The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-12-23
SEVEN YEARS OF !
FORESTRY k|
Secretary Wilson Reports
Give Important Data Re-
garding tho Growth Of the
Movement
NEW PHASE or The WORK
EXPERIMENTS TRIED IN yARI-
Gus STATES HAVE PROVEN
MOST sUCCEssFUL-WHAT is
PROJECTED FOR NEW JERSEY.

MOS51 fSOSCEcScU " - w ia Ap
PROJECTED FOR NEW JERSEY.
The annual report of the Secretary of
Agriculture presents striking resume Of
the growth of forestry in the past seven
years. and of the part in this growth
which has been taken by the Forest Ser
vice.
"DDuring the past year. writes the
| Secretary, ''the government work in for
estry entered upon new phase. Prac-
tical work in the actual Introduction of
forestry began in 1898. But it was not
until February /, 1908, when the care Of
the national forest reserves was trans
! ferred to the Department of Agriculture,
that the Forest Service became an adj
ministrative organization.
| "This transfer was logical outcome
| Of the recent work of the service, Dur
| ing the last six or seven years it has
passed through a remarkable develop
ment, which has followed but not kept
pace with its demonstration of capacity
for public usefulness. On July i, 1898,
| the Division of Forestry employed eleven
persons, of whom six filed clerical or
other subordinate positions and five be-
| longed to the scientific staff. The divi-
sion possessed no field equipment; prac-
tically all Of its work was office work
"At the opening of the present fiscal
I year the employees of the Forest Service
numbered S21, of whim 153 were pro-
fessional trained foresters. Field work
was going on in twenty-seven States and
Territories, from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific, and from Canada to Mexico. Over
100000 acres of private forests were UNI
der management, recommended by the
service, and applications ON file for adj
vice from owners contemplating manage
ment covered 1000, 600 acres more. Dur
ing the year nearly 62,000 letters were
sent out from the offices at Washington,
the majority of them in reply to requests
| for information and advice from the pub
lie. of a kind which could not be met by
| printed information.
"This contrast imperfectly indicates
| the full extent of the change which has
taken place, and the progress which has
been made. Seven years ago there were
| in the whole United States less than ten
professional foresters. Neither a science
nor literature of American forestry
was in existence, nor could an education
! in the subject be obtained in this coun-
try. Systematic forestry was in opera
| ton on the estate of single owner, hon
/ orably desirous Of furnishing an object
lesson in an unknown field. Lumbermen
and forest owners were skeptical of the
success of forest management, and large
y hostile to ITS introduction. among
the pubic at large a 1eehng IN 1avor OF
forest preservation largeay on sentimental
grounds, was fairly widespread, but al
most wholly misinformed. u confounaeo
use with destruction, snadetree piant1ng
with forestry.
The real need OF forestry was urgent.
| A time had come which presented at
once great opportunity and danger
Gus crisis. Forest destruction had reach
ed point where sagacious men-most
Of all, sagacious lumbermen--couh plairl-
" discern the not distant end The lum-
Der industry, vial to the nation at large,
was rushing to its own extinction, vet
with no avenue OF escape apparent, until
forest management for future crops
should be forced by famine prices. Mean
while, however, the ruin would have been
wrought already.