Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-06-09
FORESTRY QUESTION.
The Department of Agriculture is Work
ing for the Preservation Of West
ern Forests.

There is n subject of interest to the
western country, to which the govern
ment is at this time, giving especial at
tention. It is tree planting. While the
forestry division of the department of
agriculture is supposed to look into
forestry questions for the entire United
States, as a matter of fact, special direc-
ton is now being devoted by the new
forester, Mr.. Clifford Pinchot, to the con-
ditions in the plains states and the
Rocky Mountain states. The forests
have such a close relation to the meis-
ture supply and the general subject of
agriculture in the west that the depart
ment of agriculture foresees the necess-
ity of making an investigation. which
will show the exact condition of the
forests and wooded mountains whence
come the rivers and streams, and the
effect of the deforestization which is now
going on through the cuttings of the
lumbermen and devastations from fires.
During the past twenty years a great
deal has been done in the way of tree
planting in the west. the timber culture
law being enacted by congress in the
hope of building up tree areas. This
law generally proved a dismal failure,
yet a vast amount of artificial tree plant
ing has been successful. While the
forestry division is in favor of anything
which will perpetuate or propagate tree
areas, it is proposed in the first place,
before going into any planting schemes,
to carefully collect all the data which
can be found on the subject of tree
planting. 1t is sometimes fully as i'm
portant to have evidence of a failure as
of a success, for, if the experiment has
been we'll made, the knowledge of its
failure will obviate the necessity for
further trial. In this connection, Prof.
j. w. Tourney, the botanist of the Ari-
iona experiment station, and a practical
forester, is now making a tour through
the west in the interests of the agricul-
tural department. The government
forester himself, Mr.. Pinchot, is also
about to start on a trip into the north
west taking with him a forestry class,
consisting of young men who are max
ing a special study of the subject.
While forestry has not yet come to be
generally considered an important
branch Of the government, the subject is
one which is undoubtedly coming to the
front in this country, and forestry and
irrigation are destined soon to be, if they
are not already, the two leading prob
lens for the west. Our great natural
our and the vast areas of
uncut timber in the United States have
kept the attention of the people from
the necessity for some such line of action
by the government as is practiced in
European countries, where this branch
of agriculture is recognized as of the
highest Importance. France, Germany.
Italy and other continental countries are
as careful of their forests as of their
waterways, and hundreds of thousands
of dollars are spent annually by their
governments in reclaiming worn-out and
waste land by planting it with trees;
while the Crown forests are administered
by the governments with distinct profit
to the state.
1t will be a long time, Mr.. Pinchot
says, before the forests of the United
States are managed as he would like tt
see them, namely, after the manner ir
vogue in European countries where the
forestry question is an old one and the
word virgin" is unknown. There the
most absolute system in the forest man
agement prevails and growth and rota
ton of forest crops are made as much o.
a study as any other branch of agricul