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WCU - Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 1 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 2 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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wcu_great_smoky_mtns-14343.jpg

Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 4 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 5 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 6 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 7 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 8 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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Item 9 - Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech
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Senate Bill 5228: Senator Depew's speech

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  • The experience of the older countries of the world is of great value in this investigation. Forestry has been practiced in Germany for hundreds of years. Except for this wise and thoughtful care by the Government, the fatherland would be wholly unable to sustain its crowded population. Twenty-six per cent of the land of that country is in forests, of which the Government owns two-thirds. We have left in our own country only 26 per cent of our territory in woods. Germany has special schools of forestry for the education of her youth in this science. The young_ forester is taught all that books and lectures can give, and then is placed in a course of from three to seven years in the practical application of his work and personal study upon the ground. In that way he becomes fitted for his career. The Government not only cares for its own forests, but it brings under its supervision, laws, and rules those of private owners. In France 17 per cent of the country is in the forest, of which the Government owns one-ninth. The ruin caused by floods and by the drying up of streams from deforesting the mountain sides led one of the ablest statesmen of France, Colbert, during the reign of Louis XIV, in 1669, to prepare and put in force a code of forest laws. Under this code, as perfected, all the forests in France, whether owned by the Government, by communes, or by individuals, are under the direct supervision and control of the department of agriculture. The same is true in Italy, in Switzerland, and in Austria. European Governments are going still further in the line of forest preservation. The Italian Government found that their valley farms were being destroyed by the floods which in the rainy season poured down from their deforested mountain slopes. They came to the conclusion that it would be true economy for Italy to reforest these hills. They have arranged for the expenditure of $12,000,000, and this reforests only 500,000 acres. France, feeling the same disastrous effects upon her agriculture and from the same cause, expended $12,000,000 in the reforesting of 800,000 acres, and has made arrangements for the expenditure of $28,000,000 more to complete her plan. It costs for this reforesting $24 an acre in Italy and $50 an acre in France. Notwithstanding this large expenditure, it will be a half a century before the full benefit of the reforesting can be felt. It will be many generations before the soil in the woods will have acquired that quality of absorption and retention of the water which makes it both a reservoir and a protection for the farms below. The proposition before us is not to reforest at $24 an acre, as in Italy, or at $50 an acre, as in France, but at an expense of about $2 an acre to preserve the forests which have been forming for over a thousand years in trees and soil. Scientific forestry in Germany, France, and Italy gathers an annual crop from the trees which have reached the point where they are commercially valuable and can be cut, not only without injury to, but, on the contrary, for the benefit of the whole forest, of from $1 to $5 an acre per year net, after paying all the expenses of their care. There are many villages in Germany which pay all their taxes from the revenue derived annually from forests which they own, while other communities which sold or deforested their common lands have poor lands and are pauperized by their burdens. Switzerland presents for our mountain regions a remarkable illustration of the necessity as well as of the benefit of forest culture. The Swiss discovered centuries ago that with the def orest- 5327
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Great Smoky Mountains - A Park for America

This digital collection was created to contribute to the public's understanding of the forces and ideas that led to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. The most vi...

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