204 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



tion; but, nevertheless, it is a fair illus- 

 tration of the difficulty surrounding the 

 subject and the lack of definite knowl- 

 edge which there is upon it. The esti- 

 mates made are too general to be made 

 the basis of commercial investment, and, 

 in the second place, they cover only a 

 fraction of territory. There is no rail- 

 road engineer who is not anxious about 

 the question of ties, and no definite 

 and reliable information is forthcoming. 

 The unreliable census of 1880 referred 

 to above is practically the only one that 

 there ever has been, no attempt having 

 been made in the eleventh or twelfth 

 census to collect timber statistics, and 

 nothing of importance having been ac- 

 complished before 1880. The commit- 

 tee unreservedly recommends to the 

 members of this association that this 

 matter be impressed upon members of 

 Congress. It is believed that the com- 

 plete census, including its tabulation 

 and the printing and distribution of the 

 proper maps, etc. , can be accomplished 

 for about $250,000. 



APPALACHIAN FOREST RESERVE. 



Fourth. There is now pending before 

 Congress the question of an appropria- 

 tion of $10,000,000 for the establishment 

 of a forest reserve in the Southern Ap- 

 palachian Mountains. It is not the inten- 

 tion of your committee to repeat here, 

 except in the briefest way, the argu- 

 ments for this appropriation. The mat- 

 ter has been much discussed. It was 

 made the subject of a special message to 

 the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives by President Roosevelt, December 

 19, 1901, and the subject has been so 

 much discussed that it may be assumed 

 that members of this association are fa- 

 miliar with it. The proposition, briefly, 

 is to reserve a large tract in the States 

 of Tennessee, North Carolina, South 

 Carolina, and Georgia, and possibly 

 some in Alabama and Virginia. The 

 Secretary of Agriculture, in his report 

 which was transmitted by the President 

 to Congress, calls attention to the fact 

 that this region embraces the highest 

 peaks and largest mountain masses east 

 of the Rockies; that upon these moun- 

 tains descends the heaviest rainfall of 

 the United States, except that of the 



North Pacific coast; that if this soil 

 which is, generally speaking, thin and 

 easily washed away is once denuded 

 of its forest and swept by heavy r lins.the 

 rivers and harbors will become choked 

 with the detritus washed down from the 

 mountain fields. Besides these consid- 

 erations, the rivers which arise in these 

 mountains flow into or along every state 

 from Ohio to the Gulf, and from the 

 Atlantic to the Mississippi. Enormous 

 agricultural . and navigation interests, 

 and water-power interests as well, are 

 dependent upon these rivers. The heav- 

 iest and most beautiful hardwood forests 

 of the continent are upon these moun- 

 tains, and for economic reasons their 

 preservation is imperative. The reser- 

 vation, moreover, is vital to the agri- 

 cultural interests of the South, the loss 

 in a single year being more than the en- 

 tire purchase price of the entire tract 

 proposed to be reserved. The Presi- 

 dent's message to Congress contains the 

 following: 



' Wise forest protection does not 

 mean the withdrawal of forest resources, 

 whether of wood, water, or grass, from 

 contributing their full share to the wel- 

 fare of the people; but, on the contrary, 

 gives the assurance of larger and more 

 certain supplies The fundamental idea 

 of forestry is the perpetuation of forests 

 by use. Forest protection is not an end 

 of itself; it is a means to increase and 

 maintain the resources of our country 

 and the industries which depend upon 

 them. The preservation of our forests 

 is an imperative business necessity. 

 We have come to see clearly that what- 

 ever destroys the forests, except to make 

 way for agriculture, threatens our well- 

 being. " 



To sum up, the committee urges that 

 the forest interests of the government 

 shall be concentrated in the Bureau of 

 Forestry, Department of Agriculture, 

 except the question of land titles; it rec- 

 ommends adequate appropriations for 

 testing timbers ; it urges a timber census 

 of the United States, and the passage of 

 the pending bill in favor of the South- 

 ern Appalachian Forest Reserve. 



GEORGE P. SAWYER. 



ROBERT C. LJPPINCOTT. 



FRANK H. GOODYEAR. 



