A FORESTRY PROGRAM < 



bakes it hard. The rain, falling on this hard earth, 

 rushes off the surface directly into the streams. This 

 results in irregularity of stream flow, often amounting 

 to floods in rainy seasons and failure of the water 

 supply in dry weather, and in the choking up of 

 stream beds by the washed-oif topsoil. 



In protecting watersheds the forests guard water 

 power, which thus takes a place high on the list of 

 important forest resources. Another forest resource 

 of great value is the forage growing on thinly tim- 

 bered areas, which furnishes grazing for cattle, 

 sheep, and horses. Still another, of incalculable 

 value, is the opportunity for recreation. All these 

 great resources, as well as timber, are bounteously 

 present in the national forests, and all are adminis- 

 tered by the Federal Forest Service under the policy 

 of bringing about the greatest good to the greatest 

 number of people. 



In, addition to the huge administrative task of 

 growing timber in the national forests, supervising 

 their use by the public, and protecting them against 

 fire, the work of the Forest Service includes scientific 

 investigations. At stations widely scattered through 

 the States its scientists are constantly at work on 

 new methods of fire prevention and control, better 

 logging and planting practices, studies of the rates 

 of growth of different kinds of timber, ways of in- 

 creasing timber yields, and better and more eco- 

 nomical methods of using wood. 



The greatest forward step in forestry since the 

 establishment of the national forests was the pas- 

 sage, in 1924, of the Clarke-McNary Act. The most 

 important provision of this law is that which offers 

 the financial cooperation of the Federal Government 

 to the States and to forest owners in fire control. It 

 also provides for advice and assistance to State for- 

 estry organizations and forestry associations, and 

 for help to farmers in establishing and caring for 

 farm woods and forest plantings that will protect 

 their crops. Through this law the ideal of Govern- 

 ment leadership in the care of natural resources, the 

 dream of Theodore Roosevelt and of other conserva- 

 tionists, has been brought much nearer to realization.. 



5. THE FORESTRY GUY 



A knightly figure amid the green, 



In khaki instead of mail, 

 A face of bronze, eyes quick and keen — 



Swift hoofbeats on the trail. 

 A home in the saddle through summer days, 



A bed 'neath the evening sky ; 

 Who is it that travels the silent ways? 



He's only a forestry guy. 



A camp on the heights, where snowbanks gleam ; 



A packhorse that's grazing near ; 

 No sound save tbe sound of the mountain stream — 



The town sends no echo here ; 

 A figure bathed in the sunset's fires ; 



Who dwells on these peaks so high? 

 Who travels amid these granite spires? 



He's only a forestry guy. 



A tendril of smoke in the valley, 



A flame that is fanned by the breeze ; 

 A break-neck dash down the mountain side 



And a fight for the living trees ; 

 A fight that is won, though the price is dear ; 



There are scars ere the red flames die ; 

 Who is it that dices with death each year? 



He's only a forestry guy. 



— Arthur Chapman. 



