The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1922-12-02
POPULAR FORESTRY.

It is interesting to watch the
growth of sentiment in favor of a
national policy for forest perpetual
ton. The daily press is full of it
and the great popular magazines OF
the country are devoting pages to
| theories of well-meaning individuals
on how to assure an abundant supply
of timber for coming generations.
Just as an instance, one may turn to
the October issue of McCalls Maga-
zine, and find an article of several
pages, illustrated, too, from the pen
of C. E. Chambers, current novelist.
Here one may learn hod to admins
ter the forests of the country for the
benefits of posterity.
Whether or not one agree with
M. Chambers appearance OF the ar
ticle presents an issue that cannot be
lodged, and that is the salient fact
that slowly and surely there is crys-
tallizing in the minds of the Amerl-
can public a sentiment for something
definite in the way of national for
estry program. The conclusion is
obvious-unless this public zeal is
guided intelligently by the lumber IN
dustry-legisiation is likely to be en-
acted that may not be to the best IN
terests of either the public or the
! lumberman. Just to show what the
public is reading on forestry matters,
we have taken the following extracts
from Mr.. Chambers article:
| ga treeless nation is a decadent
nation," asserts Chambers. when
the forests of country are neglected
the mental and moral health of the
| inhabitants begins to decline. Nations
made treeless by the hand of man are
diving nations. Nations which once
were great and which no longer count
are those the forests of which have
been ruthlessly destroyed. No mat
ter what political cataclysm has over
taken and submerged peoples whose
governments foster and care for for
ests, their potency remains, their
vigor still endures, their racial resur-
rection is certain.
"Take map of the world and look
upon the peoples who gradually are
perishing. Those doomed lands are
treeless. They are nations, which,
once mighty, have become negligible.
Once there were trees in Spain. Once
China grew vast forests.
Hatred for the forest was an evil
heritage for US. Heed lest it be not
our national undoing. Where forests
die, waters die. Where waters die,
the fruits of the earth perish"
The author brings to the reader
vivid pictures of devastation wrought
by floods following in the wake of
denuded lands. He tells that 800
years ago the forests and fertility of
America were supposed to be mex
haustible and that now three-ffths
of the original timber of the United
States has disappeared and that we
are using timber four times as fast
as it is being grown. Our country
once contained 822 100000 acres of
forest land, Chambers reminds, and
uIIfy vrrC-si7Atf tia vf this ssa-.~ ~,---@ ~a
mains. Three-quarters of the forests
of New England are extermlnated
and New York today produces less
than one-tenth of the lumber she re-
quires. 1t is added that the white
pine of Michigan, Minnesota and Wis
consin is about gone, as is the yellow
pine from the South. In twenty years
the hardwood forests of the Apala-
chians will be finished with those of
the Mississippi region. The cypress
is given score Of years to disappear
in.
"What remains?" is asked. The
L
And in thirty years that, too, will dis
appear. When the forests go, crops
go, herds and focks go, fertility de-
parts. Then the age-old phantoms
appear, stealthily one after another
flood, drouth, fire, famine, pesti-
lence."
Chambers ayers that the crisis a.
hand must be faced and that there is
still time to save the nation from
moral, physical and mental dr. rot.
He declares that the United States
should grow enough timber at ell
times for her own needs, for profit
able export, to protect water courses,
to safeguard the health of the people,
to protect the wild game and fish.
This can be done by federal govern
ment control of all numbering in the
country, declares the author.
The following rules would be laid
down by Chambers if he were to sug-
gest procedure: All numbering under
government control; for every tree
'felled a permit obtained; waste acres
planted to trees; seedlings, two-year,
three-year transplants, grown In fed
eral or state nurseries, should be
made available to all who desire to
start a patch of woods.
when two young people marry,
no better provision for children who
ought to come could be imagined than
the planting of the waste acres with
trees that would be a source of in
come to those children when grown
and ready to marry" declares Cham
bers. "All woodlands ought to be,
and can be, source of perpetual in
come to their owners......Let the fed
eral government control; the state
foster and encourage and make ac-
QUESTION easy. Would it be a hard
ship if state law made it obligatory
that a certain percentage of every
farm should be planted and maintain
ed in forests?
''There is another matter which
the writer has considered recently:
the planting and maintenance of
county forests in every state. Every
county contains land worthless for
any other purpose. What finer me-
mortal to those who served in the
Great War than a county forest, Of
fered, planted, guarded and main