LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



To His Excellency, Hon. William E. Glasscock, Governor of 

 West Virginia, and President of the State Geological Survey 

 Commission : 



Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith Volume V of the 

 general series of Survey publications. This volume on Forestry 

 and Wood Industries of the State has been prepared by Mr. A. 

 B. Brooks, a practical woodsman who has given special attention 

 to Forestry during his training at the State University. Mr. 

 Brooks is at home in the forests, and knows the trees and their 

 habits from long and intimate acquaintance. No subject except 

 the mineral fuels is of equal importance to the future of our 

 State. Every year the supply of available timber grows less. The 

 accompanying map will show how small is the area of Virgin 

 Forests yet remaining in our State, a mere fragment of what 

 it was even within the recollection of the writer. Vast areas of 

 our mountain regions unfitted for agriculture could be re- 

 forested at great profit to the State, if the matter were taken 

 up systematically under proper forestry laws which minimize 

 fires and encourage tree planting. Whether the State should 

 acquire these cut-over and unproductive lands as is being done 

 in our sister states of Pennsylvania and New York, and proceed 

 to reforest the same, or whether such encouragement should 

 be given to the private owners in the shape of reduced or nom- 

 inal taxation as would encourage them to undertake systematic 

 reforestation are questions that should engage the serious at- 

 tention of our statesmen. At the present rate of exhaustion, 

 15 to 20 years will practically see the end of our virgin forests, 

 and with annual forest fires sweeping through the cut-over 

 areas, it will be a century or more before nature unassisted can 

 reforest these areas and produce another crop of merchantable 

 timber. The price of lumber to all the citizens of West Vir- 

 ginia must greatly advance with the disappearance of the pres- 

 ent virgin forests, so that the question of reproducing other 

 forests to replace this vanishing heritage is one that affects 

 financially every citizen of the State. 



