the forest 

 insects and fungi there is still the graz- 

 ing question to consider. Preventive 

 measures and intelligent treatment will 

 come in time and do much to overcome 

 the present lack of system ; but in the 

 meantime sheep and cattle, by being al- 

 lowed to roam at large through the wood-. 

 are annually destroying untold possibilities 

 for forest production. 



It is not wise, however, to close one's 

 eyes to facts and the truth will soon be 

 forced upon us that our timber supply is 

 fast being exhausted without any provision 

 for the future. More than a quarter of a 

 century ago a prominent citizen of Ten- 

 nessee declared that "many of our finest 

 iron fields will soon be deprived of half 

 their value unless some legislative protec- 

 tion is given to the young timber." Mean- 

 time what has been the effect of this 

 wholesale denudation of our forests upon 

 our fields, our climate, our navigable 



streams? 



An interesting example in practical 



