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Of course, in a vast and populous country like ours, no amount of devotion or skill on the part of the Federal and State forest services, the American Forestry Association, and other organizations can accomplish much without the co-operation of the rest of us. Our national forests, what is left of them, are as well protected and managed, considering the immense territory to be covered, and the limited funds so far appropriated for the work, as those of any nation. (1 Some of the city-owned forests of Europe, to be sure, are so well looked after that their earnings pay a large part of the taxes, and serious fires are almost unknown; but they have one employee to every 300 acres, while we average one to every 100,000 acres!) And, so far as skill and system in dealing with the fires we are constantly starting is concerned, our fire-fighters, as I said in the previous chapter, are acknowledged to be the best in the world. But we have a good long way to travel before we can show such records as those of European countries and communities, either in the proportion of fire losses or general forest protection and development, simply because our nation as a whole still lags behind its own splendid National Forest Service and the forest service of the more progressive States, corporations, and public-spirited organizations, not the least important of which are some of the schools, the Boy Scouts, and the Boys' Reforestation Clubs. And if I knew such things as we have seen and learned in the last chapter I'd be ashamed not to do everything I could to help along the good work. Of the need of enlisting more and more young people in this great movement, Dean Moon, of the New York State College of Forestry, says: "Special attention should be paid to instructing school-children concerning the importance of a forestry programme." But don't let us make the mistake of thinking that changing habits for the better is an easy job. If you knew some of the things that have been gone through with in getting where we are, where we can now begin to see daylight, you would wonder that we have made any progress at all. But, both because of what we can do to help at the present time and from the standpoint of our future citizenship, we ought to have some understanding of these things. Moreover, the most encouraging part of the progress we have already made is just that -- the history of the difficulties and discouragements through which it has been reached; the long pulls and the rocky roads in order to get anywhere at all; and you'll see why. I. THE LONG PULLS AND THE ROCKY ROADS Speaking of long pulls and rocky roads, we'll begin with a couple of locomotives, hoarsely grunting their winding, way through the mountains, on a steep grade, in one of the forested regions of the West, with a long string of loaded freight-cars behind them. Did you see that picture, in the movies, of the big snow-plough tunnelling through the monster drifts of a wild mountain winter to rescue the people of an engineering camp whose provisions had all been swept away by an avalanche? If so, you remember how the shovels of the firemen on the engines that drove the plough kept going as steadily as the oars in a college boat-race. FIRING THE ENGINES AND FIRING THE WOODS A locomotive on a hard job, driving a snow-plough, say, or hauling freight up steep grades, such as those which abound in the forest regions, has to be fed like that and given all possible draft. The result is that it snorts out sparks to beat anything; and big coal sparks that are a long while in going out and therefore particularly dangerous. Many bad forest fires have been started in this way. Now, you'd suppose all the railroads would long ago have been doing everything they could to prevent their locomotives from starting forest fires, wouldn't you? For one thing the amount of freight they get to handle depends on the growth and prosperity f the country through which they run. For another, they have to pay heavy damages where fires are proved to have been started by sparks from their engines. In the same way you would suppose that all lumber companies would be as wise as some lumber companies are and take every possible precaution against fire; and that every State, as some States have already done, would enact more just tax laws so that more lumber companies would feel justified in replanting; and that successive congresses and State legislatures would appropriate the money necessary for the widest protection and development of the public's remaining forest-lands. But no! Railroads and lumber companies and their employees, and State legislatures and congresses are like the rest of us -- some are wise and some are otherwise; and more wise and forethoughtful and inspired and inspiring for the general good at some times than at others; and, always, these legislative bodies are governed by the growth of public sentiment, a very considerable proportion of which is not yet awake to conditions that ought to wake the dead. And all of them, from the standpoint of us young people, so full of life and ginger and the instinct to be up and doing, are mortal slow! As for the railroads, and so of all employers, it isn't merely a case of what they want to do, but of what they can get their employees to do. For example, in the matter of the big sparks. When the railroads put on spark-arresters the firemen sometimes enlarge the holes in the wire screen so that there will be less interference with the draft; not because they want to set the woods on fire but because, at best, it's back-breaking business to fire an engine with a heavy load on an up-grade; and it's easy to see how, in trying to make the holes in the spark-screen a little larger, and with the thought that a few small sparks more or less couldn't do any harm, they make them very large. NOW, PUT YOURSELF IN THE LUMBERMAN'S PLACE It's the same way with the lumber companies and their cutting and care of timber-lands -- only more so, in some respects. For one thing, it isn't quite so obvious, perhaps, that by leaving the forest floor covered with lopped-off branches you're leaving kindling for a big fire as it is that such a fire may be started in dead grass or leaves by a spark from a puffing smoke-stack or a dying camp-fire. Moreover, the field force, whose earnings, first of all, depend on the amount of lumber they can get out in a day, are, naturally, thinking mainly of that. Furthermore, in States where there is poor co-operation with the National Forest Service in the matter of fire protection, the owners of forest-land feel, as the result of dear experience, that the sooner they can get their timber cut and out of danger the better, and they are not much inclined to stop and "rid up." As for growing new crops of timber, there is not only the discouragement of the big fire risk, but the ordinary system of taxing property according to its value, although, under most circumstances, the obvious and just thing to do, works out in a curious way in connection with the reforesting of cut-over timber-land. As the seedlings which are intended to take the place of the old generation get well into their stride and begin to look up in the world, the value of the land is thereby increased and up go the taxes, which have to be paid very shortly or you lose your land. But, even if all goes well, and your little trees weather the perils of fire and everything, it will be a good many years before you can get anything out of them; and if they are burned up, meanwhile, you don't even get your taxes out of them -- let alone making any money! THE BUSINESS OF THROWING MONEY AWAY You see, there are often a good many bumps in the way, even after people become interested and want to work with us in some great cause, such as this of the forests. But you've no idea how hard it frequently is to interest them in the first place, even when this would mean increased profit, and immediate profit, to them. For example, if we should follow some of this timber we have been talking about, first to the sawmill and then to the industries in which it is worked up into phonograph cases and furniture and rolling-pins and so on, we could learn that, on the average, one-third of this lumber is wasted. Even in making little things, such as doll-house furniture, crooked limbs, which would otherwise be useless for the purpose, can be utilized if they are cut into two-foot lengths before they are sawed into doll-house lumber. Yet by no means all manufacturers of doll-house furniture have this done; and goodness only knows how some of our dolls are going to get any furniture at all if prices keep advancing! Or take a waste common to all lines of manufacture, the waste in the making of boxes or crates in which things are shipped. If they are not made strong enough, they get broken before reaching their destination, and that means damaged or lost goods and often, also, a lost customer. If, on the other hand, they are made heavier or larger than necessary, or of lumber too good for the purpose, that means more money thrown away, not only in cost of material, but in freight charges. Now, the Forestry Department, among its various services, has established a laboratory at Madison, Wis., whose business it is to study these things, make experiments, and show manufacturers how to use their lumber to the best advantage. For example, in this matter of the boxes, having obtained all the necessary facts with regard to the nature of his business, they can usually show a manufacturer how to design a box or crate that will require less lumber--often that can be made of cheaper lumber--and that will weigh less, take up less space, and be made more quickly than the kind he is using; thus not only saving freight and lumber, but time and wages in the shipping department. You'd naturally suppose, wouldn't you, that every manufacturer in the country, knowing there was such an institution, would jump at the chance to make use of it? Nothing of the kind! In order to get these improved methods into use, the laboratory people have to keep sending out letters and circulars, just as if they were salesmen and the laboratory a private enterprise run for profit; where-as the only profit in the transaction goes to the concerns that avail themselves of its services. THE DAWN OF THE BETTER DAY Doesn't look very encouraging, all this, does it? And I could go on and give you any number of examples of such things--the difficulty of waking people up, even when their own business interests are immediately concerned, and the trouble they themselves have, after you have waked them up, to get their associates in business or their employees to work with them. But now let's take the other side of it, the progress that has been made in all directions, in spite of these difficulties. What has already been accomplished is, under the circumstances, simply wonderful and an assurance of complete success, as more and more join in the good work; of the final establishment of policies and practices in our national life that will compare favorably with the best in Europe. As everybody knows, the pioneer days in anything, in reforming bad habits and in all forms of business, public and private, are the hardest. And yet, although our whole forest policy is almost a thing of yesterday, compared with the history of forestry in Europe, we have already left the pioneer stages far behind. Until the establishment of the National Forest Service, lands equal in extent to all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, although belonging to the nation, were in reality a "no man's land," left to destruction by fire and reckless cutting; and cattle and sheep owners disputed, and often fought, over the rights to graze. Now all the resources of this big "wood-lot" of ours--timber, forage, farming-land, minerals, opportunities for recreation, and public enjoyment--are developed and put into use in such a thorough fashion that the forest service is everywhere recognized and spoken of as a model of business efficiency. And most of this change in the condition of things, a change which is nothing less than revolutionary, has been accomplished in a period of only about twenty years, so fast do we do things when we finally get started. If so much has been done with so small an amount available in congressional appropriations from year to year, imagine what will happen when public sentiment is finally aroused and, with the necessary funds which will thus become available, our members of Congress and all the rest of us pull together! THE GOOD WORK THE STATES ARE DOING In addition to the rapid development of the national Forest Service, more than half the States now have forest departments to look after State-owned lands and to co-operate with the national government and with private owners in fire protection and in teaching these private owners, by the methods successfully employed on State lands, how to manage their own to the best advantage. Of special importance, you can see, from what has already been said, is the fact that some of these States are working out systems of taxation which, while giving due regard to the State's revenues, will justify lumbermen, paper-pulp manufacturers, and other private owners in reforesting cut-over land. For example, in Massachusetts, land which is being devoted solely to the growing of timber is exempt from taxation until the timber is large enough to cut and then a 6 per cent production tax is levied at the time of cutting. In Massachusetts you can even loan your cut-over land to the State, let the State put it into good shape, start new trees, and everything, and then have it back again at any time within ten years, simply by paying the actual expense of these improvements. Several States have forest-nurseries which supply trees at cost. "FIRING THE WOODS" IN QUITE ANOTHER WAY If you had been in New York State not long ago you would have seen a fine example of team-work in connection with one of these nurseries; and if you're a New York State Boy Scout you were right in it, like enough. A lot of trees from the big State nursery were set out by Boy Scouts in co-operation with the State Federation of Women's Clubs and the State Forestry Association. Under the direction of State foresters the boys began the planting of the trees on one hundred acres of land purchased by the federation for the purpose and to be known as the Federation Forest. The great value of such things lies not alone in the planting of the trees but in the team-work. When once you get it going thoroughly, public enthusiasm spreads much like the forest fires themselves. Or, to put it in another way, it grows, not like simple, but like compound, interest. Here's a splendid example of it in which boys figure again. One of the big lumber companies of Louisiana sent $500 to the conservation department of the State to be used for a series of prizes to induce boys to practise forestry on small plots of land selected for the purpose. The State rangers enrolled the boys wishing to enter the contest, helped them secure plots, and gave them practical lessons. In these lessons the boys learned about all the different phases of tree-growing but with special emphasis on the prevention and control of fires; and, in the distribution of prizes, half the points were allowed for excellence in this part of the work. When it came to the awarding of the prizes, the judges said some of the plots compared very favorably with the best work of professional foresters. Think of that! And then the thing spread. The farmers learned from these boys, often their own sons, of course, how to take care of their wood-lots, and contributed money toward additional prizes which were offered, local communities in some places appropriating money for the purpose out of public funds; and now there are many schools in the rural districts of Louisiana that have some of these boy forests not far away. In the schools they not only learn such important facts as that a good-for-nothing named Nero, along in July, in the year 64, set Rome on fire and that this was a dreadful thing to do, but they are also duly impressed with the fact that it is bad business for us to keep on setting our woods afire to-day. Now notice how the good work is spreading in other directions--among the railroads, for instance. Railroads running through forest regions are not only using the best spark-arresters to be had--they are looking forward to a time when somebody, one of you boys perhaps, shall invent a better one--but, by a system of inspection, see that their spark-arresters are properly used. Firemen who tamper with spark-arresters are liable to discharge and also to punishment at the hands of the law. Many States now require the roads to use arresters and to employ fire-patrols and keep their rights-of-way cleared of brush and other things which furnish quick fuel for sparks from smoke-stack and fire-box. Some railroads are reforesting large tracts of land belonging to them, as a future source of railroad-ties and other lumber of which they are large consumers. A number of paper-pulp companies, for similar reasons, are doing the same thing, and water companies are reforesting their watersheds for the protection of their water-supply. |
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