WITH MEMBERS AND 

 CORRESPONDENTS 



Southern The followng letter re- 



!; '* ceived from H. C. Put- 

 Almost Uone , ,-, . . 



nam, of Eau Claire, Wis- 

 consin, gives some facts concerning 

 the forest situation in the Southern 

 States that are worthy of the most 

 serious consideration : 



"On my return from Florida 1 

 found your recent favor, and at once 

 wrote my friend, Hon. J. J. Jenkins, 

 a mighty strong letter on the subject 

 of the forestry bills not only the Ap-. 

 palachian-White Mountain bill, but 

 that other very important one, the 

 timber census bill. 



"Of course, I know the House is 

 crowded with bills, many of them 

 'dinkey' ones to us who are interested 

 in the forestry and water supply meas- 

 ures. I know the Appalachian coun- 

 try well. Am an old civil engineer, 

 and was eight years in the mountains 

 of the Carolinas and Georgia. It is 

 appalling to think of that country be- 

 ing in the condition of the lower Poto- 

 mac River, and it will be worse if the 

 waters all run off at once as they do 

 from the head of the Potomac, because 

 the soils are poorer, and, the sources 

 being higher, the streams are more 

 rapid. I was also an engineer on the 

 Mount Washington road in the early 

 '505, and remember well the timber 

 we worked in. I was there again in 

 1894, and saw what had been done, and 

 how the waste of soil, etc.. was going 

 on. 



"Forester Pinchot says 'the timber 

 will all be used up within twenty 

 years.' I have been in the timber, 



ith. all winter, and he is. right. 

 Three-fourths of all the timber in the 

 south has been turpentined already. 

 That means dead, and inu^t be cut. 

 I saw many small mills cutting and 

 ling lumber the best th ild 



get for Sio per thousand feet, mill 

 run, and only sawing the best. The 

 best in 1006. sold for $20, mill run- 

 now it is Sio. We have 240.000 acres 



in LaFayette County, Florida, that 

 are trying to save from the ax and the 

 turpentine still. 



"Sincerely yours, 



"H. C". PUTNAM. 



Is Much r - E. L. Kill, Master of 



Appreciated Science. Department of 

 the Collegiate Institute 

 at Guelph, Ontario, writes, "FoRKsruv 

 AND IRRIGATION is much appreciated." 



Prevention A correspondent, writing 



Fires " 51 fr m Ca P ron > West Vir - 



ginia, thinks the Govern- 



ment does net take a sufficiently active- 

 part in the prevention of forest fires, 

 and speaks of the annual burning off 

 of forests to improve pastures. The 

 Government can not well take control 

 in such matters where the forests are 

 privately owned and the prevention 

 of forest fires, as our correspondent 

 should know, forms a large part of 

 the rangers' work, during the summer 

 and autumn months, on National for- 

 est areas. The letter follow- : 



"If the Government is really in earn- 

 est about forest preservation, then let 

 it get after the fire bug, not in the na- 

 tional reserves alone, lint in every 

 state in the Union. The National 

 Government has no power? Well. 

 then, if they cannot make any law- 

 that will Lrive them the 

 ests are irretrievably 1. 

 will not enforce th> un- 



tains arc burned off every year, 'i 

 people burn ihein ' 



and sheep ran- 't kills 



tile limber, but then tile timhe 



t belong to them. Tlv ; man 



here who has the "he 



huckleberry will not 

 con-er|uentlv bear ' which means 



! fur his lv 



people who keen the v. 

 l.-irly. The 1 ' than 



all tlv Tf we had 



Inws bv which ho^ would not be 



2/9 



