Vol. XVI.- No. 1

TH

EDITORIALS.

HE Allied Fish, Game and Forestry Associations of eastern Pennsylvania had their meeting in Harrisburg, January 4th, 5th and 6th. The Pennsylvania Forestry Department and the Pennsylvania Forestry Association were represented in the meeting. Most, if not all, of the organizations of outers in the State had been invited, either: "to throw up their hands by casting to the winds the principles and objects of your Association;" or to "join with the other Associations of the southeastern section of the State in forming the views of a section whose geographic and climatic conditions are the same."

This would seem to be the proper place to say, that the reason why the Pennsylvania Forestry Association did not throw up its hands, is that for more than thirty years it has been aiding in bringing the sentiment of the State to the very point for which the Allied organizations are now earnestly laboring. To be explicit :

The Pennsylvania Forestry is thirty-one years old; with the exception of one short-lived association, it is the oldest State Forestry Association in America.

When it began its useful career the word "Forestry" was practically a new term in the country. The Association employed its agent to go over the State and give illustrated lectures, showing the deplorable condition to which lumbering had reduced a large portion of the Commonwealth. It also prepared and influenced the enactment of wise forestry laws.

The bill creating the first Forestry Commission was drawn up in the office of the Association by its secretary, and through the direct influence of leading trade, commercial and educational agencies enlisted by the Forestry Association, that bill became a law.

The present State Department of Forestry is the direct outcome of the report of that Commission and of the aid received from the "State Federation of Pennsylvania Women."

When that Forestry Commission was created, the State owned not an acre of Forest Reserve. It has now more than a million acres ! Because of the influences, and the educational agencies of the

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Department of Forestry, the State has at last become awakened to the wickedness and the uselessness of forest fires.

The claim of the citizens of the State upon its lands as outing grounds was first distinctly, authoritatively recognized in 1900, when the following notice was posted on State Lands:

This Land

Belongs to the State of Pennsylvania

Destruction or Removal of Timber or other property

is Forbidden

Lawful Hunting and Fishing are allowed on State Lands; but Fires must not be started

COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY.

Every year thousands of people go into camp on the State Forest Reserves, and are welcomed there. Hundreds of cabins, summer homes, and bungalows, for a mere nominal rent, have already, or will in the near future, be located on State Land.

The first free Sanatorium for consumptive citizens of the State was instituted by the Department of Forestry on State Land, and out of it has been developed by the efficiency and wisdom of Dr. Dixon, a great charity which is a crown of glory to the Commonwealth.

Before even the first State land for a game reserve was asked for it was offered by the Department of Forestry.

That there is yet so small an area of State Reserve on the Ohio watershed is no fault of the Department of Forestry, or of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association. It has been diligently sought for under exactly the same conditions as every acre of the existing reserves were purchased. These facts are plain to all who care to recognize them!

Now, gentlemen of the Allied organizations, we` wish you success in your plans, for they are in line with our own. We will aid you whenever, wher- · ever possible, and we will sincerely welcome like help from you.

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