Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1896-11-06
Pixies mLOLAmO.
The Forestry Commission Recommends
That it be Brought by the state.

That IL be Brought by the State.
The annual report of Professor ].
T. Rothrock, State Commissioner of
Forestry, has just been submit
ted in advance sheets to the gov
ernor. The report is very inn
portant, embodying many really
startling facts regarding the de.
struction of valuable timber land
each year by reason of forest fires.
The direct financial loss from these
fires was enormous, while the indi-
rect loss was even greater. One
firm in Pennsylvania has in recent
years lost $50, 100000 feet of timber
by reason of forest fires; another
has had 1875, 900 acres of land devas-
tated during the past season. OF
all the many causes which combine
to destroy property by fire, insur-
ance companies now place burning
forests third or fourth in the list.
Pennsylvania under original ma
tural conditions, the report contin-
ues, was one of the best wooded
states Gf, indeed, not the very best)
in the entire eastern half of the I'm
ion, Her forests were dense, her
trees large and valuable and they
probably comprised a variety that
was of greater commercial value
than could be found in any other
state. Now this is sadly changed.
1t can be scientifically demonstra-
ted that in the absence of forests ON
hilly regions the soil becomes i'm
poverished and barren, and that
floods will rush down from such
areas to the great detriment of the
regions below. Pennsylvania to-
day has many such tracts, and it is
an imperative public necessity that
this condition be remedied. The
change will involve half century
of work, and no person or persons
can be expected to undertake it.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
should do it for her own self-preser-
walton. Many localities have al
ready suffered greatly from the de-
struction of neighboring forests and
the harm which they may suffer is
not yet ended.
Fires are started in forests by
careless hunters or fishermen by
picknickers or by deliberate incen-
diaries. Occasionally too, in every
day weather, sparks from locomo-
tives cause widespread devastation.
The punishment for a careless or
willful setting of a forest fire, is too
easily escaped. The offender is very
seldom found at all.
Professor Rothrock finds that 1866
933 acres of forest land are main
tanned in Pennsylvania in connec-
ton with charcoal iron properties.
There is much ground in Pennsylva-
mia, once wooded, but now absolute
ly waste and barren and consequent
ly a menace to surrounding property
and life. The commissioner esti-
mates that in half a century this
state could have, on grounds other
wise of no value at all, a timber crop
worth 81, 500, ,009, 900. Hence, the
potential loss (not the actual) to the
Commonwealth for each fire or SER
les of fires that devastates the tim
Der producing areas is $50, 900, 900.
There are Approximately 15,972,-
737 acres of cleared land and 9,099-
817 acres of wooded lands now in
this state. These figures are COM
piled from assessors reports and do
not embrace the entire area of the
state, on account of carelessness in
official returns. Probably 1929 of
the area of the state is in timber.
Much of what is reported as tim
Der land, however, is not such in
any productive sense. There are
about $40 square miles, contingent
to each other and covering portions
of Monroe, Pike, Wayne, Luzerne,
Lackawanna and Carbon counties,
that present picture of desolation
and depopulation. This tract was
once wooded and would be valuable
if reclaimed.
The value of the report is very
greatly enhanced by some hundred
full page pictures, made from origi
nal photographs of trees, forests,
ETC., and taken by Professor Roth
rock himself, for the most part. A
portion of the report was prepared
by his predecessor in Office, w. s.
Skunk. The report is valuable and
interesting.
Learn to do little things as
though they were great" For lit
tie things are often the beginning of
great things, and even when they