Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-11-22
PRESERVATION OF VERMONT FORESTS

PRESERVATION OF VERMONT FORESTS.
The masterly plea for the preservation
of Vermont forests, by Hon. Chauncey
Smith of Boston, published in this issue,
is Justly commanding wide attention
throughout the State. Mr.. Smith is a
gentleman of high accomplishments, and
is doubtless, in this speciality, the abest
lawyer in the land. The article has al
ready been published in the Vermont
Watchman and the Vermont Chronicle.
The Watchman says:
In his letter transmitting his article on
the Green Mountains, Mr.. Smith re-
marks: "rhe merit of the article lies in
the extracts from the works of the late
George p Marsh, and it is for the pur-
pose of bringing this valuable but nearly
forgotten book to the attention of the
people of Vermont that have prepared
the article. My native town is Waits
field, and the Vermont Watchman was
almost the only current reading | had
access to when a boy. My father was a
not infrequent contributor to its col
umns." In concluding his article Mr.
Smith says: 81 cannot doubt that in this
appeal to the highest motives that actu-
ate man, as indeed in the whole book,
Mr. Marsh had before him the hope that
he might influence the people of his ma
tive State to preserve the beauty he loved
so we'll and the value of which he so well
understood. The work must be done
soon or the opportunity will be lost for
ever"
The Watchman further says:
Apropos of the subject of Mr.. Smiths
communication and of the proposition
that the State buy certain tracts of hill
and mountain lands to preserve their for
ests, we wish to call the attention of the
people of Vermont to the fact that the
New Hampshire legislature, at its recent
session, appointed commission to "ex-
anime and ascertain the feasibility of the
purchase by the State of the whole or
any portion of the timber lands upon the
hills and mountains in the State, near
summer resorts or bordering upon the
principal sources of the water supplies
needed for manufacturing purposes; with
the view of preserving the same as pub
lie lands and parks, and report their find
ing to the next session of the legisa-
ture." The commission has recently ap-
pointed two hearings In November, one
at Littleton, the other at Manchester, to
meet any persons who have any knowl-
edge or opinions on these subjects which
they are willing to express. The COM
mission also invites individuals to ex-
press their views by letter.
There can be no doubt of the power of
the State to take these lands for public
purposes for fair compensation and, if
public attention is but directed to the
matter, all doubts as to the expediency
of the Immediate Inauguration of meas
ures to that end will disappear. Never
in our history were the Vermont noun
tain forests so imminently and univers-
ally threatened as now The vast in
crease of the demand for lumber, the
added demands of the all-consuming pulp
mills, and the growing scarcity of other
accessible timber, have turned hundreds
of greedy eyes to the supply that yet re-
mains to adOrn our mountains and foot
hills. And they are getting possession
of it, too, with appalling rapidity. The
Watchman says: "a bald aud unsightly
area on the slope of Camel's Hump has
been created within few years, and
yearly lumbermen, with an eye single to
the largest possible gain, are encroaching
on and destroying the picturesque beauty
of Mansfeld's mountain precincts" The
same work of destruction is carried on
along the whole line of our only
remaining belt of virgin forest. In
this county, a single individual, by
persistent effort and at great expense,
has secured some twenty thousand
acres, which, during his life at least,
will be preserved. But individual re.
sources are too small and individual