commercial value due to rapid accretions from annual growth, but the cold facts as he sees it is, that he pays money on a crop which only matures in thirty, forty or more years.

The general plan outlined by Mr. Elliott is to meet this condition and yet have the wooded areas of the State bear their fair share of financial responsibility to the State.

This problem is attracting interest in other States, and we trust that the presentation by Mr. Elliott will encourage a full discussion, so that when the matter comes before the Legislature it will command the support of the people generally.

The Pennsylvania Forestry Association has adopted an official badge. This emblem is in the form of a small, neat keystone (symbolic of Pennsylvania) of silver, gold-plated, half-inch in size, having on it a maple leaf of gold, on a blue enameled background. The two colors used, the gold and blue, are the State colors. On the top of the keystone are the letters "P. F. A.," being the initial letters of the Association. These badges are of two styles, one a button for gentlemen and the other a pin for ladies. The price to members has been fixed at 75 cents, which includes the cost of mailing but not of registration, and if the latter is desired, 8 cents additional should be forwarded.

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Canadian Forestry Convention.

N the latter part of the year 1905, attention was called to a Canadian Forestry Convention, to be held in Ottawa, Canada, January 10th-12th, 1906, and an invitation was extended to the Pennsylvania Forestry Association to send representatives, seven members being present on that occasion.

The sessions of the Convention were held in the Railway Committee Rooms of the House of Commons, His Excellency, the Governor-General, Earl Grey, opening the convention, instanced what he had seen in India, Asia Minor, Greece and in Italy, where extensive tracts of terri. tory once prosperous and densely populated were now desolate, due to unregulated deforestation, and called attention to the necessity of husbanding the forestry reserves so abundantly lavished by Providence.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Premier, who presided, welcomed the guests, and mentioned the necessity of preserving the forest wealth of Canada, and thought the forests should become a national doHe advocated the provinces adopting a policy of recovering timber lands where they had

main.

been disposed of, also of the need of reforesting denuded lands.

Sir Wilfrid deplored that so little was done to protect the forest against fire. Man was a great destroyer, the insect was worse, and fire was worse than all. He was appalled to hear the other day that the immense quantities of lumber shipped from the Ottawa Valley did not represent more than a tenth of what was destroyed by fire. There should be a careful patrol system, and it should be a crime by law to drop a lighted match in the dry forest. Action should also be taken to limit the ravages caused by locomotive sparks. Sir Wilfrid also encouraged tree planting on farms. Mr. R. L. Borden followed in a forceful argument in favor of preservation of the forest wealth, Hon. Frank Oliver, Minister of Interior, made practical speech, pointing out some of the difficulties in saving the trees.

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Mr. E. G. Joly de Lotbiniere, president of the association, recalled the far off days when Champlain first established a colony of pioneers where Quebec now stands. Since then until recently the forest was looked upon as the sternest and most relentless enemy of the settler. In 300 years this enemy had been greatly annihilated. He reviewed the history of the reforestation movement in Canada. He hoped to see means established in the near future for educating the young people in forestry preservation.

Mr. Gifford Pinchot conveyed to Earl Grey a message of the warmest personal regards from the President of the United States.

Treating the subject of forestry preservation in the United States Mr. Pinchot said that the basis was education. Every person was taught to believe that the preservation of the forest was of substantial consequence to each one.

A number of interesting papers were presented, which may be mentioned by title, as follows: "Forestry on Dominion Lands," by E. Stewart; "Forest Fires," Dr. Robert Bell; "Effects of the Conservation of the Forests on Water Powers," C. H. Keefer; "Forest Reserves," Thomas Southworth; "Forestry and Irrigation," J. S. Dennis; "Water Powers," Cecil B. Smith; Forestry on the Experimental Farms," Wm. Saunders; "Farm Forestry for the Eastern Provinces," Rev. A. E. Burke; "Tree Planting in the West," Norman M. Ross; "The Agricultural Forest Problem," E. J. Zavitz; Forestry from the Lumberman's Standpoint," J. B. Miller; "The Forests of Nova Scotia," F. C. Whitman; "The Lumber Industry and the Forest," Wm. Little; "The Pulp Wood Industry," H. M. Price; "The Wood Supply of the Railroads," Joseph Hobson and W. F. Tye; "The Pulp Industry of Canada," E. B.

Biggar; "The Demand of the Newspaper on the Forest," J. F. MacKay; "The Forest and the Mine," Frederick Keffer; "The Wood Supply of the Manufacturer," J. Kerr Osborne; "Forestry Education," Monsignor J. U. K. Laflamme; "A Canadian Forest Policy," Dr. Judson F. Clark. On the 11th a banquet was held at the Russell House.

The resolutions presented and adopted were: The construction of the G. T. P. and of other roads projected through coniferous forests was regarded as constituting a menace, and the railway companies were urged to provide proper patrols and other precautions. Forest reserves were approved, and the governments urged to establish a system of exploration ahead of settlement with a view to selecting proper agricultural lands and saving the forests as far as possible, It was also resolved that the time is now ripe for a general forest policy for Canada, and that the Federal Government be asked to inaugurate the same. The opinion was also expressed that the retention of areas under wood and the replanting of depleted areas would be encouraged by an abolition of taxation.

Lumbermen and Forestry.

T the fourth annual meeting of the Hardwood Manufacturer's Association, held in Louisville, Ky.. January 16-17th, Mr. R. H. Vansant, President of the organization, in his formal address made a special reference to forestry, showing the interest which practical lumbermen are now taking in the subject. He said :The forestry question is fast coming to the front, and will have to be met and solved at no distant day.

That there has been a marked change in the perennial flow of the streams and in agriculture, by the clearing of the soil and the destruction of the forests, no one at all familiar with the subject

will doubt.

To those whose water supply is largely con-, trolled by the forests of the Appalachian range, the destruction of these forests has become seriously important; and also in other sections of the United States, but with these I am not so familiar.

Various ways have been proposed for the protection of these forests, and among these is the appeal to lumbermen to voluntarily and without recompense cease removing the timber, or certain parts of the same; and also, one to Congress to enact a law requiring them to do so. opinion an appeal of this character or a law of this kind is, under present conditions, extremely un

In my

reasonable, and will be met with the strongest opposition by the present day lumbermen.

The men who now own these forests of marketable timber have expended vast fortunes in acquiring them, with the laudable expectation of realizing a fair profit on their investment; in fact, a large number of them have the savings of a lifetime of hardest labor wrapped up in them, and to require or ask them to give all they have to a project in which they have no pecuniary interest is, to my mind, unfair and unjust.

That something should be done all will admit, and, in my opinion, the only feasible plan that would be just to all is for the national government to acquire, by purchase, the tops of these mountains and a sufficiency of the lower parts after the timber now of marketable size shall have been removed, the same to be removed without the unnecessary destruction of the smaller timber, to insure the necessary protection to the great natural reservoir which waters that vast industrial and agricultural country draining the Appalachian Mountains. This, to my mind, is the only practicable solution of the problem that would be fair. to every one, and I trust that this, or some other method equally as satisfactory, will be adopted in the near futnre.

Without in any wise discouraging the value of forestry, we think the duty that lies nearest the hand of the lumberman is the practice of forest and sawmill economies. The last few years have developed the fact, and the past twelve months have emphasized it, that there is no wood growing out of the ground which does not possess a value for some purpose. To-day every variety of American forest growth is under tribute to minister to the wants of mankind.

Practical forestry has taken a definite form, and as an evidence of this the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association at the meeting held at Chicago, in May, 1905, decided to raise a fund to endow a chair in the Yale forest school, to teach applied forestry and practical lumbering.

The wise lumberman will learn all that is worth knowing about these woods now new to the hardthem; the uses for which they may be adapted wood industry; he will learn the way to handle and the way to make money out of them.

I am glad to note that many of the manufacturers of hardwood are interesting themselves in the possibilities of the dimension business, in the financial possibilities of sawmill economies. This branch of the hardwood business has up to the present time been much neglected. It has meant loss and failure to the majority entering upon it; it has lacked system, expert knowledge of the requirements of production, and especially has it

been deficient in organization. From all just and logical view-points, the dimension business should be one of the best and most profitable features of the hardwood lumber industry, if correct systems of manufacture, accurate grading and just values are attained.

The early history of the hardwood lumber business in this country is a pathetic and lamentable one. A little more than a century ago the major portion of the United States east of the Missouri River was covered with a great stand of hardwood timber of variety, richness and density not existing in any other part of the world. This growth was also marked by woods that were phenomenal in their growth; woods suitable for all purposes, and which, for many years, have made this portion of America a source of supply for nearly every part of the civilized globe.

This wealth was so prolific as to be utterly unappreciated. Millions of acres of magnificent timber were wantonly destroyed. Other millions of acres were depreciated and largely ruined, and the choicest trees of other millions of acres were felled and cut into badly manufactured lumber, and, worse still, this placed upon the market unseasoned and not fit for use.

The commercial history of the hardwood business during all this time was bad; it was difficult for any manufacturer to know in advance that he would make any profit in his business, or market his lumber in a satisfactory manner; and it has only been within the last few years that the hardwood manufacturer could, with any degree of certainty, expect a dollar's profit.

The present day manufacturers of hardwood are just learning our trade, and with former forest conditions existing could easily carve out fortunes; but to-day we generally stand confronted with sparse and depreciated forests, for the most part located at long distances from market, and it is almost impossible for us to succeed without the aid of experience, skill, good judgment, industry and the co-operation of our fellows in the trade. It is incumbent upon every man who would succeed to be on the alert, study his business thoroughly, analyze every feature of it, learn something about it every day, and be satisfied that he has done his best only when he has mastered the details of the most approved methods in the trade. To do this, he must learn from the experience of others, as well as himself, and should be equally ready to assist others to learn best methods.

A Chicago corporation owning land along the Chicago Drainage Canal is contemplating planting trees on a tract of 4000 acres, and in this way securing revenue from unproductive land.

Forest Reserves for New Jersey.

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T the meeting of the New Jersey Legislature early in 1905, an appropriation of $10,000 was made for the purchase of forest reserves, Governor E. C. Stokes has taken much interest in this work, and in his first annual message to the Legislature on January 9th, 1906, said:

"Among New Jersey's valuable resources are her woodlands. These for a long time have suffered from the woodman's unscientific axe. They have been swept by fire to the impoverishment of the soil, and, what is most important, to the reduction of the potable water supply an indispensable factor in our rapidly growing population. Forty-six per cent. of the upland area of New Jersey is better adapted to the production of forests than to grazing or tillage. forests than to grazing or tillage. A plan for the utilization of this territory, for the growth of timber and the reclamation of our waste lands for purposes of tree culture was inaugurated at the last session of the Legislature. Under the provisions of that act a forestry commission was appointed.

"The commission's aim has been, first, to secure a tract where tree culture could be exemplified and studied in a practical way and thus serve as an incentive to individuals and private interests to engage in this work on their own account; secondly, to secure a tract containing timber ready for cutting, that the State might at once derive a revenue from this source and at the same time be growing trees to take the places of those cut and removed; thirdly, to secure a tract capable of growing timber, even though it require a generation or more for its development. These three objects seem to cover a comparatively wide field of forestry work.

Ten thousand dollars was appropriated for these purposes. A tract of 268.94 acres near May's Landing was purchased for $1075.76, to which has been added 104.65 acres, the gift of John Gifford, and a tract of 597 acres of young timber in Bass River township, Burlington County, has been secured at a cost of $879.

"The aggregate acreage now acquired is 970.5 acres, at a cost of $1954.76 for the land and $193.50 for surveys and maps required by law.

Negotiations are in progress for tracts of larger acreage, subject to the approval of the Legislature in the way of sufficient appropriation.

"We have 108 fresh water lakes distributed throughout the State, covering 14,000 acres. Where practicable these should be set apart as

* About 24,000 acres. -ED.