Few states in the whole Union have so much to gain by protect- 

 ing their forests — as West Virginia, and few states have done so 

 little in this direction as we have. The State of West Virginia 

 has less than 25,000 square miles, and 18,000 square miles of this 

 is forest. This includes, however, cut-over and burned over 

 tracts, many of them having but little value at the present time, and 

 some of them having been burned over by fire so many times, that 

 they are ruined for all time. 



To the thoughtless individual, a law looking toward the con- 

 servation of the forests of West Virginia, might seem foolish at 

 this time, but to the close observer, or the one that has made these 

 matters a study, it is conceded to be one of the greatest problems 

 that confronts us today. 



The white pine, which a few years ago extended in a broad belt 

 across the state, following the parallel ridges of the Allegheny 

 range, is almost a thing of the past, and the hemlock and the 

 spruce are now going the way of the white pine. One has but to 

 witness the tracts of timber that are now being cut in West Vir- 

 ginia, especially the ones where pulp wood is being taken off, to 

 grow sick at heart, to witness these once beautiful forests areas 

 stripped of every living particle of timber, and left unprotected 

 and unguarded from the forest fires — that year after year burns 

 over these tracts until they are completely ruined for all future 

 time. 



By all rules of forest economy, these saplings should not be 

 cut, and the State certainly should have a right to enact a 

 statute controlling such matters, and save this great asset for the 

 use of future generations. 



Tanneries, in the search for bark, have literally wiped out 

 forests which formerly seemed exhaustless, and saw-mills follow- 

 ing the bark peelers, have consumed the trunks of trees, and the 

 destructive forest fires following the saw-mills, have consumed 

 most everything else. 



The situation is not yet hopeless, but is, in a way, discouraging, 

 and the time is here when something must be done along this line, 

 if it is ever done. 



A great portion of the hardwood tracts of timber yet remain in 

 our State, and if we are to ever have a forest policy, now is the 

 time to begin, for a forest policy will be of no benefit to us ten or 

 twenty years from now — when our forests have all been depleted 



