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Show B CHRISTMAS TREE CUSTOM UP-B UP-B HELD. . B B The country's forests Again have B l-con called upon to supply about four B million Christmas trees, and again Bt tunny persons have asked themselves B and have queried the United States K,i Forest Service, "Is the custom a men 1 aca to the movement for forest pre Hn arvatio.n?" B In tjic millions of happy homes m ovor tho country whore the younger B genoration has made the Christmas B tree the conter of ploy since early B Friday morning, there arc many B mothers and fathers who have given Bi the question more or less thought. B From Sunday schools and! other or- B ganizations also, which hold an an- B nual celebration around a gayly trim B med cvergrcon for the ban'"., of the B little ones, has come the question H whether it is consistent to urge con- B servntion of forest resources and then B to cut millions of young trees every B year to afford a little joy in tho poM- Hl ing holiday season. . ,f I Bf Y. it i conjiMruj'and proper ' that the custoum should be maintained," main-tained," has been the answer of Unit-od Unit-od States Forester Gifford Pinchot in every case, "Trees arc for use, and 'tjtcc. is no other use to which they could be put which would contribute con-tribute so much to the joy of man as their use by the children on this one great holiday of the year." "The number of trees cut for this use each year is utterly insignificant when compared to the consumption for other purposes for which timber is demanded. Not more than four million Christmas trees arc used each year, one in every fourth family. If planted four feet apart they could be grown on less than 1,500 acres. This clearing of an acre equal to. a good-sized farm each Christmas should not be a subject of much worry, wor-ry, when it is remembered that for lumber alone it is necessary to take timber from an area of more- than 100,000 acres every day of the year. "It is true that there has been serious ser-ious damage to forest growth in the cutting of Christmas trees in various sections ,-of the country, particularly in the Adirondack's and parts of New England, but in these very sections the damage through the cutting of yopng evergreens for use at Christmas Christ-mas is infinitesimal when compared with the loss of forest resources through fires and careless methods of lumbering. Tho proper remedy is not to stop using trees but to adopt wiser methods of use "1 is piMierallv realized that a ov-tflin ov-tflin proportion of land must always be used for forest growth, just as foi other crops. Christmas trees are one fnm of this crop. '1 here is no more reason for an outcry against using land to grow Christinas trees than to Brow flowers. The Forest Service upholds the Christmas tree custom, but recognizes recogniz-es at the same time, that the indiscriminate indis-criminate cutting of evergreens to supply the holiday trade has produced produc-ed a bad effect upon ninny stands of merchantable kinds of trees in different dif-ferent sections of the country. Waste vud destruction usually result when woodlands are not under a proper system of forest management. Foresters For-esters say that it is not by denying ourselves the wholesome pleasure of having a bit of nature in the home at Christmas that the probUm of conserving con-serving the forests will bi solved, hut by learning. ifoTvfe-fiflfe. csts wisqly and properly. The rava- ges through forest fires must be checked, the many avenues of waste of timber in its travel' from the wopds to the mill and thence to the, market must be closed, and almost riumb.cr-'. less important problems demand attention at-tention before the Christmas tree. Germany is conceded to have the highest developed system of forest management of any country, yet its per capita use of Christmas trees is greatest. The cutting of small trees for Christmas is not there considered in the least as a menace to the forest, but on the contrary as a means of improving the forest by thinning ana as a. source of revenue. It is therefore there-fore constantly encouraged. There is little doubt but that the time will come when the Christmas, tree (business will become a recognized recog-nized industry in this country, and that as much attention will be given to it as will be given to the growing of crops of timber for other uses. This may not be far off, for it is already al-ready understood that only through the practice of forestry, which means both the conservation of the timber which remains and carefully planned systems of rc-forcstation, will it be possible to supply the country with its forty billion feet of lumber needed each year, as well as the few million little trees used at Christmas time. |