548 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



why should tliis be, if the investment will warrant the expenditure? I 

 believe the greatest weakness in forestry at present is the lack of stalwart 

 men able to convince our Legislatures, business corporations and men of 

 affairs of the great importance of doing something on a much larger and 

 more comprehensive scale than we have yet accomplished. Planting a 

 thousand or two trees, or thinning and practicing modern forestry 

 methods on a 5-acre tract here and there, are but drops in the bucket as 

 compared to what ought to be undertaken in forestry in our various States 

 and throughout the nation. Had we attempted to dig the Panama Canal 

 under the same momentum that we are practicing forestry to-day, it is 

 questionable if it would ever have been completed; we, however, are 

 allowing our lands adapted for splendid forest crops to he idle, and worse 

 than that, not even forest fires are kept under control. 



Up to the present time most American foresters have looked wise, 

 given a great deal of advice, written pamphlets and books, and kept up 

 a very good propaganda of forestry interest, but we have still, it is be- 

 lieved, a great lack of results that will come only when the fundamental 

 problems have been given deeper root. 



In calling attention to the work in forestry in Massachusetts I preface 

 , my remarks thus because it has not been a question of object lessons, 

 examples and demonstrations to follow, but a working out of our State 

 system by our own efforts. 



Before the States began to have foresters, the United States Forest 

 Service offered advice and assistance throughout the nation. During tliis 

 time many examinations and reconmiendations by experts were made for 

 Massachusetts people, but strange to say, when these same documents 

 were checked up for results later it was found very little had been accom- 

 plished. The work on behalf of the forest service was well executed, and 

 the owners were evidently interested in the beginning, but the work 

 failed to be carried out simply because it was not followed up and kept 

 ahve by further personal contact. One thing has been conclusive thus 

 far in our experience in Massachusetts, and that is, if anything tangible 

 is to result in forestry work it must first be demonstrated by technical 

 men right in the State; then our farmers and lumbermen will know we 

 are advocating what can be accomplished from actual experience. The 

 more real and definite examples a State forester can have scattered about 

 his State, the sooner will he be able to make headw^ay toward bettering 

 general forestry conditions. Object lessons not only educate, but encour- 

 age action. 



During the past eight years, year by year, through Idndly consideration 

 and definite legislation, the members of our General Court, enthusiasti- 

 cally headed by our public-spirited Governors, have given us statute 

 after statute, until I am pleased to say I believe we now have a thoroughly 

 well-rounded-out Massachusetts State forest policy. I am frank to say 

 that I know of no State in the Union wherein the individual who cares to 

 practice modern forestry can get more co-operation on the part of the 

 State than in Massachusetts. While it is not the State's pohcy to actually 



