NORTH CAROLINA FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 11 



should be of real value. One of the hardest problems confronted in protect- 

 ing the individual tract of timber is the excessive cost per acre when this 

 work is attempted on a small scale by each owner acting independently. In 

 certain of the Northwestern States with which I am familiar, this phase of 

 the question has been very effectively met by the consolidation of interests 

 for the purposes of fire protection. This is done through the organization 

 of timber protective associations which handle the work of fire patrol, con- 

 struction of telephone lines and other necessary improvements, and the actual 

 fighting of fire, jointly for all their members. Some of these associations, 

 representing from 200.000 to 300,000 acres, headed by an executive committee 

 and chief warden and meeting expenses by a pro rata assessment per acre, 

 have developed the most efficient protection of timberland on a larger scale 

 than any I have seen in any portion of the country, under any organization, 

 public or private. Large areas of coniferous timber in the Northwest, where 

 the character of the forest and the unfailing annual drought make the fire 

 risk far greater than in the hardwood belt, are now being protected efficiently 

 through such agencies at a cost in ordinary seasons of two or three cents 

 an acre. It is my judgment that you will find the solution of your protection 

 problem in this principle of cooperation with your neighbor and the pooling 

 of common interests for this specific purpose." 



I would like to call the attention of those who are personally interested in 

 fire protection to the whole of Mr. Greeley's speech, which advocates fire pro- 

 tection as the most practical and most pressing need of timberland owners 

 at the present time. It seems to me to point very clearly to the fact that 

 even private or cooperative fire protection is profitable, and the matter is 

 certainly worthy of careful consideration. If this Association could engineer 

 the organization of such a protective association in western North Carolina, 

 its existence would be amply justified though it did nothing else. 



During the last session of the General Assembly, Governor Kitchin sent a 

 special message to the Legislature, calling the attention of the representatives 

 to the second section of the Weeks bill, just then passed by Congress and 

 signed by the President. This section promised any State which should have 

 a definite appropriation and a State system of fire protection, financial aid 

 and assistance up to the amount of money appropriated by such State. It 

 was the hope of the Governor that the North Carolina Legislature would pass 

 such a law as would enable us to take advantage of this cooperative offer of 

 the Federal Government. We have with us today Mr. J. G. Peters, of the 

 United States Forest Service, who is in charge of the cooperative work of 

 the Government under this bill, and he will explain this plan, which is now 

 in operation in six or eight different States. After we have heard Mr. Peters, 

 I think this Association should take some steps to endorse the work of the 

 Government and try to get the State to take steps to secure its share of the 

 appropriation and take advantage of this offer of assistance. 



I have already outlined what has been done by the Association in the 

 attempted control of the Southern pine beetle, but I want to add a word as 

 to the future work along these lines. Reports from Cleveland and Union 

 counties indicate that the pine beetle is as destructive in those counties as 

 in Gaston and Mecklenburg, and I trust that local associations may be formed 

 in these counties also for the organization of control work. 



The question of forestry education in the colleges and schools of the State 



