Evening star., 1902-08-30
A NEW PROFESSION
Great Field for Young Men
offered by Forestry.
A SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM
AWAITING AN ANSWER BY OWN
ERS OF WOOD LANDS.
What It Has Already Demonstrated in
Tracts of the Adiron-
dackS.
A SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM
Written for The Evening Star.

| Written for The Evening Star.
new profession has been opened in the
| United States. 1t deals with a subject that
| is not only vital, but one whose vast i'm
| portance to both personal and national in
| terests has become thoroughly recognized.
1t is the profession of forestry
| OF course. there have been forestry ex-
| perts In this country for many years. But
most of them were government employees
] In one way or another, and government
control of forests meant generally only the
| conserving of tracts that were set aside by
state or federal authority, to be immune
| from the lumberman and to be preserved
| as parks and forest reserves
Until the new science shaped itself slow
| ly out of the war Of conflicting interests
| forestry in the United States. as interpreted
| by the public, practically meant only the
| question Of saving American trees from the
AK. But while all this superficial fighting
went on between lumbermen and their sup
| porters on one side and idealists and the
| OriStS the other the true science was
| shaping itself.
Young men. some sent by the government,
| others studying their own account were
learning in Europe what real forestry was
| IN the lands where, despite ages of lumber
| ing, the forests still stand thick and beau
| tiful.
In the past few years these men have
| been returning to tell America how to COM
bine profitable cutting with profitable pres
| ervation; and with the knowledge that
| shows forest owners how to draw income
from their property and yet keep it; in
| other words, how to eat their cake and have
| 1t, too, the new commercial profession of
| forestry has become important and
lucrative one
In many respects it is an ideal pursuit
| 1t offers unequaled opportunity for living
healthfnl nt-Of It
| deals with natures greatest beauties. 1t is
a profession that Is not crowded. 1t offers
| chances for wealth, since the trained eye Of
forester can see chances in the wilderness
which the unframed man, and even the
| trained but unscientific woodsman, would
not guess 1t is a business that promises
ample salary, for the forester can show his
| employers where they can save or earn
thousands of dollars that, without him,
would be lost
While the American forester must perfect
himself In his science by studying European
forestry, American conditions differ so rad
ically from those of Europe that forestry in
the United States is profession of its own
and the American has little to fear from
his older colleagues on the other side.
A Purely American Field
Henry S. Graves, superint endent of work
| ing plans of the Department of Agriculture,
explains this by saying that the American
forester must direct his efforts, not to the
DDS, but to devising systems which can be
adopted by land owners at once and which
are capable of development as the condi-
tions of the market allow them. In many
cases this system will differ radically from
any practiced in Europe.
A great field, where practical foresters
are needed badly and at once in America
Is on the vast woodlands owned or con-
trolled by paper manufacturing concerns.
Many of them are confronted with the
problem of a coming loss of their source of
wood pulp. Their one hope is to int roduce
such system Of numbering that they can
cut successfully crops of wood every twenty
or thirty years; that Is, to plant trees and
aid young trees now in the sections where
they are numbering, so that by the time
they have cut their way through their
property new forests shall have grown I'D
in the old sections.
There are millions of acres of land de-
voted to trees for wood pulp manufacture
There are more millions devoted to lumber
ing where practically the same conditions
preEail-that is, the owners realize that
they must conserve forests IL they expect
to get any future benefit from their prop
erty. A great proportion Of these woods
are on land that may never be available for
anything else. Consequently, If numbering
is done, with no provision for new growth
of trees the investments will be wiped out
the moment the last tree is cut down
The state of New York now holds in re-
serves 1.1G3,ooo acres of forest lands in the
Adironda ckS. and is acquiring more as fast
as appropriations can be obtained. At pres
ent the law prohibits cutting of any kind.
and the system of forestry is confined to
protecting the forests from fire and theft.
But in time il will become absolutely neces-
Sary to cut down proportion of the older |
trees, not for profit necessarily, but because |
the science of forestry includes the thinning
of forests in order to give the ma jority Of |
the trees the opportunity for development |
that is denied to them by the excessive |
growth of the big and aged trees.
1t is not only the product from the forest |
that interests the owners today. They have |
discovered that if they leave the small |
trees when numbering they can sell the |
prices, providing the cutting has been done |
SO wisely as to leave real woods. To do 1
this the services of the forester are indis- /
pensable. The American lumberman, as a |
rule, knows all about the best method Of |
cutting. but he knows nothing about con- |
serving.
Scientific forestry has received a great |
impetus in the last year from the great 1
preserves that have been established by |
such men as w. c. Whitney George Van
derbilt and DR.. w. Seward Webb and from |
the work of foresters like Clifford Pinchot. |
Whitney's Great Experiment.
Mr.. Whitney has a great tract of 6s,o00 |
acres in the Adirondacks, in which he is |
working out the problems of forestry and 1
game preservation. He has already intro |
duced moose and at present w. C. Har- |
ris. the ichthyologist, is studying the prob /
lem of fish supply there for him. Besides /
his own foresters, of whom he has a regi- /
ment, the foresters of the United States /
government have been studying his tract 4
and have laid out method of conserva-
tive numbering. This was done in accord
ance with an offer made by the Depart
ment OF Agriculture to all owners, public |
and private, Of forest lands, under which 4
the United States authorities volunteered |
to make studies Of certain tracts which 4