4 8 



THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



Tree Preservation. 



The great benefit that is conferred 

 by trees is steadily becoming more 

 and more recognized as the efforts 

 towards their preservation in the 

 forestry movement show ; besides the 

 work done by the national govern- 

 ment, many of the States have taken 

 the matter up and are now as dili- 

 gently endeavoring to preserve and 

 increase our wooded areas with as 

 much zeal, as a generation or so ago, 

 our ancestors endeavored to clear the 

 trees away. 



That forests are closely associated 

 with the development of life is now 

 quite generally recognized ; they puri- 

 fy the atmosphere by increasing the 

 production of oxygen and ozone ; they 

 afford protection from extreme cli- 

 matic conditions, of both summer and 

 winter; and as a regulator of rain 

 supply the forest areas are the most 

 important factor of those which can 

 be controlled by man. Forest land is 

 also known to exert a very powerful 

 influence against the development of 

 disease germs, probably largely on ac- 

 count of the fact that wind and dust 

 storms, which are such great factors, 

 in the dissemination of the patho- 

 genic microbes, are absent to a great 

 extent in forests. 



After urgent demand, Congress in 

 1891, provided that the President could 

 set apart and reserve such public for- 

 est areas as he considered necessary, 

 and President Harrison at once desig- 

 nated over a million and a quarter of 

 acres in the Yellowstone Park as a 

 timber reserve. 



Since that time, in the United 

 States the movement is being sup- 

 ported from all directions. States are 

 passing and enforcing laws relative to 

 the preservation and protection of the 

 trees ; forestry is being taught in many 

 of our colleges and universities, and 

 special schools of forestry have been 

 established ; in many of the States for- 

 estry societies have been organized; 

 journals of forestry have been started 



and are being supported ; arbor days 

 for the voluntary planting of trees are 

 appointed in many of our States, and 

 in fact, the great interest taken in the 

 work indicates tnat the movement has 

 taken such a strong hold among the 

 people and that it is bound to continue. 



The writer remembers well the time 

 when the office of Forestry Commis- 

 sioner was created in Pennsylvania 

 through the almost unaided efforts at 

 first of our present Forestry Commis- 

 sioner, Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock. All 

 credit is due to him in this matter, 

 and the compliment which was re- 

 cently conferred in designating ten 

 thousand acres of woodland in Mifflin, 

 Juniata, and Huntingdon counties as 

 the Rothrock Forest Reserve is one 

 which is richly deserved and most ap- 

 propriately given. 



Governor Pennypacker takes an ex- 

 ceedingly active interest in the for- 

 estry movement and fully appreciates 

 the great importance of this subject. 

 He approved and signed a number of 

 bills passed by the recent legislature 

 in relation to and in support of the 

 forestry movement ; he and the Com- 

 missioner have tramped over our for- 

 est areas together and Pennsylvania 

 forest lovers have reason to be proud 

 of both ; as in these two gentlemen, 

 working hand in hand, we probably 

 have a power tor forestry unequaled 

 by any other of the American Com- 

 monwealths — excepting none, not even 

 Massachusetts. 



W. E. Rotzell. 



Potpourri. 



By Richard C. McGreger, Philippine Museum, 

 Manila, P. I. 



In Colorado, the collector is 

 taken to task for not putting 

 glass eyes in skins ; in California, 

 he is called upon to tell what he 

 "puts in 'em," or how much he 

 makes. I had answers for most of 

 these questions, but they are of little 

 use here. With remarkable uniform- 

 ity the American in the Philippines 



