Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-05-19

given to forest preservation.
Foresight of Lumber Barons.
1.-THE people when 1t was almos
past remedy began to feel the pincl
The Delaware county farmer found
impossible to get at all what he ha
been accustomed to get and when h
was forced to accept and use inferio
lumber, he must pay the prices h
had been paying for the best, 500
more than that, and coming timbe
famine had indeed and in truth cas-
its shadow before. The lumber king
wiser in their day than the lumbe
consumers had been at work am
through every device, legal and il
legal, in storm and sunshine, white
and summer. they had gathered i,
every acre of the timebered portion
OF the peoples heritage they coult
possibly acquire and they are still
busy. In 1891 congress, at last par
daily awakened to the necessity fol
some action to stay the outflow Of
The national patrimony, empowered
the president to set aside and reserve
rom disposition lands bearing for.
ests, as public reservations and the
President proceeded with little de.
ay to create several reserves by ex-
ecutiye proclamations. No provision
vas made by law to make the reser.
Sat1ons thus created serve the pur-
pose for which they were created
out storm of protest we'll nigh
overwhelmed congress. 1t was an
outrage to withdraw from entry ana
settlement such enormous areas OF
and. The near statesmen doing
he bidding Of their masters the
lobby" shouted themselves hoarse
With the cry "give us men and let
he trees go" But the day had
iassea when such talk was potent
anoush and presently the Act OF
1897 came to provide for the manage
nent of the forest reserves, and the
crest service languishing up to this
ime but always keeping before the
jeople the need for action same into
living, active existence and came to
re a member of the official force
.harged with the work of attempting
% secure the objects for which the
aw was enacted. Few of us at that
line knew anthing of scientific for
.stry, few in the public service had
nore knowledge of practical forestr,
md fewer still had any knowledge
II the country in which the few Gre
ated forest reserves were located.
Il have often wondered what the
thought or expectation of our legis-
AZURE was. Our secretary knew nc
more of the forests than he could
earn by looking out of the window OF
l Pullman car. The commissioner o.
he general land Office was little bet
.er equipped for the work. The CHIEF
II. the division having the work III
:harge was no wiser. The agricul-
ural department had the men OF
science but they were without author
ty, without recognition and so far
without standing. We must -procede
prepare regulations and prepare
make an effort to enforce the law
md a few earnest studious men ana
Women undertook the work and rules
we're formulated and beginning
Jade but when ] came into the work
GERS dealing with the rudlmentary
questions in practical forestry aftei
lassing through the hands OF several
Jerks who were compelled to admit
hat they knew nothing of such mat.
-ers came to my desk as an expert.
nent. ! prepared response and I've
oeen in the forestry work since that
lay.
Forest Reserves an Empire.
ut will interest you to look over
he field of our labors and here let
ne say hesitate. have never seen,
leard. never expect to hear from hu-
nan tongue or see written by the
land of man an adequate description
If the territory covered by the orig
nal forest reserves now known as
national forests and those of later
The more accessible por-
lions of the forest lands of our
:ountry had largely passed into pri-
sate holdings and it was to the
that we must now look,
he great unknown, to the many, ST.
ient places, of the great western
had come to be the last
bulwarll against the men,
ace of treeless country, the abom-
nation of desolation. Few CT us know
much of that country, most of us
nothing, its immensely is almost in
its wonderful seem
cry unparalleled in the known world,
It's resources but family compre-
lended, its magnitude too great for
even /, approximate understanding.
Consider. the present area of the
national forests approximates $780,
100000 acres, an empire, the hertz
ige of people. Lofty peaks crowned
With perpetual snow, vast Sketches OF
barren rocky slopes, below the line
If perpetual snow, stretches of equal
elevation more fayorably located and
With more and better soil set with
itunted shrubbery, or a scrubby
growth of mountain pine, juniper OF
some other of the many species THU
live and thrive in high attitudes, and
presently at lower attitudes scat
.ering growth of such timber species
IS take kindly to such elevations diff
tering much according to the lati-
tude, and now we find pretty we'll
distributed the grasses on which the
mountain sheep, the elk and to some
extent the various species of deer
iced and thrive during the season
When the higher elevations are their
Natural resort. And now we come
Town to the timber belt, the land of
The pine and spruce, the fir, the
cedar, the whole line of timber trees,
he land of springs, the sources OF
he little mountain streams that
mite to make up the great Mississ-
ippi system, the Rio Grande, the
Colorado, the Columbia. 1t is 8
soodly land, stretches of timber SC
grand as to be indescribable, beauti-
Jul parks or natural meadows set
with the richest grasses, winding
valleys fertile as the richest gardens,
and all interspersed with hills often
steep and rugged, generally produc-
ing a scrubby growth of cedar,
Juniper, maZanita, or some other of
the many-inferior varieties of shrub
berry that serve their purpise in the
economy of nature but our interestain
them is intensified by our knowledge
that they help to retard the melting
of the snow and to hold the moisture
that keeps alive the springs and
streams instead of allowing the snow
to met at once, flood and destroy the