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EDITORIALS.

THE next Summer Meeting of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association will be held June 21st-23d, in Pittsburgh.

It is important that our Association should be largely represented there; not only because there are live questions to be discussed, questions which are becoming each year more widely recognized as entering into the very life of the State, but also as a proper recognition of the fact that the important commercial interests of Pittsburgh are earnestly desiring to co-operate with us in securing for the Ohio Watershed an adequate area to be devoted perpetually to forestry, and to be further utilized as an outing ground for our citizens. Our Association owes a large representation to Pittsburgh. Begin now to arrange for it.

It is

PREPAREDNESS is the slogan of the day. the appropriate preliminary to every form of individual, communal, or National effort which has a basis in righteousness.

The Pennsylvania Forestry Association exists for the purpose of restoring the millions of acres of waste, devastated, unproductive land in our State to a productive condition-growing timber, hoarding water, producing crops of cereal grains. and herds of cattle, that this may continue to be a land of plenty.

Unless this restoration is made sure, these areas will become more hopelessly barren each year, Not only a blank but a menace to the State.

We are all patriots now. Every member of the

Association can secure at least one new member in April! You can do it! It is worth while! Will you do it ;-right now in this month of April? Do so, if you really wish to render a patriotic service to the State! It is a form of preparedness in which each one can assist.

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Association to participate. The party will leave on June 28th, returning August 22d; but this can be shortened by those desiring to do so to August 1st, the latter part of the trip being omitted. This will give members who desire not only an opportunity to see some of the wonderful scenery of the west, but, through meeting western foresters, become acquainted with the peculiar conditions prevailing in the western section of the United States. A booklet describing the proposed tour can be obtained by addressing Dr. C. L. Babcock, 31 Trinity Place, Boston, Mass.

HON. ALBERT S. HECK, President Judge of Our Fifty-fifth Judicial District, in an admirable address delivered September 6th, at Conneaut Lake, before the Wild Life League, advocates State purchase of that portion of land known as the Black Forest, which lies "in parts of the counties of Clinton, Lycoming, Tioga, Potter, Cameron, McKean, Elk, and Warren. Its greatest length in its northerly and southerly extension is about 100 miles, and from east to west it varies from 20 to 50 miles." "Speaking of the region as it is today, it is not my purpose to refer to the whole of that area originally known as the Black Forest. That portion of it lying within McKean, Elk and a part of Cameron and Warren counties, bears valuable minerals, natural gas, and oil."

"Of the 700,000 acres of Black Forest land herein exhibited, not over 12,000 are improved; the remainder in woods, wild forest and brush land." "From the foregoing facts it must clearly appear that the region of the Black Forest is strictly a forestry proposition" of vast importance to the Commonwealth, if utilized for forestry purposes; but an eye-sore, a flood breeder, not only a loss, but an expense to the State if neglected. It is a part of a large area, all of which the State should own. J. T. R.

The total area of the forest nurseries of the State of Pennsylvania, devoted to raising trees is 17 acres. They have grown about 26,000,000 trees, 22,000,000 of which have been planted on 13,000 acres of burned-over forest land.

Arbor Day Proclamation.

"WHE

HEREAS, Pennsylvania was once the home of vast forests of deciduous and evergreen trees, whose values to our people can never be fully reckoned, and, whereas our people now have set aside above one million two hundred thousand acres of land as a State forest preserve, and are steadily adding to this vast public domain, and are giving increased attention to the conservation of her depleted natural resources, and is making commendable efforts to restore, as far as possible, these gifts of God to our people;

"Now, THEREFORE, that we may wisely promote in the minds and hearts of our people a knowledge and love for trees, and in order that the generations to follow may enjoy the blessings of forests and the good of trees, I hereby designate and set aside

choice walks this way. We shall have increasing need of these great reaches of shade and service as the years come and go. I wish it might be possible to have every child of our cities as well as those of our countryside spend entire days in our Pennsylvania forests.

"If you want our children to love the beautiful and reverence the good, plant trees. If you want to add to the health and security of our people, plant trees. If you want to give large gifts of good to our Commonwealth, plant trees. If you want to see the budding beauty of the springtime an earnest of the gorgeous autumnal coloring, plant trees. If you want to add many songs to the bird chorus so sweet, so comforting, so welcome, plant trees. If you want to shower the earth with fruits and nuts, plant trees. If you want Pennsylvania to be the finest, fairest land in all the world, plant trees.

"Plant trees for shade and for food upon our fertile arable acres, about our schools and other

AS ARBOR DAYS.

In

"Our people have been prodigal, even wasteful, of the great forests symbolical of our name. stead of the wondrous woods, rich in green and silence, we have the fire-swept wastes, that add to the menace of our people and our industries. Where once we had the sylvan streams, beautiful and entrancing, we now have the destructive flood and the famished land. To face the task of restoring these forests is a duty both imminent and practical. We must plant where God once planted the native trees of our State, and by careful and conserving concern restore to our mountains and remote valleys the essential good that trees secure to a people. A treeless State is a cheerless State. A sylvan scene is an inspiration and a blessing. We need not fear the future if we do our part in our day wisely and well. The restoration of our forest fastnesses and all the attendant good is the task not of a day, but of centuries. But centuries are as years in the span of a continuing Commonwealth. Ours is the duty of giving to our children a more valuable, a more beautiful Pennsylvania than we possess.

"One needs to have a sincere love for the great out-of-doors, and a reverent regard for the great forests where in profusion and splendor grow the carpeting mosses and the fronded ferns; where flourish the wild flowers and the trailing vines; where bird and beast find shelter, and rear their young unscathed; where summer showers are refined in splendor and flow in health and blessing to the populous cities; where the wonderful machinery of sun and storm produce a scene so rich, so varied, so entrancing, that the vision enthralls the spirit and inspires the soul of him who by

veloping highways, and out in the great preserves where in time they will be the pride and glory of our State. As we increase our forest areas we shall increase our wild life in Pennsylvania, and by natural distillation provide the greatest gift of our loving Father to his children-pure wholesome, life-bearing water.

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"Teach the meaning of trees. Study their habits. Observe their yearly transformation. Learn to know an oak, a locust, a poplar, a hemlock, a chestnut, a dogwood quite as fully by its outline, its bark, its habitat, as by its leaf or blosConsider what trees do for man in his home and industrial life; what rich shelter they provide for our song birds; what rich gifts of food and health they bear for mankind. Impress upon all children the humane treatment of animals, an unafraid attitude to the out-of-doors and the duty of preserving our beautifully throated songsters.

"Whose habitations in the tree-tops e'en

Are half-way houses on the road to heaven.' "Gather on these days your own children about you in the home and teach them to love trees and all that attend them. In every pulpit may a lofty plea be made for the fragrant forests and the beautiful birds. In every school let the exercises of the day include such reference to the day as will quicken in the tender spirits of children a reverent regard for the things that God in his wisdom set upon the earth and that we should forever cherish and conserve. Then in the open

air crown the exercises by planting trees. "Thus shall blessings flow to us, good to those that succeed us, honor to the Commonwealth we devoutly call our home."

F

IRES cause the loss of human lives. While the number of lives lost directly from this cause in Pennsylvania is small, yet some people have been burned to death and no one knows how soon others may be.

Fires cause the loss of homes. Not infrequently have forest fires furnished the spark that burned the house and possessions of families living within or near a forest.

Fires cause the loss of fences, sheds, crops, stocks, etc.

Fires cause the loss of felled timber. Felled trees represent time and money. The further the process of manufacture is carried the more valuable the product. Every year thousands of dollars worth of logs, bark, cord wood for various purposes, ties, poles, posts, and sawed lumber is destroyed. The workman may be out his time or wages; the owner may be out the wages paid and the profits; the user must so much the sooner pay a higher price for his wood because the supply is decreased by just so much; the Commonwealth at large suffers because property is destroyed, everybody concerned is made poorer, and no further wages, taxes, or use are possible.

Fires kill much growing timber. Fire burns the bark of trees and heats the wood immediately below the bark. The living layer of wood is just beneath the bark. If the cells of this wood are heated to a sufficient degree they cease to do their work. If the tree is small, the fire hot, or the species a sensitive one, the tree is practically girdled and dies. Where leaves and brush are piled around trees, the fire may be sufficient to burn through or to make such a scar that the first strong wind will blow the tree down. Some trees are more sensitive than others. White pine, especially young trees, and beech are very sensitive. Pitch pine is very resistant. When the pines are killed by fire, roots as well as stem are dead, whereas most hardwoods may be killed above ground but remain alive below and send up

sprouts again. Spring fires are more disastrous than fall fires.

Fires injure much growing timber. When the trees are large or the bark heavy and the fire light, not many trees are killed, but the majority are injured. The trees are only partly girdled, bark drops off on one side of the base, insects and fungi begin to work, and succeeding fires continue to eat into the tree, and finally destroy a good part of it or kill it.

Fires destroy seeds, small seedlings, and sprouts. Upon the forest floor, mixed with leaves and humus are many tree seeds of various kinds waiting for favorable conditions to germinate and grow into trees. In most cases where stock and fire have been kept out of woodland for several years, there are thousands of young trees started, but are hardly noticeable. Fire destroys all of these, as a very small amount of heat will kill the germ within a seed, and cook the life out of the tender plants. Even the lightest fires do considerable damage in this way, destroying the germs of prospective forests.

By reason of the last three effects of forest fires, repeated burnings may change entirely the character of a forest in almost all of its phases, or forest conditions may be destroyed totally. The better species of trees may give place to fire cherry, quaking aspen, birch, or other light winged species. All tree growth may give place to scrub oak, sweet fern, huckleberry, bracken, or common annual herbaceous weeds. So it is reasonable to say that forest fires destroy forests and the possibilities of future forests.

Fires destroy wholly or in part, the litter and humus on the ground within the forest. Light fires burn some leaves and small branches. Heavier fires burn everything down to mineral soil, some even following roots and other vegetable matter into the soil.

(a) Forest litter and humus are a mechanical hindrance to the run-off of precipitation, allowing water to reach the stream slowly.

(b) Humus absorbs and holds rains and melted snows, giving it to the soil for the underground supply which feeds springs.

(c) Humus keeps the soil open, summer and winter, permitting it to take moisture rapidly. (d) Litter and humus act as a mulch preventing rapid evaporation of soil moisture.

(e) Humus keeps the surface soil fertile, which helps to make good tree growth.

(f) Humus protects the soil from erosion. (g) Humus is said to prevent the complete development of many injurious insects.

Changing humus to ashes eliminates all of the above benefits. Floods, erosion, irregularity and

impurity of water supply both for home supply and for power, and all the calamities attendant upon these conditions are the results. The loss cannot be estimated in dollars.

The opening of the forests and the removal of humus by fire bring about conditions which make it easier for fires to rage. Each successive fire makes conditions more favorable for the next, until in time everything of value is destroyed and desolation results.

Fires destroy game and fish. Spring fires, especially, are fatal to young animals of all kinds, and many bird eggs are destroyed. Not infrequently both in spring and fall the water of some of the small streams has been heated sufficiently to kill

By destroying the factor which largely regulates the steady flow of streams, and by making the banks of the streams bare of their natural protection, fish life is seriously affected.

Fires cause a decrease of bird life. Bird eggs and young birds are destroyed directly. By By reason of frequent disturbance birds are driven away from a region of forest fires. By the destruction of the forest and the making of desolate hills, conditions favorable to bird life are destroyed and birds become scarce.

Scarcity of birds adversely influences agriculture. Fires destroy the beauty of a region. The beauty of certain regions is responsible for bringing to them millions of dollars each year. Green forests covering the mountains and keeping the streams steady and clear are the most important factors in the maintenance of this asset. Fires promote desolation rather than life and beauty. A fire swept region is anything but beautiful.

Forest fires are calamities. They destroy great values without the least compensating benefit, and the trail of loss in wages, industry, taxes, revenue, prosperity, sport, health, comfort, and even life, leads to every home in the land.

The prevention of forest fires is absolutely necessary for the welfare of Pennsylvania. Some fires will occur. They must be discovered quickly. They must be reported quickly. They must be attacked and extinguished quickly. This means that Pennsylvania must have an efficient organization and equipment for the prevention, detection and extinction of forest fires.

The organization is being effected. It must be It must be completed and furnished with necessary equip

ment.

Observation towers must be erected and equipped.

Telephone lines must be built.

Fire hazards must be eliminated.
Our people must be educated.

You help bear the loss of forest fires. The loss

It was in Pennsylvania that the great French savants Michaux, father and son did much of their work and left their legacy to interest the people of our country in their beautiful forests and to urge their proper care for the good of everyone.

It is to Pennsylvania that we as foresters like to come on a pilgrimage to meet the great pioneer in American forestry, Dr. J. T. Rothrock.

It is Pennsylvania who fought its own problems in its own way and is doing so largely through the work of the oldest and strongest State Forestry Association in the country.

My theme is Forestry in the Lake States. Usually the census includes here the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Forestry in these States as well as large parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota is a woodlot problem and therefore somewhat outside the scope of my remarks.

The three timber Lake states form a large country and comprise an area four times that of Pennsylvania. They nearly equal Pennsylvania in population and wealth, and they till three times. as much land as is tilled in Pennsylvania.

The forests of these Lake states cover an area of about three times that of Pennsylvania, and they are fine, accessible forests everywhere. As late as 1860, Pennsylvania cut more timber than any other State in the Union and about as much as the three Lake states combined. In 1870, Michigan took first rank, ahead of Pennsylvania, and the three Lake states cut twice as much as Pennsylvania.

From 1870 to 1900, Michigan was the greatest timber producing state of its size in the world. From 1890 to 1900, the three Lake states had a yearly cut of over eight thousand million feet of lumber, and most of this was white pine.

In 1915, the cut of these states was thirty-five hundred million feet and the bulk was hemlock and hardwoods. Michigan is thirteenth in the