The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-19
GRATIFYING RESULTS.

GRATIFYING RESULTS.
The movement inaugurated in this state
for the establishment OF q forestry re-
serve and national health resort has
been of gratifying value in the direction
of drawing the attention of the American
people all over the country to the steady
career of vandalism which is being prose-
cuted with reference to our splendid
wooded areas
Aside from the school of forestry which
has been established in connection with
Cornell university there is also a chair Of
forestry maintained in Berea university,
In Eastern Kentucky. There, almost in
the heart of the great Appalachian for
est. extending from Pennsylvania to Ala
bama the work of instruction goes on in
a limited way in the main requirements
to the preservation of our timber supply.
Prof Mason, who fills the chair Of for
estry In question, has recently contrib
uted an article to the Berea Quarterly, In
which he points out the great need Of
the instruction offered which exists in
| the immediate vicinity of the university
There 1t is a common practice to denude
the most magnificent trees Of their bark
| for tannery purposes, leaving the bodies
of the trees on the spot to rot Nothing
more wasteful or improvident can be
| conceived of than the methods adopted
| in the utilization of the trees down in
that country for industrial uses. When
given spot has been rid Of it's timber
growth the custom is to grub out the
growing saplings and plant the spaces
in corn, where in many cases on the-hill-
sides, the earth can only be held in place
by the roots of the trees.
This entire subject is happily attracting
close attention in the South Ten years
is long period to mention in connection
with the possible endurance of our own
timber growths in the Northwest. Here
the woodman's ak, shrewdIy guided by
our vast numbering concerns is doing the
work of destruction with a system and
completeness which has not yet extended
either to the Pacific coast or to the South,
while, with the single exception of the
Leech lake reservation, not a step has
been suggested by either private or public
influence to stay the progress of the de-
structive crusade. With an army of 1000
men working in the woods of Minnesota
for. the next five years as they have
worked for the past fifteen and over, the
condition. which Is already realized in
Michigan and Wisconsin will have surely
overtaken US.
Before the Southern industrial con-
vention at Huntsville, Ala, a few weeks
ago., a we'll informed gentleman called
attention to the need which exists all
over the great wooded region Of the South
for a system of forestry which will per-
nit the saving of all timber that is fit
TO be turned into lumber and protect the
growing trees, thus insuring continu-
ance of the supply from year to year
Prof Mason calls attention to the fact
that with it's utterly insufficient facilities
his university is aiming to establish a
general knowledge among the young men
Of Eastern Kentucky of the main re-
Quirements to judicious Use of the tim
Der growth around them. ct Is not the
purpose" says Prof. Mason. "to give
these young men en- education that will
take them away from their mountain
homes 50 much as to fit them to remain
there and infuse new life and energy into
their home neighborhood, to develop
every resource of forest and farm, to slim
ulate manufacturing. in short to help to
bring In thrift and prosperity where now
is much of poverty and lack of enter
prise" @
If such 4 spirit as this can be made to
manifest itself among the people with
reference to the splendid inheritance in
vast forest areas Of the American people
it will not be long until halt is called
on the scenes of destruction by fire and
az which are now in progress, and the
places which are deprived of their tim
Der growths will be given over again to
the production of an equally generous
and valuable timber supply for the bene-
fit of future generations For what has
been done In this state through the
medium of the Leech lake project we In
Minnesota have ample reason to be graf
flied.