18 SEco^'D axjvual convention 



fested trees for cordwood and thus control the beetle at no expense. On large 

 holdings where cutting is going on the desired result can be obtained by burn- 

 ing the slabs from the infected trees with the bark on. Where the timber is 

 to be held and there is no market for cordwood, control measures must be 

 conducted at direct expense. The question to determine is whether the 

 amount expended will be justified by the timber saved. Disregarding the in- 

 crease in the danger of fire from the dead timber and the very great possibility 

 of an increase in the number of trees killed each year, I want to say distinctly 

 to you that it tvill pay. The trouble with the large holders is that they do 

 not know how much timber they are losing. 



No lumberman who is suffering from inroads by the beetle, after he has 

 made an investigation into how much timber he is losing, will hesitate for a 

 moment in starting control operations. He will not hesitate any more than 

 he would hesitate to go out and fight a forest fire — indeed, an attack by in- 

 sects differs only from a forest fire in that you have more time to fight it, and 

 I quote your forester, Mr. Holmes, as saying that more timber has been killed 

 in the southern Piedmont section of North Carolina by the Southern pine 

 beetle than has been killed by fire. 



Gentlemen, the proposition is up to every individual timber owner. Dr. 

 Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology, has put the resources of the 

 Bureau at your service. We can only give advice, however. You must do 

 the actual work. If all will help, if all will go at the very simple task before 

 them without waiting for their neighbors to begin, we can control this beetle 

 and save an amount of pine from dying, the value of which I should not dare 

 estimate in dollars. 



Gentlemen of the North Carolina Forestry Association, I have endeavored 

 to put this matter before you as simply as possible. If there are any questions 

 unanswered in your minds, do not, in justice to yourselves and to us, let me 

 go away with them unanswered. I think you will agree with me that every 

 man here who controls pine timber should get at this matter at once. It 

 does not admit of delay. Realize that you are engaged in a labor not only 

 for yourself, but for your neighbor, and indeed for the whole South, and let 

 your watchword be, "Do It Now." 



A general discussion followed Mr. Mason's speech, in which Mr. Z. W. 

 Whitehead, of Wilmington ; Dr. C. H. Herty, of Chapel Hill ; Mr. W. S. 

 Pharr, of Charlotte ; Mr. G. K. Massengill, of Four Oaks, and several 

 other delegates, took part. 



Honorable James R. Young, State Insurance Commissioner, then 

 read a paper on what his department can do to prevent forest fires. 

 This address was as follows : 



ENFORCING THE PRESENT FOREST FIRE LAWS. 



By James R. Young, Insurance Commissioner. 



It is especially gratifying to me to be present at your meeting and by my 

 presence and words endorse and extend aid to the North Carolina Forestry 

 Association in the great work it is undertaking to do in the preservation of 

 our forests. Upon me as a State official devolves the duty of attempting their 



