rOKKST ARHOHIITA JtSJ 



ill lioiMcspiin, and rra<k long whips over the slow-moving oxen, 

 as they snake the big logs of oak and chestnut and poplar out of 

 the rich coves of the Blue Ridge. It is a varied army of loggers, 

 facing many different conditions in this great country of ours. 

 PVench -Canadians, Americans, Irishmen, Scotchmen, negroes, 

 Indians, mountaineers and plainsmen, go to make it up; and the 

 army is iigliting forests (\uiUi effectively. And you will readily 

 n;di/.c that the lumber cut in one year in the United States would 

 make a row of wooden houses more than ten thousand miles 

 long, or about the same distance as the mail rowU- frf>m .\ew York 

 lo Hong Kong. 



Hut, while lumbering is interesting and even picturescjue to 

 watch, while it is varied in its methods, ranging from steam 

 >kidders to the aerial tramways, to the logging railroads, and to 

 river driving, and while each method has its elements of interest; 

 still, the thing ^/hich counts most is not just how the loggers do 

 their wrjrk hut what results they leave behind. 



1 hold no brief against the lumbermen. They have been 

 (jioneers in industry. They have added greatly by their initiative, 

 their abilities, and their remarkably skilful methods in turning 

 ffjrests intf> lumber and lumber into money, in the material develop- 

 ment of these United States. liut in the woods work they have 

 <\<)uc, ihcir last thought as a rule has been the safety and per- 

 pctuatirju of the forest. The result has been to devastate some 

 one hujidred million acres of forest land in America. This land has 

 been stripped so clean by careless use of the axe and the saw 

 and the following fires, that trees must be planted by hand upon 

 this vast area to bring back a commercial forest upon it, and thus 

 lo rest'jre it to [)roductive use. 



We do not need to go far from liouu- to see this waste. We 

 have it at our dof^rs, right in the Adrirjndacks. . Some one has made 

 the forceful statement that forestry is practical in the Adriondacks 

 everywhere except right in the woods. I realize that here and there 

 Adriondack forest (owners have turned their thoughts to thrift., 

 Hut on the whole the Adriondack forests are not being perpetuated 

 or improved by careful iitrlization, but are being destroyed by 

 reckless use. 



This matter you all understand so well, it seems to me a matter 

 not merely of science and theory and technique, but a matter 

 of the common variety of common sense. As you are possibly 



