The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-06
roREsrRY IyvrsrIGArSN-


An influential Committee.
Washington, March 5,-A special dis
patch to the New York Evening Post
yesterday says:
The greatest stroke yet made in aid
of forestry reform since the subject was
first agitated has just come from the
hand of Secretary Hoke Smith, He has
called upon the National Academy of
Sciences for the appointment of conf
mittee of eminent men of science TO go
into the field, study forest conditions
on the ground where they exist and
where the present shortcomings are
most obvious, and report both their
findings of fact and their recommends
| lions as to forestry policy to be adop-
ted by the government
Professor Oliver Wolcott Gibbs of
! Newport, the president Of the acade-
my, will be ex-offlcio a member of the
| committee. He is regarded by compe-
tent judges as having no superior as an
| investigator in chemistry and physics;
he is Rumford professor of chemistry,
and was at one time in charge of the
laboratory of the Lawrence Scientific
school. His position is conspicuous in
| the membership of various foreign sci
entific societies.
The chairman of the committee Will
be Charles Sprague Sargent, the emil
nent authority on trees. He is pro-
fessor in Harvard university and direc-
tor of the botanical garden and Arnold
arboretum. He was chairman of the
Adirondack forest commission of 1885.
He is the author of volume tx. of the
| on a f'ENnrect TrnaC ~
North America" work the parallel of
which does not exceed in any other
country; he is also the author of The
Silva of North America" which is re-
garded as the finest of all silyas yet
published.
Another member will be Alexander
Agassiz, the first living authority on
many subjects of natural history. He
resigned the curatorship of the Natural
| History Museum at Harvard in 1885 He
has had extensive experience in Cali
fornia and the northwest and is super
intendent of the Calumet and Heela
mines. His gifts to Harvard amount
ed, up to 1883, to half million dol
lars.
General Henry A. Abbot of the engin-
eer corps, retired, is regarded as the
leading expert on rivers in the United
States. He has been we'll known in
connection with the Pacific railroad
surveys and those on the Mississippi
delta He invented and developed the
| American system of submarine mines
for coast and river defence, and was a
member of the expedition to Sicily 10
observe the solar eclipse
Professor William H. Brewer has been
professor of agriculture at Yale since
1864, and wrote the first part of Walk
er's Statistical Atlas of the United
States" He was the first assistant on
the geological survey of California be-
tween 1860 and 1864. a professor OF
chemistry in the University of Califor-
MIA, and editor of the Botany of Cali
| fornia.'
Clifford Pinchot of New York is a
consulting and practical forester. He
is a graduate of Yale and has had a
| special training in foreign schools of
| forestry. He has paid attention to ev-
cry phase of the subject of forestry.
and is now in charge of the largest
single experiment in practical forest
economy in this country, on the Van
derbilt estate at Biltmore n. G..
Arnold Hague of the United States
Geological Survey is famous as west
ern explorer and author. He was en-
gagged for some years on the survey OF
the fortieth parallel and in geological
work in California, Utah, etc; was gov
eminent geologist in Guatemala in 1877
and did government work on the mines
in northern China in 1878.
III, 49,
committee with this remarkable person
mel will address it's attention are the
following:
Is it desirable and practicable to
preserve from fire, and to maintain per-
manently as forested lands, the wooded
parts of the public domain, for the sup
ply of timber?
How far does the influence of forest
upon climate, soil, and water conditions
make a policy of forest conservation
desirable in those regions where most
of the public domain is situated?
What specific legislation is required
to remedy the evils now existing?
This investigation will undoubtedly
have more influence upon congress than
all the work done by volunteer forestry
societies in the way of resolutions and
memorials, for the highest scientific
authority will thus be brought to bear
against the vaporous Claims of the
members representing public-land
states in behalf of the poor pioneer =
The latter style of argument-utterly
senseless and illogical because every
step taken toward an intelligent for
estry policy has been with a view to the
betterment of the condition of the hon
est settlers, though directed against
timber thieves and other rascals-has
been effective With too many we'll
meaning congressman hitherto. They
have felt their ignorance of the gen
eral subject, and have trusted for guild
ance to fellow members from the from
tier states, assuming that they must
possess the necessary practical knowl-
edge.
1t will be a handsome feather in Sec
rotary Smiths cap if, when he goes
out of office, it can be said of him
that he has given forestry reform in
the United States a greater impulse
forward than all his predecessors put
together.
| BURNED BY TR4MPS.
Asbury Park, March 5.-Two tramps
took possession of the old White bn,,se