STATE FORESTER FOR MARYLAND 



"THE appointment of Mr. Fred W. 

 Besley as State forester of Mary- 

 land is a good one, and is a deserved 

 recognition of a young man whose 

 love for the profession induced him 

 five years ago to give up a position in 

 which he was receiving a good salary 

 in order to secure a thorough training 

 in forestry. 



Mr. Besley was born in Virginia, 

 and graduated from the Maryland 

 Agricultural College, with which in 

 his new position he will be closely 

 identified, the law providing for a 

 course of lectures there each year by 

 the State forester. The first two win- 

 ters in the Forest Service he spent in 

 the office, where he became thorough- 

 ly acquainted with methods of calcu- 

 lating forest measurements. In the 

 summer of 1901 he was a member of 

 a party which made a forest survey 

 of Townships 5, 6, and 41, in the 

 Adirondacks. The following summer 

 he assisted in commercial-tree studies 

 in Kentucky, and for a short time in 

 the fall was engaged with others on a 

 working plan for forest lands of the 

 Kirby Lumber Company, in eastern 

 Texas. Later in the fall he entered 

 the Yale Forest School, from which 

 he graduated in June, 1904. In Sep- 

 tember of that year he temporarily re- 

 lieved Mr. Charles A. Scott, who 

 wished to complete his course at Yale, 

 taking charge for nine months of the 

 forest nursery and tree planting on 

 the Dismal River Forest Reserve, at 

 Halsey, Neb. His work was so satis- 

 factory that he was immediately put 

 in charge of planting operations on 

 the Pikes Peak Reserve, establishing 

 nurseries at Clyde and Bear Creek, 

 and planting a considerable area with 

 trees shipped from Halsey. Later, his 

 studies were enlarged to include lec- 

 ture work in Colorado. In accepting 

 his new duties on July 1, he will still 

 retain a connection with the Forest 

 Service as collaborator, continuing the 



cooperative forest work of the Gov- 

 ernment with the State of Maryland. 



This office, created by the new 

 Maryland forest law, brings rare op- 

 portunities and also heavy responsi- 

 bilities. The variety in soil, climatic 

 conditions, and topography, and the 

 peculiar situation of the State where 

 the northern forest and southern for- 

 est meet, furnish an unusually large 

 number of tree species, and the prob- 

 lems of handling lands now forested 

 and planting those which should be, 

 present problems which will require 

 the most careful application and 

 special adaptation of the principles of 

 forestry. For this the soundest knowl- 

 edge of the subject is essential, and 

 here Mr. Besley's wide experience 

 with trees from the seed to the saw 

 will stand him in excellent stead. His 

 ability to interest the public in forest 

 matters is also an important qualifi- 

 cation, since the success of the new 

 law depends largely upon the extent 

 to which the services of the forester 

 are utilized by the lumbermen, timber- 

 land owners, and especially the farm- 

 ers, in the management of their wood- 

 lots. 



Although the State of Maryland has 

 soil and climate admirably adapted for 

 forest growth, in many situations be- 

 ing better suited for them than for 

 annual crops, forest lands are not now 

 paying their owners as well as they 

 should. Indeed, considerable areas, 

 capable of producing the best timber, 

 are occupied by an inferior forest 

 growth, or, having lost much of their 

 fertility in growing tobacco and other 

 soil-exhausting crops, are now scarce- 

 ly utilized at all. In buying Maryland 

 forest land at present prices and hand- 

 ling it under the expert advice which 

 is now available, the far-sighted man 

 will make a profitable investment. 

 Length of growing season, suitable 

 moisture conditions, nearby markets 

 and excellent transportation facilities 

 would all contribute to the success of 



