Evening star., 1924-06-01
i. S. TREE FAMINE FEARED
Woods Laid Low With Little Attennt
at RefOrestation

poses or destroyed by fire at an
alarming rate each year.
The last day of the conference the
delegates We're given an opportunity
TO see how seriously the state of
pennsylvania regards the tree crisis.
After electing their officers and con-
Guiding the business of the fourth
conference, the delegates were taken
by automobile to the Mont Alto for
est reservation. containing $4,000
acres of native timberIand and a nrr-
sery covering six or seven acres.
State TO Have Experts.
Within the reservation is the Penn
sylvania State Forestry School, an in
stitution maintained by the common
wealth, where limited number Of
young men are given courses in for
estry each year SO that in the years
to come Pennsylvania will have
trained corps OF experts to protect it's
forests against devastation either
from natural or man-made sources.
The nursery is a part of the school.
The delegates were first entertained
at luncheon in the gymnasium. it
was a sight to gladden. the heart of
the City-bred man or woman. The
gymnasium rests in the heart of the
mountains. whose domes roll hun
dreds of feet above the low wooden
building. carpeted with natures lux
urious blanket of green in its highest
state of cultivation-a wall Of trees
bushes and flowers too thick for the
human eye TO penetrate for more
than q few feet.
In the nursery millions Of baby
trees-most of them white pines
were just beginning to push their
pointed cones skyward. Most of the
work is done by the students. They
Ie. hn
full supervision of instructors help
the sprouting treelet to the point Of
growth where it is ready to be
shipped to some distant point, re
planted and there protected from de-
struction until, in future years. IT
will form an important unit of a rich
forest.
Five Million Trees shipped.
Within the last month 100000
little trees have been shipped from
the nursery to different parts of III"
state where the danger of defor-
estration is more acute. Countless
millions are about ready to be shipped
now, and throughout the summer the
nursery will continue to supply the
needs of communities in every part
of the state. In addition, expert
ments are being made to determine
whether or not the climate will per
NIT the cultivat ton of valuable i'm
ported trees. If that phase OF the
work proves successful 1T VIII give
PENNSYLVANIA a supply of rare woods
it would otherwise have to import
at tremendous prices.
The Mont Alto forest reserve is
but of number Pennsylvania
has set aside as protection against
the crisis that foresters say IS Ger
tain to descend upon the United
pie are alSened to the danger i'm
mediately. But Mont Alto serves
other purposes as well. Within its
densely wooded areas are campSiteS
and recreation grounds where daily
tourists by the score stop for day
or more TO refresh themselves. Its
green-clad heights are an ever open
invitation to the tired man or woman
of the city to renew his health in
one Of natures own Fairgrounds.
Also Fights White Plague.
Just at the summit of the mountain
some 500 feet above the State Fores
| try School. Mont Alto Sanitorium
| rests. There Pennsylvania is fighting
the dread white plague with success
| far beyond the dreams of the medical
profession a generation or so bach.
Men, women and children. stricken
| with tuberculosis down in the popu
| lated lowlands, are winning back
health and hope there in the high
| lands. where the air is always fresh
and pure.
The delegates were shown a group
! of new buildings which have been
erected for the use of children who
| are predisposed to tuberculosis by
birth. The doctors declare one of
the best ways of stamping out the
disease is to give proper care to chill
| dren born of tubercular parents be-
fore the germs have taken hold of
their systems and gotten d start that
neither medicine nor nature have yet
! learned to overcome.
Pennsylvania state park at Mont
Alto, the delegates pointed out, is Il
parks are capable of accomplishing
everywhere in the United States. II
is serving threefold purpose in the
interest of America and all civiliza-
| tion: First. it provides sanctuarE
natural state without danger of de
struction by commercial interests.
Second. it provides a site for tree
nursery, where trees for sections al
ready Shorn of their timber may be
cultivated and prepared for trans
plantation in the deforested areas.
Third, it supplies the tired business
man and woman with a natural.
healthful playground and the sick
and weak with a haven wherein a
return to strength and usefulness Is
more assured than a place less en-
dowed with the benefits of nature
could promise.
1t is to encourage the establish
ment of more such parks, in every
state In the Union, that the state
parks conference was formed. To
work toward that end the delegates
are meeting every year, and with
each conference interest in the move
ment is becoming more widespread.
At the last conference score of
chambers of commerce were repre-
sented, and those who fostered the
movement declare that they feel con-
f1dent the next few years will see
every commonwealth with it's state
park similar to the protected area
atop Mont Alto.