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Show Vt.Wnint Floyd Gtttlrtdaon. RUhS.U. Uuh. (JulT t-i: t;,., iiT" 'ftf' ' "-"""Al J yf0'" I By ELMO SCOTT WATSON JV ITI1IN a few weeks Presl-& Presl-& SI ""TV dtH,t CooIUIe will lie Is-kW Is-kW suing liis annual proelu-jjkfi! proelu-jjkfi! illation for American For-Iscfflyl For-Iscfflyl est week, during which fr2Q" time ai. Americans are gS urged to turn their at-temion at-temion to the prohleni of saving our vanishing orests and to co-operate by every means possible to that end. As usual, the leaders in the observance of this week will be the otlicials of the American Amer-ican Tree association, headed by Charles Lathrop Pack, the president. In anticipation of that observance the association some time ago announced an-nounced a cartoon contest in which a series of prizes were offered for the best cartoons drawn by amateurs. The judges of the contest were Mrs. John Dickinson Sherman, president of the General Federation of Women's .Clubs; John Hays Hammond, Jay N. Darling (Ding), noted cartoonist of the New York Herald-Tribune; Col. William B. Ereeley. chief forester of the United States forest service, and Dr. John T. Finley of the Nev York Times. These judges recently announced an-nounced the prize winners among the 210 cartoons which, were entered in the contest and which came from every state in the Union and two for eign countries. The seven winning drawings will be used in the association's educational drive during American Forot week in April and will be especially valuable because the pictured lesson which they will uach can be understood by everybody, even those who are unable un-able to read. For that reason the seven winning cartoonists will have the satisfaction of knowing that their efforts were not only rewarded with cash prizes but with the satisfaction of knowing that they have performed a patriotic duty in helping save our forests. They are the following: First prize. Slot). Sam E. Nash. Jr., Tyler. Texas, second, $100, Floyd Cottfredson. IUchh'eld, Utah ; third. J.'.U. Richard W. Tipper, Washington. D. C; fourth. S2o, James T. Shaffer, Lancaster. N. Y.; fifth, $27,. F. D. Miller, Denver. Colo.; sixth. $23. Bruce Ilussell, Sierra Madro. Calif.; seventh. S-'."i. William L. Addkinson, Jackson. Miss. Saving the forests which we now have is only one part of the effort of the American Tree association. Even more important is the matter of bringing to the attention of the nation na-tion the amount of idle land in this country and how this land can be utilized uti-lized in forest production. This part of the problem is being taken care of by the educational work of the Charles Ltthrop Pack Forestry trust. One phase of this work has been the distributioL of 1,600,000 "Forestry Primers" to the schools of the nation. The millions of acres of Idle land in this country, Mr. Pack says, must be put to work growing trees because the economic structure of the country depends de-pends upon wood in its thousands of uses. The printed word and the cartoon car-toon make up part of the ammunition. In the United States the center of the lumber industry is in the Rocky mountain moun-tain region, far removed from the great manufacturing centers, the points of great consumption of forest products, the American Tree association associa-tion points out. States like New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, once the center cen-ter of the industry, now import lumber lum-ber over long hauls to keep their factories fac-tories going. In contrast with such a situation is that in Sweden. The annual growth of timber in Sweden's forests now exceeds ex-ceeds the annual cutting by nearly 100.000,000 cubic feet, according to a study of the Swedish forestry system IJTV 'r ,i X X-- O Pnialnl Uu Tre Sam E. Niih, Tyler. Tex. Iff - ;' J , "M v j j SAir, nArf by Trade Commissioner F.mil Kekich of the Department of Commerce. This result, the report declares, has been accomplished through forestry practice prac-tice making extensive areas more productive pro-ductive and through closer utilization which has relatively reduced cutting. Without question timber growing is the outstanding feature in the industrial indus-trial economy oi Sweden at the present pres-ent time and It is constantly becoming of greater importance. Ovei one-half of the land area is especially adaptable adapt-able to forest growth, with the soil possessing little or no fertility a? agricultural ag-ricultural land. The bulk of the forests for-ests belongs to private owners, and the forest policy of the country has been essentially one of the economy of private holdings. The owners of these private forests are divided into two groups the farmers, large and small, and large corporations which operate on large-scale forest methods. The Swedes were among the first to realize that some measure of restriction restric-tion in the large private forest areas was necessary, and among the first, if not the first, to actually apply rema-dies rema-dies to overeutting and Incidentally point the way for other countries. Practically all the large lumber, paper . nd pulp corporations operate forest departments of their own, which work in close harmony with the royal conservation con-servation boards, the government forest for-est service and the colleges and schools. From the forest experiment station at Stockholm conies Dr. Lars G. Romell to take the Charles Lathrop Pack research professorship of forest soils just established at Cornell university. uni-versity. The unusual character of lt3 legislation legis-lation has been the principal contribution contri-bution to Sweden's progress in forest management during the past two decades. dec-ades. The most important point involved in-volved in this legislation governing the care of the forests Is that the successful success-ful promotion of, forest management depends in the last analysis on the whole-hearted support of the people and Its universal application. The principal feature of enforcement embodies em-bodies the element of securing cooperation co-operation primarily through education. If the example of Sweden, which may well be emulated by the United States, presents the bright side of the picture, the experience of another nation na-tion plainly shows the darker side and should be an object lesson to this country, unless it gives the forestry problem serious consideration. From a recent issue of the Congressional Record is taken these excerpts under the litle of "A Plea for the Forests," from an address by John Q. Tillson. majority leader of the national house of representatives, who made an extended ex-tended trip through China, Japan and Korea last summer : No one can visit China without having hav-ing t h i- tragic lesson of forest destruction destruc-tion borne in upon' him in a most forceful force-ful m inner. China lias 400,000.000 population. pop-ulation. In area It Is one of the larsest countries In all the world, tt contains some of the very large rivers of the world. China has comparatively an ex tremely small mileage of railroads, so That us rivers should be relatively more important than those of any other country. And yet what do we hnd? The mouths of all Us rivers choked with sandbars. Up to about ten years ago large ships could not discharge at the docks of Shanghai. At last the enormous commerce of this great port forced 113 improvement, but it was a huge and expensive undertaking. Vea-peJs Vea-peJs ot any considerable draft cannot now reach Tientsin at all, but must stop outside at Taku bar. Tientsin is Hituated in a great alluvial plain which has been brought down from the region ot Peking and above by the Hoi Ho river. All the hills and mountains in this region were denuded of their forests for-ests evidently many centuries ago. No forests remain, but that they were once forest covered or at least are capable of producing trees is shown by the sacred trees about the Chinese' temples and the tombs of their ancestors. The rain-now falls upon the barren slopes and rapidly rushes to the sea, carrying carry-ing every particle of detached earth that it can carry. The sediment containing con-taining sand and gravel Is deposited upon the fertile fields, while the finer sediment is carried Into irrigation ditches, the beds of streams and canals. In Korea the same mistake of denuding de-nuding the hillsides has been made as In China, with Identical results so far as time has permitted. Doubtless China had been stripped of its forests for centuries while Korea was still a well-wooded country, but Korea Is no longer well wooded, having been denuded de-nuded to its very mountain peaks, while the same sad story is being written writ-ten of the barren mountains being washed down to , fill up the precious Irrigation ditches and to cover with worthless smd and silt the precious rice paddies and fertile wheat fields. It is worthy of note that since Japan took over Korea a very ambitious and expensive program of reforestation has been entered upon and is now being carried on there with every indication of a finally successful outcome, but It will require many decades of time and an unlimited amount of money to und even In small part, the great injur done to this unfortunate country by the reckless expenditure of its great forest wealth. Japan herself has done much better in this regard in her own little island empire. The islands are evidently of comparatively recent geological formation, forma-tion, so that there are many more high mountains with precipitous slopes and much of the land is steeply sloping hillsides. From some of these the forests for-ests were stripped carelessly and erosion ero-sion had begun its deadly work, but has not been permitted to run its destructive de-structive course as in China and to a lesser degree in Korea. In fact, in no other one thing are those who have directed the internal affairs of Japan to be so much commen'Vd as for the masterly, statesmanlike forestry policy that has been Inaugurated and is now being carried out in that country. Our own country is Old, geologically speaking, but quite youthful in point of utilization of the land either for the timber originally standing on It or for agricultural purposes. The time has not been sufficient in which to make all the mistakes of older countries, but, considering the brief period of our history, his-tory, we have surely made our share and the end is not yet. It is already apparent what the end will be. We must not stumble blindly on Into the condition of China and other portlon-i of the Orient or even to the state already al-ready reached by some parts of Europe. |