Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-09-24
Editorial Comment
New England Ready to co.operat
(Boston Transcript

(Boston Transcript
1t is we'll within the memory of a
good many New Englanders now liv-
ing when sheep We're commonly
spoken of in the farming regions as
mortgage lifters. Since the Civil
War wool has played but a small
part in the rural economy of this
region, and the farmer with a mort
gage on his back has frequently had
the man who had piece of saleable
timber on his property, for here was
a source of ready cash equal to his
financial necessities. Too often,
though, the farmer has received but
fraction of what was his due in
such transactions, owing to his
ignorance of timber values, and al
most invariably the future produce
tiveness of his woodlot has been sad
ly impaired by his failure to restrict
the timber operator in the removal
of the stumpage. Today there is a
good reason for hoping that the New
England farmer will again find profit
in sheep, and he is realizing as never
before that his woodland should not
be regarded as a wild waste but
merits as much intelligent care as
any Of his crops. The senatorial
Committee on National Forest Policy.
which opens it's hearings in New
England with a session in this city
on Saturday of this week, will prob
ably be impressed with the fact that
this section of the country is wide
awake to the importance of produce
ing large part of its timber sup
ply on its own forest lands. Senator
Moses of this committee will readily
perceive that there is quite a diff
ferent official and public attitude
toward this subject from that which
obtained a quarter of a century ago
when he was a forest commissioner
in New Hampshire. There was not
an acre of public forest in New
England at that time where now
there are several thousand acres
under Federal. State and municipal
control. Where lumber operators of
that day were skeptical, and even
caustically hostile toward the new
tangled forestry ideas, many are
now voluntarily practicing the art
to a greater or less degree. That
the farmers recognize the important
bearing of the subject in their own
best interests is evidenced in the
readiness of the State Legislatures
to forward the work through ap-
propria tons, and by the enactment
of encouraging legislation, even
where the latter place restrict tons
upon individual freedom of action in
the interest of the community.
1t is believed that there is no sec:
ton of the country which is more
fully prepared to take an active part
in thorough-going plan for CO.
operative effort for the speedy
reclamation of the nations forest
wealth than New England. 1t will
not escape the attention of the Senate
Committee that what these States
have undertaken thus far for their
own good has been admirably de-
vised, in the main, to mash with any
well-considered scheme for a ma
tional programme. What New Eng
land chiefly needs at the hands of
the nation in this line is a con-
tinuance of the policy for the pro-
lection of it's navigable streams
through the extension of the National
Forests In the White Mountains,
whole hearted assistance in the eff
fort to control fires, and means
sufficient to carry to the farmer on
his woodlot that form of practical
aid and advice that he already en-
joys in connection with his general
husbandry. Far from Sinking upon
the nation its responsibilities in
these matters, New England can be
relied upon to do its full share in any