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Senate Bill 5518

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  • FOREST RESERVE IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 6 of the lands so purchased nearly 50,000,000 of acres of forest-covered lands have been set aside as national forest reserves and parks for the purpose of perpetuating a timber supply in the Western States and Territories and for preserving forever the sources of their more important streams. Furthermore, the Government has recently been purchasing lands in the East for miliary parks and reservations and for other purposes. Hence it may be'asserted in all fairness that what is now proposed is new neither in principle nor practice. In view of the importance of the measure now proposed in behalf of the hard-wood forests of the country, and considering the fact that there are no public lands covered with hard-wood forests, and that neither individuals nor the States adjacent to this region can reasonably be expected to establish such forest reserves as are absolutely essential, it is evidently the duty of the General Government to take the present step. It will be asked how far the management and care of such a forest reserve will prove an annual expense to the Government. Attention is called, ir reply, to the accompanying letter from the Secretary' of Agriculture, in which he says: "I am entirely confident that very soon after its creation the proposed reserve would, under conservative forestry, be self-supporting from the sale of timber." Further, it may be said that many European forests, under government supervision, yield a net annual income from the sale of timber and other products of from $1 to $2 per acre or more. While no such income is expected to result from the proposed reserve in the immediate future, yet it is confidently expected that in the course of a few years this reserve will be self-supporting; and that subsequently, as the hard-wood forests of other regions are cut away and the country more thickly settled, the sale of timber and other products from this reserve will yield a considerable net profit. Other important questions connected with this measure which have been considered by the committee are fully answered in the statement which follows from the Secretary of Agriculture. The memorial of the Appalachian National Park Association and other documents are added. The legislatures of the several States within which the proposed forest reserve may be located, with a single exception, have already conferred upon Congress the necessary authority to acquire lands within their boundaries. In the case of the exception a resolution which indorses the plan has passed both houses of the legislature, and further action may confidently be expected in due time. This is a measure which has every consideration in its favor; and, in view of its importance and the beneficent results which will certainly flow from its adoption, it should commend itself to the wisdom of Congress, as it must appeal to the patriotism of every citizen. APPENDIX. February 9, 1901. My Dear Senator: I am in receipt of your letter of this date, in which you ask for an expression of my opinion regarding Senate bill 5518, which provides, for the purchase of a forest reserve in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. After a thorough investigation of the forest conditions of this region, I am heartily in favor of the creation of the proposed reserve and of Mr. Pritchard' s bill. The region in which it is proposed to locate this reserve contains the finest hard-wood forests yet remaining
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