December i, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



477 



sylvania varied, but Pennsylvania is the great meeting- 

 ground for species from northern and southern latitudes. 

 The Catalpa from the west meets the Holly from the coast ; 

 the Locust and Magnolia from the south meet the White 

 Birch and Red Spruce from Canada. 



In the middle of the last century Peter Kalm, a Swede, 

 when sent over to study forest resources in eastern America, 

 wrote home, "They treat their forests very roughly." 

 The forests of Pennsylvania were once considered inex- 

 haustible, but reckless cutting, fires and floods have rav- 

 aged them. Just how inexhaustible a great forest is may 

 be learned if we look at the new state of Washington, 

 where last spring an act was brought before the Legislature 

 declaring that by reason of the lavish waste of valuable 

 timber resources, "an emergency exists," and a law for 

 the protection of forests was presented, to go into effect 

 immediately upon receiving the signature of the Governor. 



Miss Dock said two problems of this time are : Can we 

 restore our Forests ? Can we maintain our water-supply? 

 These questions forestry tries to answer. Forestry is not 

 simply a love of trees, nor planting them on Arbor Day 

 and then forgetting them, nor above all is it a science or 

 art that would prevent the cutting of trees. An interest 

 may develop from any of these sentiments, but above all 

 else true forestry is business. It means treating a forest 

 as Mr. Cary says, as a field and not as a mine. Timber is 

 a crop that takes from fifty to two hundred and fifty years 

 to ripen and the fields where it grows are hundreds of 

 miles in extent and often lie at considerable elevations. 

 A good farmer keeps his grounds in such a condition 

 that crops may follow each other with perfect regularity, 

 and if his farm lies at different elevations he sees to it that 

 the wash from the upper fields shall not be harmful to the 

 lower fields. In farming when a farm runs down it prin- 

 cipally affects the owner. In timber cutting it is just the 

 reverse. The loss and destruction increase in area and 

 extent the farther one travels from a deforested country. 

 The way to understand forestry is to avoid books about 

 trees only, and to study topography, hard and soft rocks, 

 catchment areas and drainage systems ; to learn about 

 such minor industries as shingle-making, wood pulp, 

 match factories, etc.; to go into a lumber-camp and see 

 the great expense the lumberman is put to. Then one is in 

 a position to understand that there is a great deal to learn 

 about the subject. 



The amount of rorest-products proper required in the arts 

 and manufactures can only be faintly realized by long study 

 and much measurement. Take one industry alone, the 

 supply of hemlock bark for tanning purposes : about fifteen 

 million dollars' worth of hemlock bark is needed annually 

 in this country, and Hemlock-trees of the required size 

 are from one hundred to four hundred years of age. Be- 

 sides the great industries that require timber of large size, 

 there are countless minor industries of which we have 

 daily evidence in the small articles that we need continually 

 and use thoughtlessly. 



The second economic factor, water, is of equal impor- 

 tance with the timber supply. All forested areas serve as 

 reservoirs for the collection, storage and slow distribution 

 of the rainfall. Where there is forest-cover from three- 

 fourths to four-fifths of the rainfall under ordinary circum- 

 stances percolates slowly into the earth and is returned, 

 through springs and by transpiration, to the vegetation. 

 In a deforested area from three-fourths to four-fifths of 

 the rainfall is immediately carried off by streams, that 

 from mere rivulets, may in an hour become destructive 

 torrents, or, to quote a railway man at an up-county 

 station, "now that the trees are cut away as soon 

 as it rains the floods are on us." There always have 

 been and probably always will be freshets, but what 

 forestry tries to avert are calamitous floods. These are 

 not only destructive to commercial interests throughout 

 their course, but no conditions are so detrimental to health 

 as extreme alternation of low and high water. Low stand- 

 ing water is favorable to the propagation of germs and high 



water disseminates them to be deposited over wide areas 

 as the water subsides. While water under certain circum- 

 stances does purify itself it should be a matter of public 

 interest to inquire into typhoid and other fevers at the head- 

 waters of our streams. 



The great industry of mining also depletes the water- 

 supply. Everywhere in coal mining when a new vein is 

 opened it means the disappearance forever of any spring 

 so situated that its waters can be diverted to this easy mode 

 of exit. Once in the mine it becomes so impregnated with 

 sulphur that it cannot be used afterward for household 

 purposes, and in the mining regions, even more than in the 

 lumber country, owing to the large population the forest- 

 cover is needed to conserve all the water possible. Another 

 direct source of loss to individuals and the state of Pennsyl- 

 vania is the great aggregate of territory, almost four times 

 the size of Rhode Island, of so-called agricultural land, that 

 is yearly decreasing in value. Through the hill and moun- 

 tain country everywhere roadbeds are torn out, fields 

 seamed and scoured by the wash from nearly perpendicular 

 farms clinging to bare slaty hilltops, and taxation for road 

 repairs and bridge building has become a great burden. 

 It is one of the compensations of Nature that this very 

 land which is unfit in its present condition for agri- 

 culture affords congenial soil for some of our most valua- 

 ble timber-trees to reach their best condition. The Forestry 

 Commission and Board of Agriculture hope that private 

 judgment and public opinion will soon see to the reforest- 

 ing of these lands, so that they may in time become a 

 source of revenue, instead of loss. In some portions of 

 Germany instead of heavy assessments for bridge build- 

 ing, etc., not only the city expenses are paid, but house- 

 holders actually receive dividends from the municipal 

 woodlands. 



How can a widespread interest be aroused and what of 

 practical value can be accomplished by women's clubs? 

 Everything may be done by taking one thing at a time, and 

 can be accomplished by developing the now latent interest 

 in the beauty of our forests. From an indefinite feeling and 

 indeterminate action, we may have definite ideas and de- 

 terminate activity by beginning with a study of the local 

 and special, and in time an interest will be aroused in 

 forestry in general. In the last century one young girl of 

 twenty in South Carolina organized, where other planters 

 had failed, the industry of Indigo-planting, that brought 

 millions of dollars into her Province through her unaided 

 pluck and determination. What may not result from con- 

 centrated effort of the Federation of the Women's Clubs of 

 a state! Not a village or town of Pennsylvania but has 

 in its vicinity at least some one point of beauty that fifty 

 years from now may be lost beyond recall, which pre- 

 served now for a playground or park, would for all time 

 be an object of pride. It is through these local interests 

 that people can be reached and the work done. 



The feeling, the raw material and the machinery are all 

 at hand. Part of the machinery is already in motion. Rail- 

 road officials were the first to see the value of protecting 

 and beautifying the country through which their roads 

 pass. Public school teachers are doing a great work in 

 their Nature teaching. It now remains for that great net- 

 work of organizations — the federated clubs, patriotic and 

 religious societies — to do their share in making the land 

 beautiful. 



In club work village improvement committees in differ- 

 ent parts of the state have a good record, but much desirable 

 land could not be held under existing laws by any of the 

 societies mentioned. To meet this condition Massachu- 

 setts incorporated six years ago that noble society of Public 

 Reservations by which the trustees hold beautiful and his- 

 toric places in any part of the state ; and in Massachusetts 

 the general opinion is, that public holdings of land, by 

 giving an interest to all citizens, are of distinct benefit, and 

 add to the value of private holdings. Is it possible for this 

 organization to supply the motive power still needed? 



The effect of Miss Dock's address was remarkable in the 



