Annual Report of the General Secretary of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association.

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OUR General Secretary resigned his position as Commissioner of Forestry on June 1, 1904, and as his Annual Report has been mainly devoted to the work done during the year by the Department of Forestry with which this Association has kept in close and harmonious touch, the present report will deal chiefly with the progress of forestry in this State up to that date.

In 1893 the State of Pennsylvania did not own an acre of unseated land that it knew the location of. On June 1, 1904, it had recovered, mostly bare of timber, about 500,000 acres of the land that had been previously disposed of for a nominal sum. Some of this land is already placed under normal scientific forestry conditions, and plans are being formulated by which the entire reservation area may as rapidly as possible be placed under the care of trained foresters, who will devote themselves to the protection of the young timber now growing and to the reproduction, by planting, of timber on the areas which are at present bare of any promising forest growth.

It may be well to add that in addition to the acreage above mentioned, negotiations were in progress for the purchase of about 200,000 acres more, so that at present the actual, or prospective, reservation area of the State is not far from 700,000 acres. This surely is a record of which our State may well be proud, especially where it is considered that public opinion had to be created, even, before we could begin our purchases. Up to this time, by keeping well within the limit of public sanction, no adverse sentiment has been created, and we are still in condition for further important advances.

In addition to this, the Forestry Department of the State has succeeded in gaining a greater control over forest fires on the State holdings than was ever possible before. It has not only devised new methods and appliances for subduing these conflagrations, but it has in addition done what is more important, it has aroused public sentiment against those who start forest fires, and brought many trespassers upon the public domain to justice. Five years ago it was thought that the duties of forest wardens were sinecures. Now it is realized that arduous service is expected, and it is given. The department is gradually weeding out inefficient officers and replacing such men by public servants who are worthy of public confidence. Last season it was my pleasure to record an actual start made in raising white pine. A young

forest had been commenced, and there were many thousand seedlings in our nursery which will be set out next spring.

This season, an important new plantation of black walnut has been opened and the ground prepared for an additional nursery. It is hoped that the coming spring extensive plantations of white pine will be started in Huntingdon County, where all the conditions seem to promise success.

Our Forest Academy at Mont Alto, in Franklin County, is now in its second year, and is promising soon to provide trained help for our reservations. The pupils are not only taught the principles of scientific forestry, but they are also taught to do the manual labor involved, because of our belief that these men can the better direct their subordinates by being themselves skilled workmen. It is hoped to gradually extend the curriculum of the school until it shall merit the highest measure of public esteem. There are at present twenty pupils in the school. From sixty applicants, seven were chosen for the younger class. There is now but one condition for admission to the school, namely, success in a competitive examination, which embraces both physical condition and mental attainments.

We have every reason to be satisfied with the class of pupils which we have thus obtained.

Pennsylvania may also claim another advance in her forest policy. To limit forest economy merely to the production of timber and to the protection of our watersheds, while other important purposes might be served on the same ground, would surely be a policy so narrow that it need only be alluded to to call forth the condemnation of liberal minded men.

The experiment of opening a camp on the reservation near Mont Alto for consumptives has been so entirely successful that from all parts of the Commonwealth the demand has arisen for the establishment of similar camps elsewhere in the State. They are justified by the following reasons: First, it gives the indigent consumptive a fair chance for his life; second, it diminishes the danger to the community at large; third, it in no way interferes with the forest work of the State. These reasons surely should be sufficient for any candid, intelligent citizen.

Much remains to be done. There is more needed practicable work in sight for Pennsylvania forestry than ever before.

The State still continues to sell its unseated land, when an unpatented tract is found, for a nominal sum. It is folly to do this and then to buy the same land back at a greater price as soon as a patent has been obtained, if the tract happens to be essential in rounding out adjacent State

lands. Besides being a bad policy financially, it is worse morally, as the existing law opens the way to speculators to defraud the Commonwealth and to embarrass the proper operations of the Forestry Commission. It is therefore suggested that no tract of land should be patented until it is shown by the Forestry Commission to be of no value as a portion of any present or prospective State res

ervations.

There should be a forest warden for every 5000 acres of State land, and a superintendent for every five wardens. This superintendent should be a trained forester.

I am of the opinion, also, that it would be wise for the State nurseries to furnish gratuitously, or at nominal cost, forest tree seedlings to those who would give reasonable assurance that they would be properly cared for.

It is proper here to add that the success which has marked its career has been largely due to the devotion of my colleagues, the officers and members of the Council. Without remuneration, for the most part, they have given their time and talent to the work and good of the Commonwealth.

We have been fortunate, also, in possessing the friendship and in receiving the help of the various Women's Clubs and the newspapers of the State, and we here most gratefully acknowledge the help received.

IN

J. T. ROTHROCK, General Secretary.

The President on Forestry.

N the annual message of President Roosevelt, considerable space is devoted to the National forest reserves, which are located in the western section of the country. He has given the problems presented much thought, and his statements are given below in extenso :

Forests. It is the cardinal principle of the forest reserve policy of this Administration that the reserves are for use. Whatever interferes with the use of their resources is to be avoided by every possible means. But these resources must be used in such a way as to make them permanent.

The forest policy of the Government is just now a subject of vivid public interest throughout the West and to the people of the United States in general. The forest reserves themselves are of extreme value to the present as well as to the future welfare of all the western public land States. They powerfully affect the use and disposal of the public lands. They are of special importance because they preserve the water-supply and the sup

The second reason for which forest reserves are created is to preserve the timber supply for various classes of wood users. Among the more important of these are settlers under the reclamation act and other acts, for whom a cheap and accessible supply of timber for domestic uses is absolutely necessary; miners and prospectors, who are in serious danger of losing their timber supply by fire or through export by lumber companies when timber lands adjacent to their mines pass into private ownership; lumbermen, transportation companies, builders and commercial interests in general.

Although the wisdom of creating forest reserves is nearly everywhere heartily recognized, yet in a few localities there has been misunderstanding and complaint. The following statement is therefore desirable :

The Forest Reserve Policy.-The forest reserve policy can be successful only when it has the full support of the people of the west. It cannot safely, and should not in any case, be imposed upon them against their will. But neither can we accept the views of those whose only interest in the forest is temporary; who are anxious to reap what they have not sown and then move away, leaving desolation behind them. On the contrary, it is everywhere and always the interest of the permanent settler and the permanent business man, the man with a stake in the country, which must be considered and which must decide.

The making of forest reserves within railroad and wagon road land grant limits will hereafter, as for the past three years, be so managed as to prevent the issue, under the act of June 4, 1897, of base for exchange or lieu selection (usually called scrip). In all cases where forest reserves within areas covered by land grants appear to be essential to the prosperity of settlers, miners or others, the government lands within such proposed forest reserves will, as in the recent past, be withdrawn from sale or entry pending the completion

of such negotiations with the owners of the land grants as will prevent the creation of so-called scrip.

It was formerly the custom to make forest reserves without first getting definite and detailed information as to the character of land and timber within their boundaries. This method of action often resulted in badly chosen boundaries and consequent injustice to settlers and others. Therefore this Administration adopted the present method of first withdrawing the land from disposal, followed by careful examination on the ground and the preparation of detailed maps and descriptions, before any forest reserve is created.

Would Change System of Administration.—I have repeatedly called attention to the confusion which exists in Government forest matters because the work is scattered among three independent organizations. The United States is the only one of the great nations in which the forest work of the Government is not concentrated under one department, in consonance with the plainest dictates of good administration and common sense. The present arrangement is bad from every point of view. Merely to mention it is to prove that it should be terminated at once. As I have repeatedly recommended, all the forest work of the Government should be concentrated in the Department of Agriculture, where the larger part of that work is already done, where practically all of the trained foresters of the Government are employed, where chiefly in Washington there is comprehensive first-hand knowledge of the problems of the reserves acquired on the ground, where all problems relating to growth from the soil are already gathered, and where all the sciences auxiliary to forestry are at hand for prompt and effective co-operation. These reasons are decisive in themselves, but it should be added that the great organizations of citizens whose interests are affected by the forest reserves, such as the National Live Stock Association, the National Wool Growers' Association, the American Mining Congress, the National Irrigation Congress and the National Board of Trade, have uniformly, emphatically and most of them repeatedly, expressed themselves in favor of placing all Government forest work in the Department of Agriculture, because of the peculiar adaptation of that department for it. It is true, also, that the forest services of nearly all the great nations of the world are under the respective departments of agriculture, while in but two of the smaller nations and in one colony are they under the Department of the Interior. This is the result of long and varied experience, and it agrees fully with the requirements of good administration in our own case.

The creation of a forest service in the Department of Agriculture will have for its permanent results :

First. A better handling of all forest work, because it will be under a single head, and because the vast and indispensable experience of the department in all matters pertaining to the forest reserves, to forestry in particular and to other forms of production from the soil, will be easily and rapidly accessible.

Second. The reserves themselves, being handled from the point of view of the man in the field, instead of the man in the office, will be more easily and more widely useful to the people of the west than has been the case hitherto.

Third. Within a comparatively short time the reserves will become self-supporting. This is important, because continually and rapidly increasing appropriations will be necessary for the proper care of this exceedingly important interest of the nation, and they can and should be offset by returns from the national forests. Under similar circumstances the forest possessions of other great nations form an important source of revenue to their governments.

Every administrative officer concerned is convinced of the necessity for the proposed consolidation of forest work in the Department of Agriculture, and I myself have urged it more than once in former messages. Again I commend it to the early and favorable consideration of the Congress. The interests of the nation at large and of the west in particular have suffered greatly because of the delay.

Game Preserves.—In connection with the work of forest reserves I desire again to urge upon the Congress the importance of authorizing the President to set aside certain portions of these reserves or other public lands as game refuges for the preservation of the bison, the wapiti and other large beasts once so abundant in our woods and mountains and on our great plains, and now tending toward extinction. Every support should be given to the authorities of the Yellowstone Park in their successful efforts at preserving the large creatures therein; and at very little expense portions of the public domain in other regions which are wholly unsuited to agricultural settlement could be similarly utilized. We owe it to future generations to keep alive the noble and beautiful creatures which by their presence add such distinctive character to the American wilderness. The limits of the Yellowstone Park should be extended southwards. The Canyon of the Colorado should be made a national park, and the national-park system should include the Yosemite and as many as possible of the groves of giant trees in California.

Black Ash. (Fraxinus Sambucifolia, Lam.) (Fraxinus Nigra, Marsh, in Britton & Brown, Vol. II., p. 602.)

TH

ash.

HIS species of ash appears to be not only smaller in size, in Pennsylvania, but to be also less common than the white It probably grows as tall as the latter, but one seldom sees it take on the great expanse of branches which characterize its relative just named. It is a tree not wholly confined, in Pennsylvania, to wet places as along swamps and stream banks, though it is mostly to be found there. There are two features associated with the black ash in Pennsylvania by which it may almost always be recognized. One is the drooping and curved character of branches, which are near the ground, and the other is that the top branches are almost always dead, in any good-sized black ash. The former of these characters is, of course, a natural characteristic. The second is accidental and seems to be associated with some change in the environment of the tree. It is intended, however, to say that these features in association, and not singly, give the clue to a recognition of the species at a distance.

It seems to be essentially a forest tree and to droop when the trees, by which it was surrounded when it started its life, are removed.

Black ash, at first sight, may seem difficult for a mere casual observer to distinguish from the others, though the character of the lower branches and the topmost tips already alluded to, if kept in mind, will serve as a suggestion; but the most superficial inspection, however, reveals a wide difference between the black ash and any other species of our central State ash trees. The side leaflets on all the other species are on little stalks, whereas those of the black ash have no such stalk and are, as botanists say, sessile, except the terminal leaflet, which has a stalk.

Seventy feet is not an uncommon height for the black ash to attain in Pennsylvania. I do not now recall one, however, having a greater diameter than 2 feet at 4 feet above the ground. It is not uncommon to find the trunk, even on trees growing in the open ground, without branches to a height of from 50 to 60 feet, though this can hardly be said to be the rule, except on trees which are still somewhat in the forest. The bark is rather a dark gray, and often, especially on the northern side of the tree, abundantly covered with lichens. From its frequent position along our streams, where the ground has been, as a rule, more or less washed away by frequently recurring floods, the black ash is almost always found with its top inclining toward the stream. The seg