The Coolidge examiner., 1936-01-17

due forethought and intelligent care there is no
cultivation that better repays the attention be-
slowed upon it than the growth of forest trees
THAT last phrase is very important. SO let
us see what has happened in the 60 years since
President Hayes sent those words to congress-
Today there are in the national forest about 172
million acres. We have forest experiment sta
tions located at the best points about the land
The work of the United States forest service is
divided into 10 regions. 1t has tremendous seed
beds in production. A magnificent laboratory at
Madison Wis, is finding out more and more
about wood and what can be done with it.
To-day there are many high-grade schools of
forestry and many colleges teach something
about it in one way or another. But more i'm
portant than this to my mind is the fact that the
American people today are forestry minded; they
are for a national forest policy. This is due to
the fact that the school teachers and the editors
of the land are forestry y-mnded.
1.-THE work begun by the CCC must be con-
tinued. In this project there tied together
man conservation and forest conservation. There
can be no better training for young man just
out of school than to give him two years of
woods schooling; two years of man-to-man liv
ing two years of firsthand knowledge that, as
Hough said 60 years ago, there is no cultivation
that better repays the attention bestowed upon
it than the growth of trees"
The state of New York is one of the leaders
in forest conservation and much of the credit
for that fact is due to the man who this year, is
being hailed as 1.-The first forest agent'-Franklin
B. Hough. Among his later publications were
"The Elements of Forestry: Information Con-
corning the Planting and Care of Forest Trees"
and Report on Forestry" both published in 1882
On May IS, 1885, Gov. David B. Hill of New
York signed the bill creating a forest commits
sion in New York. Hough had been influential in
bringing that about but he did not live to see
the full fruition Of his efforts He died three
weeks later-on June 6, 1885. Last year in con-
nection with the celebration of so years of for
estry in the Empire state his home at Lowvlle
was dedicated to his work.
This year his service to the cause of forestry,
through the report which he made 60 years ago.
is to be commemorated throughout the United
States. President Pack of the American Tree
association has sounded the keynote to that COM
memOratiOn by dedicating the new edition of the
Forestry Primer" to Hough. In it he says:
"The date 1876 is destined to be an important
one in forestry history. Just as 1876 marked the
centennial of our political independence so when
the forestry history of this country is written
will it mark the beginning of our economic in
dependence.
But l prefer to look ahead to 1916 when our
country marks the two hundredth anniversary
of it's political independence 1t will also be a
forestry centennial Will this country have ad-
vanced toward economic independence in a for
estry sense? l believe the American people will
bring about that situation.
81 believe the fine cooperation given the edu-
cational campaign of the American Tree asso-
citation by newspapers and magazine editors will,
long before that date, have aroused the public
10 demand that timber be grown on thousands of
acres of what is now idle land, as well-ordered
project of public policy"
g Western Newspaper Union.