New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-10-02

In Europe 1t has been practlced for
centuries, but here in this country it
was not until the worlds supply OF
lumber was almost doomed that our
economists and statesmen were ava
kened to the Importance and necessity
of protecting our forests from the
wholesale destruction practiced by
lumbermen.
Forests are good deal like or
chards, they produce continuous crops
if scientifically managed. The lumber
man however treats the forests as he
would anime; he removes one crop from
it and that is the end of it. For the
individual there is no incentive to
practice conserv atlve forestry: life is
too short. Therefore it becomes the
federal governments duty to interest
itself in the problem.
We know that wood is indispensable
for a thousand different purposes.
Concrete and steel may take it's place
in number of instances, but they can
never wholly supplant it. On the con-
trary, the demand for wood constantly
increases and this too in face of the
fact that our forests are being depleted
and it requires from forty to three
hundred years to renew them.
That the government has made great
strides in the way of forest preserva
ton must be admitted.
Already 15O,0O0,0OO acres of public
lands have been set aside as national
forests and these are to be managed
according to the science of forestry.
The area is about twice the size of the
state of Minnesota. Most Of it is situ-
ated in the western states and includes
lands which are unfit for other pur-
poses, such as rocky areas, sandy hills
and regions too dry to sustain agri
culture. The preservation of the lum-
Der supply is not always the only rea-
son for the establishment of national
forest. Often it is established for
protecting certain watershed, to aid
irrigation or for the prevention of
floods. Mountainous regions which
are forested will give up their water
slowly after rain, but areas which
have been denuded of their forest
cover will allow the water to rush
down in torrents. Destructive floods
are often the result of the cutting down
of the forests.
National forests are created by acts
Of Congress or by presidential pro-
'clamation and President Roosevelthas
established a large number of them.
The forest is then put under the
supervision of the Chief Forester, Mr..
Clifford Pinchot, and each forest is
managed according to it's individual
needs.
The management of the forests in
brief is about as follows: Each forest
is put under the supervision of a
supervisor who has a number Of
rangers to assist him. The size of
each forest varies from 10000 acres to
four or five million acres. The super
visor is the administrative officer
while the rangers patrol the forest in
order to put out fires and to protect it
from trespass. An important thing in
the administration of the forest is the
sale of timber. When the timber
reaches maturity it should be cut, be-
cause after having reached maturity it
starts to decay and to deteriOrate
But only certain amount is to be
cut every year. This amount should
equal but not exceed the amount of
wood produced by the forest in one
year. In order to compute this
quantity the number of trees per acre
must be counted and also the annual
rings and from these figures the exact
amount Of actual increase in wood per
annum can be computed. Then also
certain trees must be left which are to
bear the seed for new crop. From
two to four good seed trees per acre
are usually sufficient. The timber is
sold on the stump and goes to the
highest bidder after having been ad-
vertised in the local papers for about
two weeks. In short the forests are so
managed that there shall be contin-
uous yield and the capital stock re-
main intact. The amount of standing
timber shall be increased rather than
diminished. This is what is meant by
the practice of forestry.
The science of forestry in the United
States is still IN a somewhat rudimen-
tary state, but now most of the bigger
Universities are inaugurating forestry
courses and the study of forestry is
fast gaining favor with students.
AT present the total number of en-
ployees in the United States Forest
Service number about 1,400. Many