376 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



of this movement, notably the Society for the Protection of the 

 New Hampshire Forests, and the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion, were rewarded for their efforts by the passage of the 

 "Weeks' Bill" on March i, 1911. 



This bill provides a commission for the purchase of forest 

 tracts meeting the aforenamed requirements in states whose 

 legislatures have passed enabling acts. So far New Hampshire 

 and Maine are the only New England States which have made 

 such provision. While the bill provided that the tracts for pur- 

 chase be selected and appraised by the Forest Service of the 

 Department of Agriculture and administered by it after purchase 

 in the same way as the western national forests, it also provides 

 that the Geological Surve}^ of the Interior Department is to 

 decide whether or not the proposed tracts affect navigable 

 streams. This branch of the government is apparently not in 

 entire sympathy with the purposes of the bill, and has delayed 

 the work of acquisition so much that at this writing, nearly one 

 year after the passage of the bill, only a few areas in the Southern 

 Appalachians have been purchased, although many tracts in 

 New Hampshire have been approved by the Forest Service. 

 The unfortunate thing about this delay is that at the end of 

 each fiscal year (July i), unexpended appropriations lapse, and 

 can only become^ reavailable by another act of Congress. 



There are in connection with this law two views which are 

 perhaps equally sound, just as from the first establishment of 

 our federal government there has been the theory of a strong 

 federated government, and the theory of a confederation of 

 strong state governments. The people of New Hampshire have 

 been urgent in their demands for a national forest in the White 

 Mountains, considering the project solely as a great park, and, 

 therefore, as a money outlay. The time will come when it will 

 be realized that well-managed governmental forests are some- 

 thing more than parks; and when the revenue from them 

 exceeds the expenditures for improvements, the states will regret 

 that their lawmakers were not far-sighted enough to provide for 

 state rather than national purchase. It behooves every legisla- 



