added the disposal, by lopping or burning, of dangerous slashings, and other special measures that the local conditions may require.

In general, the cost of the preventive system should be shared about equally between the public and the owner of the land. At the present time assistance by the States and the efforts of the private owners alike are inadequate. The Federal Government should grant liberal financial aid in fire protection, far greater than at present. This aid should be contingent on the State's inaugurating and carrying out such a system as above described, and should not exceed in amount the funds appropriated by the State.

As in fire protection, the spread of dangerous insect infestations and diseases requires the aid and direction of the public. Both the National and State governments should participate and appropriate liberally to check the depredations.

The renewal of forests on lands not needed for agriculture and settlement is an essential feature of a national policy of forestry; and an effective program should be worked out in each State, backed by appropriate legislation and efficient administration, which will achieve this object on private as well as on public property.

As in the case of fire protection, the additional measures necessary for forest renewal should be made a part of a systematic program in which the public and private owners engage in a joint undertaking with a common objective.

The first steps in this undertaking are to determine in each region:

1. The circumstances under which fire protection alone will not suffice to prevent wasting of the land under prevailing methods of lumbering.

2. The additional measures necessary to secure conditions favorable for natural renewal. 3. The classes of land upon which forest growth should be continued.

4. The co-operation that should be given by the public to make feasible in practice the measures that may be necessary for the owners to take.

5. The legislation needed to bring these measures into practice, as a part of the State's program of forestry.

Measures of forestry upon private lands sought by the proposed program fall into two classes: First, those necessary to prevent the lands becoming waste after lumbering; and second, those which seek a maximum production of timber and other products. The first class of measures should be required on all lands that ought to remain in forest growth. The measures to secure

maximum production are of a more intensive character. They should be encouraged in every way but should not be obligatory. They involve a larger initial investment, and when they are practiced the lands render a larger ultimate return to the owner. Under the second class fall such measures as planting where needed, leaving a larger number of seed trees, cutting in favorable seed years, leaving medium-sized trees, even though now salable for a second cut or for cover, various kinds of thinnings of second growth, organization of the forest work on a basis of sustained annual yield, and so on. Experiments should be conducted by the public to establish and make generally known the best practice in each region. Advice by public officers should be freely accorded. Planting stock should be offered at cost. Taxes should be adjusted to encourage owners to undertake the methods found to be most efficient, and other measures of aid given.

Every encouragement should be afforded to bring about close utilization of timber in the forest and to prevent losses in the handling and use of the manufactured product.

In a national policy of forestry the public itself should assume certain responsibilities and certain burdens. It should co-operate with and assist private owners in carrying out their part of the undertaking. The measures of co-operation fall under the following heads:

1. Fire Protection. As already indicated, the public should directly share the burden of fire protection, especially in a preventive system and in the cost of suppression.

2. Assistance in Forestry. The public should assist owners in working out plans for cutting that will promote natural reproduction, in planting, and in other measures of forestry. The State should offer planting stock at cost and cooperate with the owners in establishing plantations.

3. Taxation.-The States should adopt a form of taxation calculated to encourage good forest practice. The present methods of taxation, with their lack of uniformity in application, often tend to promote premature and wasteful cutting and to discourage forest renewal. To promote action by the States, the Federal Government should help the States to investigate the current methods of taxation and their effect in causing premature and wasteful cutting and in increasing the difficulties of holding cut-over lands for tree growth, and should assist in drafting model tax laws applicable to various forest conditions.

4. Forest Loans.-It has been suggested that existing legislation concerning farm loans should

be extended to include loans for the purchase and improvement of forest lands, to encourage the holding of lands previously acquired, where the purpose of the owner is to hold and protect cut-over lands or those having growing timber, to reforest lands by seeding or planting, or to use other measures in promoting forest production. To obtain the benefit of such loans, which should be for a maximum period of fifty years, the land owner should enter into a specific obligation to retain the land in growing timber and protect and care for it during the life of the loan.

5. A Survey of Forest Resources.-Funds should be provided whereby the Federal Government in co-operation with State and private interests may make a survey of the forest resources of the country. This would determine the quantities of timber suitable for different industrial uses, the current consumption of forest products, the probable requirements of the different regions for material, the possible production of the forests by growth to meet these requirements, and other matters which will aid in developing and carrying out the national forest policy.

6. Land Classification.-The public should cooperate in land classification to aid owners to put their lands to the most productive use. The public should aid in bringing settlers upon the lands suited to agriculture, and at the same time should discourage speculative undertakings that lead to the deception of innocent investors and efforts to colonize lands which are not suited to settlement. Land classification would indicate the classes of land which should be devoted to the production of timber, either permanently or pending a development which would make possible their successful settlement.

7. Research Work.-Adequate funds should be provided to enable the Government and other public agencies to carry on investigative work needed in carrying out a national policy of forestry. This would include investigations on a larger scale than at present for determining the best methods of forest practice, and also research in forest products.

8. Forest Insurance.-As soon as forest property becomes secure under systematic protection, fire insurance comes within the range of feasibility. Every encouragement should be given to plans of insurance such as that already inaugurated in the Northeast.

A program for the Nation must be an aggregate of local programs adapted to different conditions, and correlated and standardized through

the Federal Government to meet the broader requirements of the whole country.

The initiation of a national policy of forestry requires as one of the first steps the passage of a Federal law that recognizes its objectives and provides the Government with authority and means to extend co-operation with the States in protecting and perpetuating the forests under their jurisdiction along the lines of the foregoing statement. At the same time, Federal appropriations for the purchase of forest lands should be greatly increased."

Pennsylvania Forest Tree Nurseries.

T

HE forest tree nurseries operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry have produced over 50,000,000 trees, most of which have been planted already within the State.

Pennsylvania stands in front of all other States in the development of the state-owned forest land and in the degree to which it cooperates with private owners in the care and development of their forest land. The growth of forest tree planting by private owners of woodland has been phenomenal. The work was first undertaken in 1910, and its wonderful growth is shown in the following table:

Hon. Robert S. Conklin, Commissioner of Forestry predicts that over 4,000,000 forest trees will be planted by private owners of woodland during the spring of 1920. Healthy and stocky trees will be furnished by the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry for planting anywhere within the State. The only charge which the applicants must satisfy is the cost of packing and shipping which is usually less than 50 cents per 1,000 trees. From 500 to 2,500 trees should be planted per acre. Two men can plant 1,000 trees per day.

If you want trees for planting during the spring of 1920 communicate at once with the Department of Forestry, Harrisburg, Pa.

"TH

HE object of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association shall be to secure and maintain a due proportion of forest area throughout the State; to disseminate information concerning the growth, protection and utilization of forests; to show the great evil resulting from forest destruction, in the decrease and unequal distribution of the available water supplies, the impoverishment of soil, the injury to vari

ous industries, and the change in the clilature of such laws, and the enforcement of mate; to secure the enactment by the legisthe same, as shall tend to increase and preserve the forests of the State."

Will not our members help by securing additional members?