Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 10, 1898)
6 'Cbe Conservative , seem to mo tlmt our interests nro so identical that it has been a mistake. We do feel that it is highly desirable that these bodies bo brought together , and therefore I move ' "That a committee of three bo ap pointed as a conference committee to confer with a similar committee from the Irrigation Congress to agree upon some plan of amalgamation of these two great interests. " UEMAUKS. MK. NEWELL : "As a member of the American Forestry Association , I should like to urge some steps looking toward a union of interests of these two organ izations. I wish to say tlmt , although I have been an officer of the American Forestry Association for some time , and have taken a great interest in the work , I have no pretensions of knowing any thing about forestry. I do not know a tree half the time when I see it. I have been drawn into the thing through my interest in water conservation. We can not talk about irrigation but what the matter of forestry comes up , and of the hundreds of thousands of farmers who are tilling the soil of the western half of the country by means of irrigation , there is hardly a one but what believes that his interests are directly connected with the preservation of the forests. His in terest is not only in a water supply , but also in furnishing a permanent quantity of material for fire-wood . - , fence-postsetc. After a united effort we have succeeded in getting a number of men together in the East to form an American Forestry Association. Wo have about 1,000 mem bers , but my experience has been that it is exceedingly difficult to bring in the Western men. I have personally more acquaintances in the West than in the East , but I have been able to pull in fewer men than in the East. This has crippled our efforts in the past. The Western politicians say this is an Eastern organization and does not know about matters of the West. In order that thie association may gain strength we must draw in the Western men , and I see no better way than through the irrigation interest. " Mu. WirEELEK : "Four years ago I addressed a congress at Denver and at tempted to show that the forest is Na ture's great reservoir. I had learned there that it was possible to co-operate and we held joint meetings. Being a mem ber of both associations I was much in terested in combining the work. I have been connected with the forestry and association work in Kansas for a num ber of years , and during my first ap pointment as commissioner of forestry I learned the truth of the assertion that it is impossible for a man to talk about irrigation without forestry , or forestry without getting mixed up with the other subject , and during my first two terms of office I addressed over fifty public meetings , and in every address I com bined the two subjects ; that is , I branched off to either one or the other , and I think that the two great interests of foresty and irrigation should go hand in hand. " ' The motion was then put and earned unanimously. The chairman appointed J. Sterling Morton , Dr. George L. Miller and E. F. Stephens on this committee. MR. MORTON : "I think the timber of the future is to be grown in the trans- Missouri country , and those states are : o furnish the ship-timbers of the future. We can grow timber quicker than they can farther East , and I have seen saw- logs coming from land which I knew forty years ago to bo bare prairie. I dis agree with my friend , the Doctor , as to the durability of our timber. I think that our timber , when cut at the right season and properly handled , is just as durable , in spite of the fact of its more rapid growth , as that raised in the East. I cannot see why a tree that has more nutrition here should be weaker than a ; ree that has less there , or why the fiber should be different. The tree alluded to by Mr. Emory as the Tamarack , seems : o me cannot be the same Tamarack that we know in the East , but is more like bho English Walnut. The Tamaracks here , as Governor Furuos knows very well , do nothing at all ; even the Larch is rather slow and not long-lived , as a rule. This question as to the Hickory and the borers is one of great importance just at this time , because in the last two years these borers have attacked the Shellbark Hickory , which was always exempt up to two or three years ugo.and I have a grove which contains some trees which I have watched for more than forty years. They had grown to be very handsome Shellbark Hickory , but are now all dead , and it seems to me that the borer is not like the Pignut borer. "It seems to mo that in this work we have got to make up in its quality what wo lack in quantity of membership , and I cannot think of any better thing for this association to do than to propose a system of legislation by the different states which shall prescribe the method of cutting timber , that is , a system of laws which shall absolutely prevent the leaving of debris so as to make the great fires , which cost us more than the wood man's axe every year , and I think noth ing could bo better than to appoint a committee , jointly , to draft a law pre scribing the manner in which the lum berman shall take care of the 'slash , ' as they call it , because out of the tree tops , twigs and branches which are loft come our great fires , which destroy millions of dollars' worth of good timber. All this could bo avoided , if there were a penalty for the leaving of debris. Our great pine-producing states would be millions and millions of dollars bettei off today if they had had some legisla tion of this sort twenty years ago , and it is not too late to begin it now. I make ; his as a suggestion , which I think is worthy of your consideration. " MR. MICIIELSEN : "I move that this matter bo taken under immediate con sideration. It is eminently proper that some such action should bo taken. I mve recently traveled through Wyom ing , and have seen the forest fires that mvo been caused by the most absurd waste of perhaps designing men. I be- ieve that the time is ripe to start an agitation of that subject , and I believe that all the states would be glad to en act legislation , because I am quite satis- led that the federal government will stand back of the states in enforcing federal legislation that is now on the statute books. I happen to know that in the state of Colorado much waste by fires has been stopped by the United States government providing rangers out of those who are in the employ of the government , whose duty it is to see that no fires ore left where they can do liarin , and that people dispose of the tops after they cut the trees. What we are after is not to prevent the cutting of timber for common use , nor do we de sire to do away with sawmills or tie- cutting. The forests of this country are largo enough to stand that for a good long time to come , provided the fires are prevented. The idea would be that legislation be prepared for next winter. Then I should also suggest that each man here consider himself as a commit tee to use his personal influence with his fellow citizens in his own state , to get such legislation enacted at the en suing sessions of the various legisla tures. " Moved and seconded that a commit tee of three bo appointed to formulate a .statute adapted to the several states to regulate the cutting of timber in order to prevent the destruction of forests by fire. Motion earned. MR. MORTON : "I think the general public misconstrue the object of this association ; that they seem to think that we intend to prevent the cutting of any timber at all , while it is really to show how to utilize forests and get the most out of thQin. " The chair appointed Henry Michelsen , Prof. S. M. Emory and Mr. William T. Little as members of this committee. Motion made and seconded that these gentlemen and two others to bo ap pointed by the chair , bo a committee on resolutions. Motion carried. The chair appointed Mr. F. H. Newell and J. Sterling Morton as the other two members of this committee. The following resolution was sub mitted by Professor Emory and seconded ended : "J3e it resolved by the American Fores try Association : "That it endorses the creation by presidential proclamation of the Middle Creek watershed reserve , the manage ment of the same to bo placed by con gressional action in the Montana College