FORESTRY INTERESTS. 



Mr. President and Members of the Board: — 



Since responding to your request in April la^^^ijfrite out my views on 

 the subject of Forestry, I have, as you authoriz^Arbeegme a merober of the 

 American Forestry Association, and from its publiications and others from 

 the division of forestry of the United States dei(w;^ment of agriculture, 

 and from Hon. Binger Hermann, Commissionei'v of the General Land 

 OflBce, I have secured valuable information on the present status of the 

 national forest policy, in which the American Forestry Association seems 

 to be an impelling and guiding influence. 



The American Forestry Association is a voluntary body. Its member- 

 ship roll contains six hundred and ninety names, sixty-eight being females; 

 and three hundred and seventy-one — a clean majority — are residents of 

 New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the District of 

 Columbia, fifty claiming residence in Washington City. It is, I believe, 

 reasonable to suppose that the large majority of the members of this body 

 are educated people — idealists on the subject of forestry. It is not deemed 

 unreasonable to assume that the fifty members located in Washington are 

 (in addition to being well informed) either in the employ of the National 

 Government, or wishing to be so. The organization is so constituted that a 

 few active members can shape the course of the association and become a 

 powerful influence in framing the policy of the government relative to the 

 disposal of forest lands. Take B. E. Fernow's position as illustration : He 

 is chairman of its executive committee — three being a quorum ; a member 

 of its directors, four being a quorum. [And fifteen is a quorum of the as- 

 sociation.] He is also chief of the division of forestry, which gives him a 

 great personal influence. By the report of its executive committee, read by 

 Mr. Fernow, February 6, 1897, we are informed that it secured the appoint- 

 ment of a committee of the National Academy of Sciences "by inducing the 

 then Secretary of the Interior (Hon. Hoke Smith) to ask the advice of that 

 learned body" as to the proper steps to be taken with reference to the pub- 

 lic timber lands; that an appropriation of |25,000 was readily secured to 

 pay its expenses ; that "it was not expected its recommendations would be 

 essentially or strikingly different from, those made and advocated by the 

 association;" that it was hoped " the weight of the opinion of the eminent 

 men of the committee, so secured, and the body from which the committee 

 was selected — being the legally constituted advisor of the government in 

 matters scientific — would do much to arouse more general public interest 



