Continuing Appropriations for National

B

Forests.

ILLS are now pending in both Senate and House of Representatives, Washington, for the appropriation of $2,000,000 a year for five years for the purchase of land suitable for forestry purposes upon the head waters of our navigable streams:-The bulk of the money to be expended on the highlands of New England and the southern States. The following statement shows that it is a most meritorious measure, which should pass:

Some of the reasons for continued purchase in the White Mountains and Southern Appalachians are very briefly as follows:

1. The original program of purchase as laid down by the Government should be carried out. It is necessary to maintain a timber supply.

2. The prices of forest land are constantly rising.

3. Both at the North and the South the most destructive lumber operations continue to denude the high mountains wherever the Government has not secured possession. Fire usually follows these operations and consumes the soil itself which is of vegetable origin and therefore inflammable. This sets back the forest for centuries. The method of removal by the Government is wholly different, so that the growing power of the forest is maintained.

4. The White Mountain Forest and some of the Southern forests have become self-supporting. The White Mountain Forest yields a small revenue to the Government annually. All of the lands purchased will yield a substantial revenue to the Government at an early period.

5. The lands have greatly increased in value since they were acquired, and as estimated by officers of the U. S. Forest Service the property could be sold for 50 per cent. advance upon the purchase price. The outlay, therefore, is an investment, not an expense.

6. At the North an even flow of streams is essential to industry. At the South the devastating floods of the Ohio and other rivers can be controlled, and should be.

7. A continued regular appropriation is necessary in order that the Government may maintain an expert personnel, which is not possible if the sums vary from year to year or are occasionally omitted. In so large an enterprise, extending into ten states, the Government must be able broadly to take advantage of market conditions.

8. Although the Government faces enormous expenditures at this time because of the war,

and must meet extraordinarily heavy interest and other charges during the next few years, the fundamental policies of the Government that preserve its natural resources should be continued.

9. The best forest authorities assert that in the United States timber is consumed much faster than it grows. With the constant increase of population the present system of indiscriminate removal of the forest already necessitates curtailment of the lumber output. Many mills have already gone out of business; others have supplies ranging from five to twenty-five years before the end. At the South 3,000 lumber mills and factories must close within five years from failure of supplies. The high prices due to timber scarcity are already upon us.

10. There is no other means of solving the problem so simple and satisfactory as that of State and Federal acquisition while forest land is cheap.

Apropos of the above:-What is Pennsylvania about to do in the matter of securing adequate forest reserves on the head waters of the Ohio which are within our limits? Is it necessary to explain that the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio are all navigable streams with some headwaters in this State. Think of a petty 12,000 acre reserve for that end of the State which contains our greatest wealth, and pays taxes equal to or exceeding any similar area in the Commonwealth!

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Haycock Mountain.

HERE are many signs which indicate the present unrest, and among them none are clearer than the growing demand for a rational, healthful, restful life which shall not be wholly sacrificed to a struggle for mere existence. More recreation in the open air, individual and social, more room for the Boy Scouts and for the Camp Fire girls, gathering grounds for deliberative bodies, all point to the necessity for public areas from which no decent citizen can any time be excluded and to which any who so incline are invited.

Very rapidly lands suitable for such purposes are being purchased as private holdings, from which those seeking an outing are warned off as trespassers; from forests and fields that were once open to all!

It is clear that this demand is becoming more insistent and that it will not down. The sooner the fact is recognized that such public ground must be had the better. The State Forest Re