146 APPENDIX. 



THE OBJECTS OP THE FOREST RESERVES. 



1. To protect and improve the forest cover and thereby : 



(a) Produce a crop of timber on lands which are largelj- unsuited 

 to other kinds of crops. 



(b) Produce from lands now waste and useless, a material of which 

 we use over 1,000 million feet per year in our State alone. 



(c) Begin to provide for a home supply of timber which will assure 

 reasonable prices of one of our most important necessaries and thereby 

 encourage building and general development. 



(d) To produce the raw material for one of our most essential in- 

 dustries. To bring back the mill and factory and prevent the departure 

 of those now with us. 



(e) To begin checking the ill effects of forest denudation as seen in 

 our streams, where destructive floods alternate with low water which 

 prevent the use of many of our streams and lessen the value of all of 

 them for power and other industrial purposes, and thereby rob our 

 State evex-}- year of a great amount of wealth. 



2. To encourage settlement by lessening the dangers from fire and 

 by restoring to the land the attractive and useful cover. 



3. To encourage by direct help and good example, better protection of 

 private lands and thus hasten the good work above outlined by enlisting 

 the co-operation of private owners of land. 



4. To regulate the use of these lands and such materials as they now 

 offer, especially to regulate the grazing upon these lands to avoid use- 

 less, destructive overgrazing and to guard the interests of the settlers 

 of the immediate districts. 



5. To assure to the county and town at least some return in place of 

 regular taxes. The law now provides that the State through its For- 

 estry Commission may contribute to the maintenance of roads and schools 

 in the towns where the Forest Reserves are located. 



6. To furnish employment in the protection and care of the forests 

 which beside benefiting the people of the district directly, will do far 

 more good, educationally, in introducing new methods and new ideas 

 concerning the forest. Without this education, without a complete 

 change of sentiment and attitude among the people, without a full and 

 clear understanding of the practice and aims of forestry among the 

 people, all efforts of the State and private holders alike must prove of 

 little value. 



Keeping in mind the objects and purposes of the reserves and their 

 forests, it is clear that the first and foremost duty of every forest officer 

 is to care for the forest, and every act, every decision he is called upon 

 to make, should be guided by the thought: Will it improve and extend 

 the forest? 



