184 



RECREATION. 



acquaintance with its provisions may 

 prompt other States to do likewise: 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 

 Representatives in General Court assembled, and 

 by the authority of the same, as follows: 



Section i. The governor, with the advice and 

 consent of the council, shall appoint an officer 

 to be known as the State Forester, who shall 

 receive an annual salary of $2,000. The State 

 forester shall be a trained forester who has had 

 a technical education. He shall serve for a term 

 of one year, unless removed for cause by the 

 governor and council, or until his successor has 

 been appointed and has qualified for office. The 

 term of his office shall begin the first day of July, 

 and if an appointee does not qualify for his office 

 until after the first day of July, he shall, after 

 he has qualified, be taken to have been appointed 

 to serve until the first of July next thereafter en- 

 suing. The State forester shall, ex officio, be a 

 member of the State board of agriculture. 



Section 2. It shall be the duty of the State 

 forester to promote the perpetuation, extension 

 and proper management of the forest lands of 

 the Commonwealth both public and private. He 

 may on suitable request give aid or advice to any 

 person owning or controlling forest lands in the 

 management thereof. He shall give such a course 

 of instruction to the students of the Massachu- 

 setts agricultural college on the art and science 

 of forestry as may be arranged for by the trus- 

 tees of the college and the forester; and shall per- 

 form such other duties from time to time as may 

 be imposed on him by the governor and the coun- 

 cil. The State forester shall have the right to 

 publish the particulars and results of any exam- 

 ination or investigation made by him or his assist- 

 ants as to any lands within the commonwealth, 

 and the advice given to any person who has ap- 

 plied for his aid or advice. Any applicant for 

 such aid or advice to whom it is given shall be 

 liable to the State forester for the necessary ex- 

 penses of travel and subsistence incurred by him 

 or his assistants. The State forester shall account 

 for moneys received under this clause according 

 to the provision of Section 5. 



Section 3. The State forester may establish 

 and maintain a nursery for the propagation of 

 forest tree seedlings on such lands as the trustees 

 of the Massachusetts agricultural college may 

 set aside for that purpose on the college grounds 

 at Amherst. Seedlings from this nursery shall 

 be furnished to the Commonwealth without ex- 

 pense for use on reservations set aside for the 

 propagation of forest growth for other than park 

 purposes. He may distribute seeds and seed- 

 lings to landowners, citizens of the Common- 

 wealth, under such conditions and restrictions as 

 he may, subject to the approval of the governor 

 and council, deem advisable. 



Section 4. The State forester is hereby em- 

 powered, subject to the approval of the governor 

 and council, to hire such assistants as he may 

 need in the performance of his duties, and to fix 

 their salaries. 



Section 5. The State forester shall annually, 

 on or before the 31st of December, make a writ- 

 ten report to the general court of his proceedings 

 for each year, ending the 31st of December, to- 

 gether with such recommendations as he deems 

 proper, and a detailed statement of the receipts 

 rnd expenditures incident to the administration of 

 his office, which reDort shall be printed in the re- 

 port of the State board of agriculture. 



Section 6. A sum not exceeding $5,000 may 

 be expended annually by the State forester, with 

 the approval of the governor and council, in car- 

 rying out the provisions of this act. 



Section 7. This act shall take effect on its 

 passage. 



is studying and improving the forests of this coun- 

 try while there is yet time to preserve them. In 

 furtherance of this work the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey has just published a paper which 

 bears the title "Forest Conditions in the San 

 Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve, Arizona." 



The San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve 

 comprises portions of the broad summit and slopes 

 of an elevated tract of land in North central Ari- 

 zona, which includes the Southern part of the 

 Colorado Plateau. The Northern part of the area 

 is dotted by several hundred volcanic cones and 

 the Southern part is gashed by numerous deep 

 canyons. The altitude of the region ranges from 

 3,500 feet at Oak creek in its Southwestern por- 

 tion, to 12,794 feet at the summit of San Francisco 

 peak. 



Among the coniferous trees in the reserve the 

 yellow pine constitutes over 99 per cent, of the 

 total forest. The aspen takes first rank among 

 the broad leaved species, but has a close competi- 

 tor in the oak. The chief lumber tree at present 

 is the yellow pine, which is extensively cut and 

 furnishes all of the mill timber sawed, used in, 

 and exported from the region. Its average total 

 height is 85 feet, with about 10 feet of clear 

 trunk. The diameter averages 18 inches, which 

 corresponds to an age of 180 years. In the 812,- 

 500 acres of forest area examined 2,743,558,000 

 feet B. M. of standing timber were found, which 

 gives an average of only 3,377 feet B. M. per acre. 

 It is evident that the yellow pine stands, even 

 where entirely untouched by the ax, do not carry 

 an average crop of more than 40 per cent, of the 

 timber they_ are capable of producing. This con- 

 dition is chiefly attributable to the numerous fires 

 which have swept over the region within the last 

 200 years, destroying seedling and sapling growth. 



The chief agencies through which the forests in 

 the reserve suffer destruction are cutting, grazing, 

 and fire. Logging operations have been carried on 

 in most of the central forested areas that are 

 tributary to railroads. The forest has been culled 

 or cut from 148,045 acres. The timber cut on 

 these tracts has been converted into tie, stull or 

 round mining timber, and saw logs. 



Grazing, especially sheep herding, is' ruinous to 

 the seedling growth of a young forest. Sheep 

 are_ especially fond of the young aspen, which 

 springs up as the first restockage on the non- 

 forested park lands at the base and on the slopes 

 of the San Francisco mountains. It was found 

 that the destruction of seedlings on any particu- 

 lar tract of land ranged from 50 per cent, to 

 total after a single passage over such ground by 

 2,000 head of sheep. 



Fires have been of frequent occurrence in all 

 portions of the reserve. The badly burned areas, 

 on which the destruction has been 60 per cent, or 

 more, aggregate 6,790 acres. The origin of fires 

 in recent years may, in part, be ascribed to the 

 carelessness of sheep herders, in part to sparks 

 from engines on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 

 railroad, _ but by far the larger number of fires are 

 due to lightning, and this cause has, of course, al- 

 ways operated. Sections exist on which 50 per 

 cent, of the mature yellow pine has been either 

 wholly or in partkilled by lightning strokes. 



Among other interesting questions considered 

 in this paper are the low reproductive ratio of the 

 yellow pine, the influence of the forest on run-off, 

 the grazing value of the reserve and the effects 

 of sheep herding on the forest floor. The bulk 

 of the paper is devoted to detailed descriptions of' 

 the areas, by range and township, that make up 

 the reserve. — Scientific American. 



STUDY OF FOREST CONDITIONS, 



Realizing how vital to the welfare of a nation 

 is the preservation of its forests, the United States. 



A clever young man at the Sault 

 Bit off more than he safely could chault, 

 And the people all shout, 

 Now the cash has run out: 

 "We'll sault yault — that's what we will 

 dault!" 



. — Montreal Herald. 



