532 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



will speak for themselves. They will 

 be shown the destruction wrought by 

 forest fires and how such fires may be 

 prevented; they will be told how the 

 trees of the forest have to battle for 

 existence and how they may be aided 

 in the fight; they will be shown how 

 rapid deterioration of the human race 

 follows the loss of the forests ; they will 

 be told about the problems of the lum- 

 bermen, and they will have explained 

 to them just what they may do to aid 

 in the work of teaching every man, 

 woman, and child to appreciate a tree 

 whether' on the street, lawn, woodlot 



or forest and to value it for the value 

 it is to mankind. 



It is not expecting too much to 

 believe that these seven or eight thou- 

 sand teachers will return to their homes 

 with the determination to do some serv- 

 ice in the cause of forest conservation, 

 nor is it at all doubtful that each and 

 every one will succeed in imparting to 

 others some of the knowledge they will 

 gain. Hence it may be said, without 

 exaggeration, that what the American 

 Forestry Association will say to the 

 teachers at Chautauqua will, in part, 

 be repeated to fully half a million 

 others. 



)ESPITE the facts that Georgia 

 annually places on the market 

 forest products valued at $18,- 



000,000 and that the wages 

 paid to produce this output amount to 

 $2,500,000, the State has no law pro- 

 viding for a forestry department, and 

 it is the only State in the South which 

 does not cooperate with the United 

 States Forest Service under the liberal 

 provisions of the Weeks law, in pro- 

 tecting its forests from fire. 



The State Legislature is now in ses- 

 sion and the members of the legislature 

 could do no greater good to the business 

 interests of the State, and more or less 

 directly to every one of their constit- 

 uents, than to take up for consideration 

 such a forestry law as exists in Mary- 

 land, or Kentucky, or in any one of a 

 score of other States. A Forestry De- 

 partment, with an appropriation of 

 $15,000 or $20,000 a year, could do a 



wonderful work in conserving the lum- 

 ber industry of the State. There is at 

 present much wasteful cutting, there is 

 unnecessary loss from forest fires, there 

 is absence of knowledge on the part of 

 timber land owners, and lumbermen, of 

 the best means of caring for the forests 

 and of cutting the timber to the best 

 advantage. A State Forestry Depart- 

 ment, with competent officials in charge, 

 could do much to overcome conditions 

 which do not make for the best results. 



Thousands of acres of land are 

 owned by the State and much of this 

 land could be made to produce forests 

 providing there was in existence a State 

 Forestry Department and good working 

 laws for its operation. 



All of this is well worth considering, 

 and it is to be hoped that some member 

 of the legislature will be sufficiently in- 

 terested to lead the way. 



IN CONCLUDING its last report the 

 Conservation Commission of Louisi- 

 ana made the following hopeful 

 statement : 



"The Commission hopes to establish 

 later on a separate department of for- 

 estry which will give to this branch of 

 the work the special attention demanded 

 by so important a division of the State's 

 natural resources." 



In the same report the Conservation 



Commission estimates that at the pres- 

 ent rate of cutting, it will be safe to 

 estimate that the pine timber of the 

 State will be exhausted in thirty years, 

 the cypress in twenty years and the 

 hardwoods in thirty-five years. 



This means that in practically thirty 

 years the enormous revenue derived 

 from the forest products of the State 

 will not only be ended but that the for- 

 ested land of the State will be so bare 



