The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-20
FORESTRY WORK
 DONE IN AMERICA Value of Timber Is At Last
 Appreciated PLANS FOR PROTECTION United States Ranks Third Largest Forest Owner in World-Russia and Canada Alone Are
 Ahead.
PLANS FOR PROTECTION
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN.

BY FREDEktC Js r1ASNIN'
 The United States government is the third largest forest owner in the worlo' heinz ranked only by Russia and Canada If has over 1oo000.0O0 acres of wooded lano or land suited to forestation, these being scattered throughout the country under 59 distinct forest reserves. Such holdings are among the government most recent acquisitions, and so new was the science of forestry when the hrst res ervations were set aside few years ago that the situation was almost embarrass- ing. Half the nation did not Know TOT some time that the government had un- .dertaken the work of preserving the 1or- ests and the majority of the other halI regarded the movement with conducting emotions of indifference and suspicion. Forest owners openly opposed the la" allowing the government control or so much domain, and congress lrdhhis didn't think much of it at first. Forestry was an untried science on this side of the ocean. snd though the first foresters had to L~ sent abroad to fit themselves for the work all they learned could not be applied here. Like most other American endeavors, a new path had to be broken for its successful operation, and Old World plans modified to meet peculiar New World conditions.
 A quarter of a century ago there was little hindrance in the way of the hunter, the herder, and the lumberman. They went where they chose and in their ig- norance of economic values and in their indifference to the rights of others killed animals as they would, grazed over val uable undergrowth, and cut and slashed mercilessly through great forests, leaving a trail of death and barren desolation be- hind them. Today, they who would enter most of the great forests of the west, no matter on what errand, are met at the opening of some natural aisle by ranger and politely and closely questioned as to the object of,their invasion. If the errand be merely a pleasure trip, and if 1t be in game season, fire arms are sealed and re- turned to the travellers, and they are given warning regarding the care of the camp fires they may build. As far as they go through these government do- mains the travellers will find these cow
 boy-lilSe rangers mounted on wiry cayuses, lariat, and canteen at the saddle skirts, and the wise lore of forest lovers written in the keen eyes or on the sun burned faces. They are there to guard the forest from depredations, to assist in it's preservation, to oversee its judicious thinning as the trees mature, to watch
 
 forestation has been tried, and to keep an ever vigllant eye for fires that have cost the nation already many uncounted mil | lions of dollars.
 The present stumpage of the United States is, according to Fernow's Eco
 monies of Forestry 2,0O0 0000, 100000 feet,
 standing on 100000 acres. A century ago it was vastly more, and in the ages of long ago, before Greek scientists began to dream that the world was round and that there were people living on the other side,
 aboriginal American people were sys- dramatically destroying forest lands until year by year the western winds had
 famed the fires of nut hunters farther | and farther east, leaving a barren tract behinu and so forming the prairies of to-
 day. The first settlers regarded tho won derful forest wealth with pardonable ave and reverence, and having imbibed an Old | World regard for conservative foresting, | would have applied their principles here, | but they soon found the trees hindered l the spread of their farm lands and har- | bored hostile savages. and when this rev.
 erence changed to enmity, the trees be- came an easy prey to the pioneer folk | and to their children.
 | The need of lumber for homes, for
 ships, for fire wood, for the thousand and | one accessories to civilized progress of
 the nation, soon made numbering one of
 the greatest industries. First the center
 was in the New England States and men
 with axes and saws and great log teams | invaded the forests and cut and sawed
 and endangered their lives in floating logs
 down stream until today Maine. the great
 ''pine tree state.' must import her own piano lumber. Then the center swept to the virgin forests of the middle northeast | until men who had ruthlessy cut and | burned among the forest lands awoke to | the realization that they must themselves soon be paying s15 a cord for firewood Then the south became the center build CTS and manufacturers taking toll of the | great forest lands there until Memphis has arisen to prominence as the greatest | hardwood lumber market in the world and stack of blanks covering over 4o acres is an everyday sight in the terri tory bordering on Wolf river. This sec tion cannot long remain the center under existing conditions. Then the call Of the west will be heard and where even now l giant sequoias and Douglass frs are he ing skidded down the mountain and sent off by ship or rail to meet the ever grow ing demands, and even greater percen- tage will be taken. and the west, too will l pay the price of national prosperity The north still has 500, GOO OO0 GOO feet standino
 the south 100000. 100000, and west 500 .O0O. : eoo,Vp-put With the nation using annu- ally 400 board feet of lumber per capita | against Europe's 60 rlet per capita. tbe law of supply and demand may not al
 ways be commensurate.
 | The people of the United States have suffered at their own hands, or at the
 hands of their neighbors for two cen turies or more. Mountain sides, denuded | Of their forests, have no longer been able
 to conserve the rain and snow fall, and | sudden. dangerous floods have been pre-
 cipitated in the valleys below eroding the | hillsldes. sweeping alluvial lands out to
 sea. rendering farms unproductive, and | ieaNing no water reserve for summer
 days. With no trees to break the wind
 or to temper the climate winter and sum | mer, decided climatic revolution has | swept over some sections. Sheen and | goat raisers have allowed their fiocks to l graze over great sections of forest land
 where they have swept the floor of tbe | hills clean before them. stripping vonne 1 trees of their foliage, eating all grass and young shoots and trampling the ground | Into barren waste, the land behind | stretching out as desolate as though A fire
 had blown that way. Fires from lumber
 mems camps, from hunters pipes, from
 trains, from Indian nut gathers small
 clearing flames. and from lightning-strucIS l trees have burned not only the trees and undergrowth. but have eaten several feet
 deep into the rich leaf mould below. rem 1 dering the soil almost too sterile for i'm
 mediate forest reproduction.
 | When the nation awakened to the grav- | lty Of this situation, steps were taken tn