Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-08-10
FORESTRY.


The Forestry Commission.
From the Darlington Free Press
As our readers will remember, the subject
of the condition of the forests in this state
came before the legislature, at its recent ses-
sion, and joint resolution was adopted, di-
recting the Governor to appoint three COM
missioners ITO inquire into the subject Of the
forests Of Vermont, as to their extent and
condition, and what II any measures should
be taken in respect to their protection and
to report the same at the next session Of the
Legislature" Under this resolution, Governor
Barstow appointed Ex-Governor Redield
Proctor, Hon. Frederick Billings and Hon.
L. j. Phelps, as commissioners, and they or
ganized by choosing ex Governor Proctor MS
chairman. That gentleman prepared and
forwarded to careful persons in all parts Of
the state, circulars requesting information as
to the extent of the forests in each locality,
the progress being made in stripping them,
and so on. The gentlemen addressed have
been gathering the information desired, and
answers from nearly all of them have been
received and when all the returns shall have
been received and collated the commissioners
will begin their sessions, having before them
the data for thorough and exhaustive in
vestgation of the subject.
In the meantime several important propo.
sitions are under consideration by the com.
missioners. The first is that the legislature
be asked to prohibit the railroads in this state
from using wood in their locomotives. 1t is
believed that the quantity of timber taken
out for lumber is so small, comparatively,
that the natural growth of our forests is suf.
ticient to replace it, and more but it is the
enormous amount of wood for fuel annually
demanded by our railroads that causes the
denudation of our forests. Such n matter will
strike most laymen as a queer one for legsla.
tive Intervention; but the eminent lawyer
who is q member of the commission has, we
understand, given it as his opinion that the
legislature has perfect right to make and
enforce the prohibition alluded to. Whether
the legislature can be persuaded to do So is
of course quite another question. Many far
mers who own timber land would doubtless
object to such legislation but after ALL they
ought to see that the preservation of the for
ests will in the long run enure greatly to their
benefit, giving them advantages which no
merely temporary gain could for the moment
be compared with In this connection we
may say that prominent and wealthy citi-
zen of Addison county Hon. Joseph Battell
has purchased twelve thousand acres of
land in that county for no other purpose than
to preserve the forests which now flourish
upon it from destruction. Had tine state q
few more men as actively interested in the
subject there would be no need of a forestry
commission.
The commissioners, furthermore, are CON
sidering the desirability of further restrictive
legislation and of Offering in some form,
bounty on tree planting. OF course they
have as yet formed no definite plans, and we
give this brief summary of some OF the sug-
gestons presented 10 them in the hope that
it may elicit a discussion which will be of ser
vice and interest. As to the commissioners
themselves, we can only repeat what we have
before said, in substance-that each of them
is much interested in this subject, and one or
two of them, perhaps all, have made it a
study to a greater or less extent that they
can be relied upon to give careful attention
to the matter committed to them to obtain
the needed information aud place it clearly
before the legislature, while any recommen-
dations of needed legislation or other meas.
ures for the protection of our forests, from
such commission will come with very great
weight; and that their report cannot fail to
be document of great public interest and
value.
That it is high time the state took some de-
cided action in this important matter of the
preservation of its forests is evident to ev-
cry thinking man. 1t was nearly forty years
ago that George P. Marsh, in public ad-
dress, said
The changes which these causes Cthe
stripping of our forest) have wrought in the
physical geography of Vermont within sin.
gle generation are too striking to have es.
capped the attention of any observing person
and every middle.aged man, who revisits his
birthplace after few years absence, looks
upon another landscape than that which
formed the theatre of his youthful tolls and
pleasures. The signs of artificial improve
ment are mingled with the tokens of improv-
ident waste, and the bald and barren hills,
the dry beds of the smaller streams, the ra.
vines furrowed out by tho torrents of spring,
and the diminished thread of interval that
skirts the widened channel of the rivers,
seem sad substitutes for the pleasant groves
and brooks and broad meadows of his ancient
paternal domain"
That was before the days of railroads and
if the denudation of our forests effected such
changes then, how much greater must be the
changes now going on. Our white pine for
ests were long ago practically exhausted, and
are represented only by comparatively
small amount of second growth. Our spruce
forests are going the same way. The census
of 1880 reports that during the previous year
nearly two hundred million feet of timber
was cut. And to judge from accounts in our
state exchanges of numbering operations, an
increased amount of lumber of all kinds has
been cut every succeeding year. At this rate
the state will be deforested within very few
years.