426 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



September 



sary, in reclamation, most of it to be in 

 the way of drainage. The soil is mar- 

 velously rich, like that on Bouldin 

 Island, which has made the asparagus 

 industry of that place famous. 



Impressions William A. Dempsey, 

 of Philippine writing to the Oregon 

 Forestry. Timberman from Ma- 



nila on lumbering in the 

 Philippines, makes the following com- 

 ment on the work of the forestry bureau: 



' ' While in Manila I called upon 

 Capt. George P. Ahern, chief of the for- 

 estry bureau, and was much pleased to 

 learn of the work being done under his 

 direction. From him I learned that the 

 insular government, through his depart- 

 ment, would grant concessions to cut 

 timber upon payment of royalty, the 

 official in charge selecting such trees as 

 they would allow the logger to cut. 



' ' Captain Ahern is very enthusiastic 

 in his work, and I am sure he would 

 place the records of his department at 

 the disposal of any lumberman desiring 

 information regarding the Philippine 

 forests. 



' 'As it is their intention to perpetuate 

 their forests by supervising the cutting, 

 to that end they will require a corps of 

 trained men who have made forestry a 

 study. At present they feel the need of 

 experts, but this demand will soon be 

 supplied from the American colleges, 

 several of which are training students 

 for this special work. 



' ' Under this system loggers and mill- 

 men cannot acquire title to land, and 

 they are prohibited from denuding it of 

 timber. In short, they cannot cut any 

 trees except those bearing the official 

 mark. They might install their log- 

 ging plants, make roads and landings, 

 and then learn that the amount they 

 could get from a given area would not 

 be sufficient to j ustif y them in operating. 

 I believe, however, that this element of 



uncertainty will be removed when they 

 have at their disposal enough men and 

 money to enable the bureau to make 

 an accurate survey of the timber lands 

 and to estimate the amount of timber 

 thereon. 



' ' While these restrictions are sure to 

 keep American capital from seeking 

 timber investments in the islands, at 

 least for a time, I am persuaded that 

 they are wise and have for their pur- 

 pose the conservation of the forest area 

 of the country. This is a matter of 

 great importance, for every agricultural 

 product of the country requires moist- 

 ure or shade, and the indiscriminate 

 cutting of timber would in time se- 

 riously affect the production of hemp, 

 tobacco, copra, and sugar, all of which 

 require a regular supply of rain, and 

 the hemp must have shade as well. 



"On the whole, I am convinced of 

 the good work being done by the for- 

 estry bureau, and I am informed that 

 its system is so perfected and extensive 

 that they can furnish statistics of the 

 amount of timber cut, and as the tim- 

 ber is classified in groups, they can 

 segregate the total into the quantities 

 of the several varieties, and can readily 

 determine the amount of each variety 

 of wood cut in a province or district. 

 All this information will be of inesti- 

 mable value to the future lumberman 

 of the islands. 



' ' In connection with the bureau they 

 have a laboratory where tests of Phil- 

 ippine woods are made, and although 

 unable to witness the tests, I was sur- 

 prised to see the many fine qualities of 

 the wood when brought out by native 

 workmen under the direction of Amer- 

 ican superintendents. Here w^ere sam- 

 ples of nearly all of the merchantable 

 woods of the archipelago, and the finish 

 given them by Americans showed plainly 

 the possibilities of the woods when they 

 finally reach the markets for which they 

 are adapted." 





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