Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1920 — A Sane National Forestry Program [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Sane National Forestry Program

MPngmred by the vuued State* Depart* ment of Agriculture.) before the triy* state forestry conference WRje how the United States is rapidly exhausting Its timher resources and at a comparatively early datg Bnay find itself largely dependent upon foreign sources, Lieut. Col. Henry K. Graves, chief of the forest service, United States department of agriculture, told the remedies that can be applied, and the measures that can be adopted, particularly in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, the three states for which the conference was held. “The solution of our forestry problem," said Colonel Graves, “consists tn stopping destruction by. fire and other agencies, by using methods that make possible natural reprbduction after logging, and by restocking the tree growth of lands that have been made economic wastes. The fear has been expressed by some that such an objective conflicts with the expansion of apiculture and stock raising. Exactly the contrary would be the result No sane program of forestry ■would propose the use of lands for forestry that are better adapted to agriculture * and settlement. Forestry, agriculture and stock raising go Hand tn hand. t-- - “In Illinois, Indiana and Ohio our ' problem Is essdhtially one of the | farm woodland. Herewe have to do with small tracts and operations. In some ways the problem is a simpler <me than in the great lumber regions. In the first place, the fire danger is easily controlled. Then again the work ean usually be brought into close correlation with other phases of farm ■mnagement. Of great value, also, la the fact that the owner himself is often the manager and can give personal -direction to the work of for“In such circumstances the aid of the states may be directed to showing the farmer how to cut his woodland in order to secure natural reproduction. how to thin the young stands •o as to increase their growth and value, how to reforest the lands now waste, how best to market his woodland products, and so on. Advice should be afforded through the state forester and the agricultural field agents. Planring stock should be offered at cost with assistance in establishing successful plantations. Co-op-erative marketing enterprises should be encouraged when this is practical.’’ Discussing the function of the federal government in meeting the forestry problem. Colonel Graves said: “The federal government has not gives adequate assistance to the states. Direct aid tothe states by the government, made contingent on adoption by the former of acceptable programs of forest legislation apd administration, would help to secure concurrent action in different states, enable the standardisation of methods, and enable the achievement of results impossible without such aid. “The first step in inaugurating a national policy of forestry is h federal law providing the authority to co-op-erate with the states in formulating and carrying out a program of forestry, and carrying an appropriation that can be used to assist such states as inaugurate and put into effect a program determined to be adequate by the secretary of agriculture. A great deal can be accomplished pending such substantial co-operation, but with the aid that the nation might offer, result? that otherwise would be impossible could be accomplished.” The forest situation. Colonel Graves pointed out, is of peculiar interest to Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Ail three stateshave a pressing problem of producing home-grown forests. They are ■abm vitally concerned in the forest situation in other parts of the coun-1 try, for they are large consumers of lumber and other wood products and the greater part of what they use already Is brought to from other states. “Illinota, Indiana and Ohio," he said, “together with the neighboring portions of Michigan and Wisconsin, constitute the moat important center of manufacturing indurtrfes in the country—that M the Industries making vehicles, furniture, railway cars.

tools, planing-mill products and the like. About one-third of the total capital Invested in the wood-manufac-turing Industries of the country and about one-third of the wage earners tn these industries are found in this section. They use five and a half billion feet of lumber a year, or about a quarter of the aggregate used in this country for such enterprises. “Today the home product does not nearly meet the annual requirements, but, further than that, the cutting that is done far exceeds what is grown each year. it is probable, from the best estimates that I have been able to secure, that the annual growth of material of potential value In the three states is not. over one-quarter of what If» cty each year. This means that the forests are progressively losing ground with considerable rapidity. “This deficit is due only in part to the clearing of land for agriculture. It is duh also to the failure to handle the lands in a way to secure good reproduction and properly to protect the young trees that become established. With better care and management the forest lands of these states should yield two or three times the present growth, and this would,.! believe, be possible without* checking the extension of cultivation over lands suited to that purpose. There are many convincing reasons why these states should produce as much as possible in the way of forest growth from land that Is best adapted to that purpose—and In the aggregate these areas amount to a great deal.” • GET TIfcETHER "The United'States 'Mist decide upcp a national forest policy tn order to perpetuate its timber supply,” says Cheries Lathrop -Pack, president of the American Forestry association. We are far behind Frdhce. Great Britain, Germany, Japan and other nations in this respect . The United States has only about one-fourth of its original forest and tills is now disappearing three times taster than It la bring reproduced. We must, before It is all gone, provide for a timber supply for our future needs and we can.do so if foresters get together with the lumber-men-and timberland owners and agree upon a practical, workable forest .policy. The country is grateful to Ooi. Henry 8. Graves, United States forester. for demanding a national policy at this time, and the foresters are the men whom the country ex-

pects to formulate this forest policy. It 1? their business to do it and to do it well. ' < The national and state governments hold only some 3.per cent of merchantable timber. Therefore, the majority of the owners of the timber must be in accord With any policy dictating the reforestation of their land before it can be successful. You cannot compel an owner to develop and perpetuhis timberland at a financial lossi if you wish him to reforest* his land, you must make it pay him, as other countries do. One most important feature of a national forest policy on which agreement Is possible is fire protection. Forest fires have this year caused millions of dollars of damage in the northwest The United States forest service spent more than a million dollars fighting these fires in July alone. Private agencies spent lavishly in protecting their lands but the fire protection measures in neither national, state or private forests are sufficient to properly protect them. Get together then on a national, stateand private forest fire protection program. It is the need of the hour and when this has been done the first step toward a mutually satisfactory national forest policy will have been made. Other features of this policy are certain to follow in due course.

VALUE OF FORESTS

"So important are forests in the life of a nation that Germany will find that France-will insist upon Germany’s paying |n lumber for the casualties of the French forests which were destroyed ddring the war,” declares P. S. Rldsdale, secretary of the American Forestry association, who has made a tour of the allied countries. Mr. Rldsdale went to Europe to investigate forest losses in fiance, Belgium, Italy and Great Britain, so that the American Forestry asp&iation might determine how America, could help to replace the forests of Europe by presenting for. est seed to the various governments. “In northern France many of , the forests,” he says, *have been so badly smashed by shell, shrapnel and rifle fire, or so badly cut for trench timbers, fuftl wood find Other supplies for the contending armies-that they have been virtually destroyed. They dm be restored only by replanting., “The agricultural land lying tween the forests in various sectors of the battle front have been'so torn to piece* by shell lire that if is no longer serviceable for agriculture and,’ like the devastated forests, will hare to be planted with forest tree seed so that In years to come the shellholes may be filled by gradual erosion and the humus of the soil restored. •' "Italy, Belgium and Great Britain will make similar requests.”