| Show tt Z I 1 w botty yea 0 f forest ry 0 in the 0 un M e ilan ff P 01 lay fl e Y AGO az V R y V X 1 jf 10 TO 4 I 1 1 W A KI M 1 J 00 X 1 1 1 W 41 AXI MM 5 44 n g 14 14 PREs HT PACK OF THE AMERICAN T EE association PO A MORAL by ELMO SCOTT WATSON HIS year i larks the sixtieth annl aunt of an important event in tl e i om c history of our nation for 0 years ago in the first NN warning arning against depleting one of our great natural resources and the first admonition to plant trees as a means of offsetting the disastrous results of such de was uttered the man who did that was rr franklin anklin B hough the first for est agent of the united states and he Is being honored this year in a particularly appropriate manner charles lathrop pack president of the A american merican tree association and one of the leading apostles of scientific forestry in this country has begun the distribution of the forty third edition of his ta fa ro forestry restry primer and this edition Is bedl bated to hough this edition will make 4 copies of the booklet which mr pack has given to schools and colleges since the first edition was printed in january 1906 although houghs fame as the hist forest agent will be thus broadcast throughout the united states it Is a curious fact that he Is al ready better known for some of his other activities tivi ties than he is for his work in behalf of forestry look in almost any cyclopedia of lit and you will find him listed as an au an thor and historian with more emphasis emph isis laid upon his prolific writings than upon his work as a preacher of the doctrine of plant trees I 1 franklin rr anklin benjamin hough one wonders if he were named for the immortal ben franklin and it so why the two given names were thus transposed 1 was born in Martins burgh N Y july 20 1822 the son of dr horatio hough who had emigrated from southwick mass in 1797 and was the first physician in lewis county new york after his graduation from union college in 1843 young hough prepared to follow in his fathers footsteps by entering cleveland medical college from which he was as graduated five years later even during his college career scientific investigation outside his chosen field of med cine interested him and in 1847 he published his first work ork A catalogue of I 1 hants lants growing without cultivation in lewis county new york beginning the practice of medicine at somer ville N Y in 1852 he later removed to albany and during a residence of eight years there he was an earnest and indefatigable student of his tory and an authority on antiquities statistics and various branches of science his fits published writings during this period included histories of st lawrence frani franl lin jefferson and lewis counties new york papers relating to the Is land of nantucket proclamations for thanks giving by the continental congress washington and others with an historical historical introduction Mun munsell sells s guide to the hudson river papers concerning the attack upon hatfield and deer field by a party of indians from canada sep 19 1677 results of a series of me te observations made in obedience to the instructions of the regents of the university at sundry academies in the state of new york from 1828 1826 to 1850 and the comprehensive farm record with directions for its use H he e also edited diary of the siege of detroit in the war with pontiac and A narrative of the principal events of the siege by major robert rogers during the civil war hough served as a sur geon with the union army tor for a time then returned to new york to make his home in low ville where he continued his scientific and lit arary work during the next five years his pub included an annotated translation of bauden a guerre de cremee proceedings of the commissioners of indian affairs for the ex ux of indian titles in the state of new york history of duryee s brigade during the campaign in virginia under general pope and in maryland under general mcclellan washing toniann or memorials of the death of george washington the siege of savannah by the american and french forces under general lin coin coln and count d estaing the siege of charles ton by the british fleet and army under arbuth not and sir henry clinton american Cons titu eions and a translation of memoir upon the late war in north america between the french and english 1755 CO GO during this time I 1 e had also prepared several volumes of statistics he ile supervised and pub fished the state census of 1855 and 1865 on both occasions writing the pamphlet of instructions instruction bv order of the legislature he also edited and annotated and sad in many cases made important additions to a large list of important work and published a gazetteer Gaze teer of new york was prepared entirely under hs h Js supervision truly a busy and useful citizen was this frank lin benjamin hough 1 but even more important than these wag was an other activity in which he be became interested that of preserving the forests of his native which he saw were being steadily diminished t i t eausar i V heu heti a division ut ol to tore retry satry lu in tt tte e state if de apartment part ment of agriculture was created hough wai appointed as its chief and he be served in that ca opacity from 1876 to 1883 ie le certain events had been taking place which should have been a warning to the whole nation but which were for the most part disregarded crded in the west terrible forest fires had been raging almost every summer but little attention was paid in the east to the reports of these conflagrations now and then hough and other far see ng men declared that our tu fu ture timber supply was in danger unless steps were taken to replace the trees destroyed by these fires or by the lumbering methods then in vogue but ameilla evidently believing that our forests like some of our other natural resources were inexhaustible laughed a at t these cranks and went merrily on its wasteful way strangely enough the great chicago fire of 1871 helped turn the thought of the nation to forest resources that was the summer of one of the greatest droutha in the history of the country from july 8 to october 9 with the exception of two small showers in september no rain fell in the major portion of the middle west forest fires swept over a great part of bortl ern michigan and wisconsin and raged nn tin hindered through the country where streams ponds and marsh lands had dried up the east heard again about forest fires but it didn dian t worry much about them why wonder about a few thousand trees anyway ships were to be built of iron and buildings of brick and coal was the fuel of the future they said then in october 1871 the whole problem of drouth and fire was nas dramatized in the great tragedy in chicago and it helped turn the na lional consciousness to our future timber supply the d result was that congress ed 2000 and employed hough to investigate timber conditions in the united states out of his report sent to congress by president R B hayes grew a national forestry policy which although slow in developing has made constant progress during the last lat 60 years the me sive steps in that development have been as fol lows 1866 act creating division of forestry in department part ment of agriculture june 30 1891 president authorized to establish forest reserves march 3 yellowstone park timberland reserve proclaimed by president harrlson harrison on march 30 1897 present national forest act passed june 4 v 1901 division of forestry becomes bureau of forestry july I 1 1905 bureau of forestry becomes forest sery ice lee february 1 1911 weeks law passed march 1 1924 Clarke mcnary bill signed june 7 1928 mcnary woodruff act signed april 30 1928 Me Sweeney mcnary act signed may 22 1933 president roosevelt sends forest work relief message to congress march 21 1933 first civilian forest conservation corps camp established april 17 in commenting upon the forest fires back in the seventies which brought to the american people a realization of the need for conservation of our timber supply president pack of the ameri amerl can tree association said recently those and the many forest fires to follow have cost the nation millions of dollars but things are on the mend little did hough ever think that a forest army known as the civilian conservation corps would ever put in man days fighting forest fires hough never dreamed 33 in les of telephone lines would be built into these forest areas to help keep down the fire loss hough knew nothing of for est fire 1001 out towers and aeroplane spotters watching thousands of square miles of forests for the first sign of curling smoke he could not vision the radio call of fire giving the ap proximate location to the nearest station this to be followed follow ed by the shriek of the fire siren and hundreds of men going into action in motor trucks but hough had one vision such as the thou sands of tree planting members of the american tree association have that was that we must look ahead and in his report forwarded to the congress by president hayes he said in looking forward to the possibilities of future supply of timber we cannot expect unless so far as may be derived from canada any as si stance worth noticing from foreign countries and must substantially depend upon ourselves for what ever we may require to meet the vast and varied wants of our population although Althou Altho gl in some instance the consumption may become less as of the substitution of iron in civil and naval architecture or of mineral coal for or fuel we can scarcely expect that the general demand vill ever decrease but it will steadily advance with our increase in wealth and numbers and tl if at its supply must depend upon growth within ur own territory and as the native timber is exhausted it must be re reared under the care nd direction of man it Is indeed true that i K ai L ill 4 Q i A I 1 franklin B hough the arst f forest agent never dreamed that thousands of young men such as those shown in this picture would be sent into the forests as a 2 civilian conservation corps to aid in saving our trees 2 erosion control work and reforestation go hand in hand in many places sixty years ago when the first inquiry was made about forest resources by franklin B hough the tractor was unknown in this work 3 insect control Is one of the big problems facing the foresters of today the pests take an annual toll of millions 4 BI I 1 ster rust control crews of the are at work in hundreds of national forests all pictures courtesy the american tree associate on timber will grow through mans neglect where ever the soil and climate do not forbid but with due forethought and intelligent care there Is no cultivation that better repays the attention be stowed upon it than the growth of forest trees that last phrase Is very important so let us see what has happened in the 60 years since president hayes sent those words to congress today there thye are in tl ti e national forest about million acres we have forest experiment sta dons located at the best points about the land the work of the united states forest service Is divided into 10 regions it has tremendous seed beds in production A magnificent laboratory at madison WIs is finding out more and more about wood and what can be done with it today there are many high grade schools of forestry and many colleges teach something about it in one way or another but more im than this to my mind Is the fact that the american people today are forestry minded they are for a national forest policy this Is due to the fact that the school teachers and the editors of the land are forestry minded the work begun by the CCO must be con linued in this project there are tied together man conservation and forest conservation there can be no better training for a young man just out of school than to give him two years of woods schooling two years of man to man liv ing two years of first hand knowledge that as hough said 60 years ao there is no cultivation that better repays the attention bestowed upon it than the growth of trees the state of new york is one of the leaders in forest conservation and much of the credit for that fact is due to the man who this year Is being hailed as the first forest agent ii rani lin B hough among his later publications 1 avi ere the clements elements of forestry information con berning the planting and care of forest trees and report report on forestry both published in 1882 on slay may 15 1885 gov david B hill IIII of new nea york signed the bill creating a forest commis slon sion in new york hough had been influential in bringing that about but he did not live to see the full fruition of his efforts he died three weeks later on june 8 6 1885 last year in con lection with the celebration of 50 years of for estry in the empire state his home at lowville was dedicated to his work this year his service to the cause of forestry through the report which he made 60 years ago Is to be commemorated throughout the united states president pack of the american tree association has sounded the keynote to that corn com me atlon by dedicating the new edition of the forestry primer to hough in it he says the date 1878 1876 Is destined to be an important one in forestry history just as 1878 1876 marked the centennial of our political independence so when the forestry history of this country Is written will it mark the beginning of our economic in dependence but I 1 prefer to look ahead to 1978 1970 when our country marks the two hundredth hundred to anniversary of its political independence it will als be a 8 forestry centennial will this country have ad danced toward economic independence in a for estry sense I 1 believe the american people will bring about that situation 1 I believe the fine operation cooperation given the edu cat lonal campaign of the american tree asso dation by newspapers and magazine editors will ong before that date have aroused the public demand that timber be grown on thousands of teres of what is now idle land as a well ordered project of public policy volley 0 western newspaper union |
