286 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



July, 



FORESTRY IN NEW JERSEY 



By a Jerseyman. 



FOR many years, beginning mainly 

 with Professor Cook, of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, there has been consider- 

 able agitation for reform in the treat- 

 ment of the forest lands of New Jersey. 

 Now and then the legislature has made 

 small appropriations for the purpose of 

 examining the forest resources of the 

 state ; investigations of various kinds 

 have been conducted, forest areas sur- 

 veyed, water questions studied, and now 

 and then vain efforts exerted for the 

 prevention and extinguishment of forest 

 fires. There was at one time a state 

 forestry association with a substantial 

 membership, but it died a natural death, 

 owing to a lack of support. In short, 

 very little has been accomplished toward 

 establishing a permanent, properly or- 

 ganized system of state fire protection 

 and state purchase, or control, of those 

 areas which should be kept in forest for 

 protective purposes. 



One difficulty has been that what lit- 

 tle has been done in the line of forestry 

 has emanated from, or been controlled 

 by the State Geological Survey. Al- 

 though the Survey has always been 

 characterized by its conserv^atism, it has 

 done as well as possible under the cir- 

 cumstances the duties imposed upon it 

 by the legislature. This work in for- 

 estry was placed in the hands of the 

 Survey mainly because in the beginning 

 it was the best organization, if not the 

 only one, to which such a task could be 

 assigned; also because Prof. J. C. Smock, 

 the former state geologist, was especially 

 interested in the subject and was for 

 several years the director and leader of 

 the work. 



The time has come, however, for for- 

 estry in New Jersey to stand wholly on 

 its own merits and no longer be merely 

 incidental to something else. The es- 

 tablishment of a chair of forestry in the 

 State Agricultural College would have 

 been a much better plan, for the relation 

 of forestry to agriculture is much closer 

 than that of forestr}- to geology. What 



is most needed is the establishment of 

 an independent bureau of forestry, with 

 a regular appropriation and a practical 

 forester at its head. There has been 

 enough of the old-time propagandist 

 work, and the season is at hand for the 

 accomplishment of something tangible. 

 The whole matter has been threshed 

 over many times already, but New Jer- 

 sey has been little more than playing 

 with the subject. Now and then a bul- 

 letin on forestry is issued ; in the legis- 

 lature a bill is proposed looking to the 

 control of forest fires ; papers are read 

 at the meetings of the women's clubs 

 and societies of various kinds, and from 

 time to time the newspapers announce 

 the great things in the line of forestry 

 which are about to happen, but from 

 all these various efforts very little of a 

 tangible nature is accomplished. Fires 

 burn on over half the state and floods in- 

 crease in severity, while the forest gets 

 thinner every year. So far as practical 

 forestry is concerned, the conditions are 

 about the same as they were twenty-five 

 years ago. 



A second difficulty is that the State 

 of New Jersey owns no forest land ; that 

 it has no precedent for the purchase of 

 land, and that to enter into the business 

 of wood production, or aid even in the 

 protection of private forests, would be 

 bad policy. The silly argument is often 

 heard, even in the New Jersey legisla- 

 ture, that it is unfair for the cities and 

 farmers of the central part of the state 

 to pay taxes for the protection and im- 

 provement of forest lands in the remoter 

 districts. On one occasion, at least, the 

 state discouraged a gift of land from 

 private owners because it feared to grap- 

 ple with the duties and responsibilities 

 which such a matter required. When 

 lands have come into state possession in 

 various ways, they have been promptly 

 sold to the highest bidder. 



A third difficulty is that the rail- 

 roads practically own the state. They 

 have heretofore opposed measures which 



