Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-11-01

WASHINGTON. Oct. ga
measure which is designed to put
all of the forest lands in the Unit
ed States, whether owned by the
state, by the nation or by private
individuals, in a condition of maxi
mum productivity is to be strongly
urged upon the present Congress by
the industries of the country which
are dependent upon forest products.
Their first effort is to bring home to
the American citizen the fact that,
although he lives in one of the nm
est timber-growing countries in the
world, his domestic timber supply is
being rapidly exhausted He is pay
ing higher prices every year for
paper lumber and all other wood
products. More and mor of them
are being imported every year.. Our
forest lands are producing only a
fraction what they might produce
and the amount of employment
they afford is correspondingly
limited. A national forest policy is
to the interest OF everyone in the
country.
The various great ~wood-using in
dGstries are supporting the Smell
Bill which embodies exactly what
they want in the way of timber
conservation. Strangely enough,
the experts of the Forest Service,
the American Forestry Association,
and many others interested in con-
servation, seem to be equally salts
fed with this measure. In a word,
the business men and the scientists
for once seem to agree upon what
is needed. And the business inter-
ests for once seem to have per-
ceived that their interests will best
be served in the long run by a
policy of conservation, not one of
implanted exploitation.
The trouble is to arouse public in
terest in the measure. Roosevelt
years e aroused public interest in
forest conservation to a high pitch
when he succeeded in having the
national forests created. The crea-
ton and use of the national forests
has been one of the few indisputa-
HE triumphs of American legisla-
tion and administration. The av-
erage man thinks it solved the for
estry problem for all time. AS a
matter Of fact, while it helped
greatly, it could not in the nature
Of the case solve it. The national
forests are all but a few small areas
in the West. The act came too late
to enable the government 10 get
larger tinber areas in the East.
Hence the forests protect only a
few varieties of trees, and not the
most important. BY far the greater
part of the national forests are tim
bered only wit hpine, spruce and fir
soft woods of relatively low value
The oak, maple, walnut and other
20 ura ITa h. RI vrnaAa nna aaa1Tr
protected by them at all. Further
more, the government is limited by
the act in it's acquisition of forest
lands. to those that protect water
sheds. This has kept the Forest
Service protection away from i'm
portant areas.
Timber Wasted
It is the a timber areas, and
areas that might be covered with
timber. in private ownership, that
are being wasted. Fire, for one
thing lis destroying billions of dol
lars worth of timber. Nearly all of
it could be prevented. In the sec
ond place, many pieces of land
which are admirably fitted for
growing timber, and are not useful
or used for anything else, have
long lain waste, and must be refor-
ested. In the third place, owners
OF timber lands. and especially
small owners. have no conception
Of using a forest as a permanent
source of wealth, to be cropped at
intervals. American land owners
as a whole, have not learned even
the rudiments of silviculture. To
cut timber in this country still
means TO wipe a valuable natural
resource out of existence.
The Smell bill is designed to rem
edy all of these evils. 1t provides
a Federal appropriation to be used
in cooperating with the states in
protecting and renewing their for
ests. The states are required to
put up as much money in each in
stance as the Federal government.
This part of the measure would
mean the introduction of uniform
efficient methods of fire protection
and reforestation in every state.
The need for it may be gagged from
the fact hat experts pronounce our
forest fire protection system only
25 per ent efficient. There are
about 175,000, 900 acres of forest in
this country which are not protect
ed from fire at all. and this means
wealth going up in smoke just as
surely as If you touched a match to