A REMARKABLE SHOWING. This work is the most remarkable because actual purchase of land for reservation purposes was not begun until 1898, although preliminary work began five years prior to that time. Plans for scientific prosecution of the work on the reservations came to a head in 1903, the year before Dr. J. T. Rothrock retired as commissioner, when the State Forestry Academy was established at Mont Alto. Robert G. Conklin, of Columbia, son of Robert J. Conklin, now commissioner, but at that time deputy, was the first student. The academy course is three years; two classes have been graduated from the academy, giving the State eleven young foresters who are now at work on the reservations. These foresters carry out on the reserves the ideas in which they have been instructed at the academy. TO INCREASE THE PLANTING. Tree planting has been conducted on a somewhat limited scale on the reserves ever since the State began to purchase land, and this work will be materially extended in the future. Many thousands of young trees have been set out, but the annual plantings will be numbered by the million before long. Nurseries at Mont Alto and Greenwood, Huntingdon county, are prolific of young trees and another nursery at Tioga county adds materially to the output. All kinds of trees are bred, white pine being a leader, and the sprouts are set out in the reserves best adapted to receive them. So far the planting has been pursued with the main idea of protecting the watersheds, but when the work of the department is further advanced the foresters will set out trees with a view of oh. taining the best possible commercial results. Culling inferior timber is a question of only a few years-timber of use mainly for cordwood, or for the cheaper lines of furniture and building. The present generation, however, will in all probability witness the time when a sawmill will be a feature of each reserve and the State will be in business actively marketing timber of all kinds. The Timber Supply LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 6, 1907. Mr. Gifford Pinchot, the Government forester, says that at the present rate of cutting, the timber supply in the United States, on Government reserves, and private holdings, will be exhausted in twenty years. Mr. Pinchot is a man whose cool judgment and discretion give · him a high rank. For all that his judgment may be too pessimistic. If, however, he is right, the consumption will necessarily diminish, and that speedily, so that the actual exhaustion of supplies will no doubt be postponed to a date beyond that which he fixes. 'Nevertheless the situation is very serious. The destruction of our timber is certainly going on at a tremendous rate. Provisions to renew it have been made, but on a scale so small comparatively that they afford no prospect of a continuance of the supply. The consequences of the exhaustion of our supply of timber are calculated to be of the gravest character. Putting it at not more than twenty years is calculated to make it almost a present situation. If the supply is so restricted and the consumption so great, immediate steps are indispensably requisite to avert the disaster. There are two methods which appear on the surface to be demanded. The first is to do what can be done to stop the immense consumption of our timber. When the supply is all gone some other means must be found to furnish material for the purposes for which timber is now used. But it is obviously unwise to postpone this until the timber is exhausted. The substitute material should be found now, and the work of applying it should be at once commenced. The greater use of iron and steel instead of timber is one resource, and there has been an immense increase in this respect, but apparently without sparing the timber. Our production of iron has increased phenomenally, but still the timber waste goes on. The natural resources of this country have been so great that until recently the prospect of their exhaustion was not seriously entertained. We had gone on cheerfully reducing them as if they were inexhaustible. In recent years the note of warning has been sounded, but it has had little practical effect. The waste goes on, and at an accelerated rate of speed. The population has greatly increased, and the demand on our natural resources has correspondingly been augmented. The greed of gain has dictated the destruction of our forests, without any reference to what is to be done when they are all gone. Attention is naturally directed to the Dominion of Canada, where there are immense supplies of virgin timber. But our tariff laws continue to offer a premium for the destruction of our own timber. If these were changed there would be less motive for the so rapid destruction of our timber, and in the West there has been a very decided sentiment in favor of a change in the laws. The difficulty in doing this is, of course, pretty well understood, but the creation of an overwhelming public sentiment in its favor is not impossible. The second point to be noticed is the need of reforesting the numerous areas that have been denuded of timber. This is a slow process, and it cannot be too soon begun in real earnest. For years we have had a good many people who insisted on the need of renewing the forests that had been destroyed. The planting of trees has been recommended, and to some extent accomplished. The point is that the work has not assumed such proportions as to supply the waste in any tolerable degree. A more general, a more concerted effort to renew the supply of timber is not only necessary, but it is requisite that it be entered upon at once. This is not altogether a work for the Government. Mr. Pinchot says that one-fifth of the forest area is in the Government reserves, but as the privately-owned timber lands are better than those of the Government, the Government does not own one-fifth of the timber supply. The Government may make an effort to preserve its forest areas, but it is known that attempts in this direction are subject to great difficulties. But however these efforts may succeed, it is necessary to bring to bear upon private owners such influence as may lessen the destruction of the timber. How this may be done. is a hard question. So long as such destruction is enormously profitable it will continue, quite in disregard of the evil consequences that are threatened. It would seem proper that both the Federal and State Governments should make an effort to diminish the waste. Certainly there ought not to be laws which offer a premium for the destruction of the timber. The proposed conference at Washington with reference to the ex 372 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT haustion of our national resources ought to do something to awaken public sentiment upon the evils of the destruction of the timber supply. It is given out that the forest reserve will ask Congress for more money and more men to push the work of reforesting the denuded timber lands. This seems to be well advised, in a campaign to overcome the objection of the House machine to its passage. By saving the hardwood supply, and guarding against an annual increase in damage by flood in winter and drought in summer, two birds may be killed with one stone. Moreover an important forest reservation east of the Mississippi would serve to further educate the East as to the advantages of saving natural resources, and it would be less difficult for scheming Western politicians to convince members of committees in Congress that the Government oppresses new States when it curtails the activity of the timber grabbers. |