. American forestry. Forests and forestry. Effects ol a Forest Fire (page b) are allowed to run without hiiulrance there will he no ^•ou^i^? trees coming on to take the place of the older ones when they are cut. State legislation must pro- vide right hre laws and adequate means for their enfurcement. h'orest taxation should be so laid that its burdens do not fall unjustly upon timber. This, again, is a matter for state legislatitjn. The states also have a dut\- which they cannot escape in the management of cut-over lands, which, where not suit- able for farming, often are utterly un- protected
. American forestry. Forests and forestry. Effects ol a Forest Fire (page b) are allowed to run without hiiulrance there will he no ^•ou^i^? trees coming on to take the place of the older ones when they are cut. State legislation must pro- vide right hre laws and adequate means for their enfurcement. h'orest taxation should be so laid that its burdens do not fall unjustly upon timber. This, again, is a matter for state legislatitjn. The states also have a dut\- which they cannot escape in the management of cut-over lands, which, where not suit- able for farming, often are utterly un- protected and revert to the state for de- lin(|uent taxes. Such tracts should be made into ^tate forest reserves, and other tracts of a similar character which can be ])urchased at nominal ])rices should be added to them. Prop- erly cared for, they will l:)ecome an im- portant source of future timber supply. Along these three lines of fire protec- tion, of right taxation, and of state forests, the states have duties which must he performed if the forest re- sources of the South are to be perpetu- ated. Needless to say, state action on these subjects should be as nearly nni- 10 form as ditterences in local conditions wil permit. Individual forest owners, and es- pecially the owners of the larger tracts, also have duties which they cannot es- ca]je. forests which they hold are not merely pieces of ]^rivate property. TlK"^? are a ])nblic trust, upon whose right admini^tration the welfare of manv de])eiids. L'nless the owners realize this, unless they do then- ut- most to conserve their forests while using them, pul)lic sentiment is likely to force the state governments to exer- cise ]3owers of control which the states undoubtedly have, though these ])0wers have so far lain dormant. And, lastly, the Federal Govennnent, too, has a (lnt\' in the maintenance of the southern forests. .More than 150,- 000,000 acres of i)ublic forest land in the Western States, essential for the prote
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectforestsandforestry
