EDITORIAL 



FIFTEEN States are without laws 

 providing for a State Forest 

 administration. These fifteen 

 States are lacking in one of the 

 most important measures a State can 

 take for the prosperity, the comfort, the 

 health and the recreation of its citizens. 

 Without the organized care and devel- 

 opment of the forests and the woodlands 

 of these States which an efficient State 

 forest administration would assure, their 

 forests and woodlands are deteriorating, 

 there is wasteful use of their timber; 

 lack of proper fire protection and an 

 absence of the popular instruction in 

 care of forests, woodlands and trees 

 which it is part of the duty of State 

 forest administrations to give to the 

 people. 



A short time ago the American For- 

 estry Association sent representatives 

 into Virginia and urged the people there 

 to demand, and the members of the 

 legislature to pass, a forestry law. Such 

 a law was passed. It will go into effect 

 on June 1. It is not extravagant to 

 claim that this law will result in saving 

 to the State millions of dollars yearly 

 as well as conserving the trees of the 



State, in forest, woodland and commun- 

 ity, and thereby adding greatly to the 

 beauty of the land and the health and 

 the pleasure of the people. 



The States in which there is no law 

 providing for a State forest administra- 

 tion are: South Carolina, Georgia, 

 Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, 

 Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska, Wyoming, 

 Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, 

 and Oklahoma. 



The American Forestry Association 

 is about to commence in each of these 

 States a campaign for securing for- 

 estry laws. The people will be told 

 what such forestry laws mean to them, 

 and they will be asked to urge the mem- 

 bers of their legislatures to give serious 

 consideration to the advisability of pass- 

 ing such laws. The Virginia Senate 

 voted unanimously for the Virginia law, 

 and the House passed it by a vote of 

 86 to 3. No member of a legislature 

 having at heart the interests of his con- 

 stituents can ignore the necessity for a 

 forestry law, whether his constituents 

 live in a dense forest, on land from 

 which timber has been cut, or on land 

 where timber never grew. 



DEMAND for forest conserva- 

 tion in Texas is so great that 

 the movement to secure a State 

 forestry department and a 

 State forester has been endorsed in vig- 

 orous resolutions by the Houston Lum- 

 bermen's Club and the Lumbermen's 

 Association of Texas. Officials of these 

 two powerful organizations are de- 



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termined to use every energy to further 

 the agitation for a forestry law. They 

 will dwell particularly on the impor- 

 tance of fire protection. Last year 

 was one of the best seed years for long- 

 leaf pine known in the State. As a 

 result of Nature's wide distribution of 

 the seed and favorable weather condi- 

 tions, thousands of acres of long-leaf 



