FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR. B. E. FERNOW. 



It takes 30 years to grow a tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



FORESTRY MEETINGS. 



For 20 years conventions have been held 

 in the United States at which the need of 

 forest preservation and the methods of se- 

 curing it have been discussed. 



The first one was the meeting in Cincin- 

 nati, April, 1882, of the American Forestry 

 Congress, an impressive affair, lasting 5 

 days, the city in bunting, orators at all 

 street corners and finally a parade of 60,000 

 school children marching out to Eden Park 

 and planting memorial trees. 



This first gathering was also the largest 

 and most pretentious. After that the few 

 persons who remained faithful, found it 

 often difficult to fill a decent hall with lis- 

 teners ; but lately not only the number 

 who go to such forestry meetings but the 

 character of the attendance has improved. 

 At the last summer meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association, at Minneapolis, 

 in August, 200 people found it interesting 

 to stay through 2 days' sessions. The most 

 interesting feature of the meeting was the 

 presence of a number of substantial lum- 

 bermen, who participated actively in the 

 proceedings. At last the inevitable seems 

 to have arrived, namely that lumbermen 

 and forestry propagandists come together. 

 Professional foresters had, of course, al- 

 ways known that without their assistance 

 the lumber business must ultimately col- 

 lapse ; but lumbermen had been always in 

 doubt. The majority probably have not yet 

 awakened to the relationship between lum- 

 bering and forestry, and forestry reformers 

 of the Arbor day type have helped to deter 

 the lumbermen from this recognition. 



The attitude that formerly existed and 

 the new attitude were clearly indicated by 

 Mr. B. F. Nelson, a prominent lumberman 

 of the Northwest. He said: 



"The lumbermen of to-day are often bit- 

 terly denounced as the vandals of the for- 

 est. They are charged with the ruthless de- 

 struction of virgin timber at the expense 

 of future generations. They have had 

 curses heaped on their heads by persons 

 who charge them with making money by 

 methods which are without economic or 

 moral excuse. 



"Lumbermen resent such criticism, as 

 they do not feel that their vocation is without 

 moral excuse or reason. There has been 

 abundant excuse for the destruction of the 

 forests. The forest was the natural enemy 

 of our forefathers, and without its de- 

 struction our land could not have been 

 settled and advanced as it is to-day. The 



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forests had to be sacrificed that the great 

 prairies might be won. While the forests 

 have been converted into lumber, which is 

 indispensable to our well being, great areas 

 of denuded timber lands have become avail- 

 able for the tilling of the soil. 



"The lumbermen are as willing as most 

 persons to deplore the ravaging of the for- 

 est, but they do not believe themselves any 

 more responsible for it than for the condi- 

 tions of society which demand it. They are 

 naturally in favor of reforestation where- 

 ever practicable, because of the many benefi- 

 cent influences accruing therefrom, in the 

 effect of forests on the flow of streams, on 

 winds and temperature and on the general 

 prosperity and welfare of the nation. 



"The greater part of the land from which 

 the timber has been removed in the North- 

 ern pine belt is much more valuable and 

 suitable for cultivation than for reforest- 

 ation. The growth of timber is so slow 

 that the present generation can not be ex- 

 pected to replant timber lands for the finan- 

 cial benefits which they might derive there- 

 from. This is especially true when the 

 profits likely to be obtained from their 

 lands, after a period of 60 or 80 years, will 

 be largely reduced by the taxes which they 

 will have paid during that time, and the 

 results are uncertain because of fires and 

 other enemies of the forest." 



One of the *best known lumbermen of 

 Minnesota, now largely interested on the 

 Pacific coast, Mr. T. B. Walker, committed 

 himself thoroughly to the need of a forest 

 policy and added many valuable practical 

 suggestions in a paper from which the fol- 

 lowing extracts are taken : 



"At the present rate of consumption, the 

 timber now standing will be consumed with- 

 in 35 years, so that in the near future, 

 substitutes for wood, curtailed consump- 

 tion, better forestry methods, and repro- 

 duction will be necessitated. Forests are 

 all in sight and subject to general estimates 

 differing materially from iron, coal, oil, 

 building stone, etc., where the supply is un- 

 der cover and the extent unknown but 

 practically inexhaustible. 



"The responsibility of lumbermen for 

 wasteful methods should rest equally on the 

 public and on the government. Our vast 

 hard wood forests have been cut away and 

 in large part burned in log heaps by the 

 pioneer settlers in clearing their lands for 

 cultivation. National, State and county 

 governments have authorized and protected 

 all frontier settlers and loggers in wasting 



