The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-11-23
APPALACHIAN WOODLANDS,
FOR ESTRY WHERE TT IS MOST
 NEEDED.
Effort of Berea College to Establish n Practical School Near thc Finest Hard-WoOd Regions of the Country.

A knowledge of forestry should b spread among all classes of people { dWellers In cities or on farms, citizens
 of prairie states or of timbered ones
 hrst, because all are participants in tho
 same benefactions, and second, because
 rom the nature of the problems. many of them can be successfully met onIy
 py state and national action, and sucf
 acton can be secured only through in- terested and properly instructed voters Ana there are special sections where the forests are so extensive, and where so many people derive a living from
 them in one way or another. that for est teaching of thoroughly practical
 and applied character seems especially needed.
 This Is conspicuously true of eastern
 Kentucky and the Appalachian region
 generally. Here is a region of country
 with a temperature and rainfall espec-
 lally favorable to the regeneration and
 growth of hardwood timber, and it
 was originally covered with perhaps the
 most extensive and valuable mixed
 forest growth in the United States.
 While some fine farming land is found
 along the valleys of the larger streams,
 the greater portion of the country is so
 hat fa ir,o ie. mi ty
 great disadvantage or is wholly impos-
 sible. Here is a region that when more
 fully penetrated by railroads is within
 easy reach of the great Atlantic sea-
 ports and important interior cities. It
 Is a safe assertion that there is no sec
 ton of the Union where so large pro- portion of the total area could so ap-
 propriately and profitably be left in permanent forests. With the enact ment of suitable fire laws, and the in as to permit the natural regeneration or valuable species which goes on so spontaneously if not interrupted, the forests of this region could be made a permanent source of employment and maintenance to large population.
 Up to the present time much of the valuable poplar or white-wood timber has been transported by the primitive methods of driving the logs on the small streams when tide" or sudden rise affords water enough to move them, and when the larger streams, as the Kentucky, Big Sandy, Licking or Co lumbia rivers are reached, rafting or floating them on down to the great saw mill If the logger's little branch" OF home stream, is not likely to afford suf- ficient water to float out his logs, he builds an ingeniously constructed splash dam to empound a supply of water, hauls his logs into the creek bed in front of it. and when the opportune moment arrives, knocks loose the key wedges to his dam and has "tide" to order. In sections penetrated by rail- roads the portable saw-mills cut up a great deal of the timber that is within hauling distance of the station. A lit- tie way back from the means of trans hundreds of clearings have oeen made by ''deadening" trees that would have been of great value near a market, while thousands of trees of the chestnut yoak have been 'elled simply to peel /off the tan bark, eaving millions of feet of choice lum per rotting on the mountain side.
 In order to secure the scanty grazing or a few cows, annual fires are often let that burn over and destroy the young timber that would soon come up 0 take the place of that which has ,een marketed, finally leaving only worthless brush and briars in posses ion. Such wasteful methods have been of nearly all forest ope- atons in this regon. General educa- ion in forest matters, and increased | means of transportation are the only | emedies.
 Berea college is located at the en- | rance to this great natural forest re- ion from the north. Her mission is | rst of all to, bring and uplift the inspi- aticn of Christian education to those 1ho are to be tolers and bread winners. large proportion orf our students | ome from the region thus sketched to 1 UT readers, and most of the young men ave been bred to a familiarity with hopping and logging. Some of them ave NTlNeD lDSS, WOThllS WdlSt qeep | l the icy waters of a winter "tide," or ave guided the rafts over the danger us currents of the rivers to the lower lnls, that they might get together the ew dollars needed for term in Berea hey can tell you to fraction of an lch the size that q railway cross tie lould be heWn, or the size to split
 ckory spoke billet. Many of them ave acquired a good deal of their fath- s judgment in estimating the number 1 feet of lumber in popular log, or in cl1ing out white oak tree that will ve free and true into slaves or 3oards," as their long. hnshaved shin es are called. They have. intact q sry good and necessary foundation of tactical forest knowledge, though they obably never heard the term "fores- y" used till they came to Berea Now it. Is not the purpose of Berea to i'll take them away from their moun- in homes so much as to. fit them to re- ain there and infuse new life and en- ey into their home neighborhood, to velop every resource of farm and for | t. to stimulate manufacturing; in ort, to help to bring in thrift and osperity where now is much of pover- q
 and lack of enterprise. It Is as inn ! rtant to these people to know all that + n be made of these forest lands and ! U
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