On an extensive operation where labor would be familiar with the methods to the extent that chipping could be carried on with more regularity and on timber suited to the method, there is no reason to believe but that the yield per face would compare more favorably with the American method and produce a greater yield per square inch of exposed surface. The chief virtue of the French system, however, is the long period over which an operation can be conducted. Thus stabilizing an important and fast disappearing industry and insuring for the individual operator a continued and profitable operation on the same area over a period of 30 or 40 years.

W. L'E. BARNETT, Secretary Naval Stores Commission.

Mt. Dora, Florida.

PROPOSED PLAN OF NAVAL STORES INSTITUTE By O. H. L. WERNICKE

Mr. Joseph Hyde Pratt,

Asheville, N. C.

Dear Mr. Pratt:

Gulf Point, Fla., January 13, 1925.

This will acknowledge your notice of December 12, regarding the Forest Congress meeting at Little Rock January 19-21. I am also in receipt of a letter from Mr. J. G. Pace, of Pensacola, urging me to attend, and I should be glad to do so if it were not for conflicting engagements.

I am busily engaged with matters pertaining to the Pine Institute of America, which is the outcome of the get-together meeting* of Naval Stores interests last February at Savannah. Another Conference to be held February 19, 21, 1925, at Savannah, has been called to act on the Institute proposal and other important matters. I will include herewith a copy of the plan as adopted by the organization committee and a memo of the arguments which influenced its members.

This get-together meeting of men interested in the Naval Stores industry was brought about through the appointment of a Naval Stores Committee by the Sixth Southern Forestry Congress.

I particularly regret my inability to be with you at Little Rock because of the intimate relations existing between Forestry and Naval Stores, and trust that you will find opportunity to explain the Pine Institute plan to your people and extend an invitation to all interested persons who attend the Congress to come to Savannah in February and lend their aid to the biggest project ever proposed for the South.

You will note that the Institute plan does not seek to displace any other existing or future organization or activity, but is devised to augment and coördinate all lesser movements by providing a permanent and responsible agency that can give added emphasis and practical support to every worthy effort. With kindest personal regards, I remain

Sincerely,

O. H. L. WERNICKE.

ARGUMENT FOR A PINE INSTITUTE OF AMERICA

The one big job of the South is to make better use of its idle lands; what to do with them, and how to do it, are serious problems which concern everybody, because they affect all persons and every business in the territory, and more particularly those who own them. The health, vigor, and culture of its people and their place in the realm of human progress towards better living conditions can not rise higher than the degree of intelligence exercised in making better use of its lands, because the cut over territory has no other great natural resources.

The most that we have is our land, and therefore, the most we can hope to accomplish is to use this land to best advantage. Its known possibilities are beyond description; it presents no obstacle that can not be removed by good understanding, while made to pay its own way.

Unless a thing is profitably done, it is a waste of energy and not worth doing. Knowledge that cannot be used is an ornament of no value. Good education consists in knowing what to do, and good ability, in knowing how to do it profitably. Knowledge and ability are neither gifts nor endowments, they must be acquired and cultivated. This can best be done by organized coöperation under wise directions and skillful management.

We regard with satisfaction our schools, our churches, libraries and colleges, from which we derive scholars, preachers and teachers, lawyers, doctors, and artisians, to whom we turn for counsel or aid in a multiplicity of daily problems, and to maintain which, we assess ourselves for sums of money which represent a large share of our yearly income. We do this more or less cheerfully, because it has long been the custom so to do, and those established agencies serve useful purpose including relief for toothache, but they do not adequately serve the man who has the purse ache which comes from tax payments on idle land. That is the one really big ache with which the cut-over sections of the South are presently afflicted and for which remedies are urgently desired.

If we found ourselves without churches, schools, or doctors, we would immediately get together and provide them at any cost, so also must we get together and provide ourselves with proper and efficient means to kill the hook worms that make waste places of our soil; it can be done at small cost and little effort while yielding returns beyond comparison.

Without land and favorable climate we cannot have trees; without pine trees we cannot have rosin, turpentine, lumber or fuel, and without such products we cannot have permanent prosperity or enjoy modern living conditions, and without these we must become a backward people. These obvious deductions challenge us to meet the issue, not in a spirit of resignation or self preservation, but with that keen zest for achievement which inspires every normal being.

The Pine Institute of America, as outlined in the plan devised by the committee charged with that duty, provides an agency to be owned and controlled by those whom it is to benefit primarily, and where the basic problems which are beyond individual solution can be solved or evaluated by the added forces of expert skill and coöperation.

Like the hub of a wheel its many spokes can be made to coordinate with every fount of useful knowledge within the radius of all organized industry including the government, our universities, and private research agencies, and bring them to bear on our particular problems. Here at the hub the kernels are sifted

from the chaff before sending them out again in usable form over another set of spokes that reach the men who can be benefited thereby.

The form of organization is important, but the quality of its management is vital. A gun shoots no higher than it is aimed and when it fails to hit the mark the result is a waste of ammunition. It is dangerous to hunt bear with bird shot, and foolish to use buck shot on quail, the load must be suited to the game and discharged with ability to hit the mark to insure good results.

The plan must be flexible to meet changing circumstances, it must be broad enough to include the ordinary needs of its members with fairness and comprehension, and it must be given permanent financial support sufficient to carry out its objects and purposes. Such a plan so financed and supported will pay dividends from the hour of its adoption, because it is a necessary machine in the process of reducing the problems in mind to orderly proportions.

Organized knowledge has always and everywhere been the foundation of progress in all departments of human endeavor. It will not fail us in this case, in proof we need only to remember that its pine region, now the richest of France, was malarial swamp and barren sand before organized knowledge was brought to bear on the situation less than a century ago. The cut over pine areas of the South are neither swamp nor unfertile sand, here we have soil and climate that grows timber faster and with less human effort than elsewhere and here is where organized knowledge can be most profitably applied.

Confidence is the foundation of credit, and good credit aids progress. There are inexhaustable reservoirs of capital awaiting southern enterprise when it feels assured of safety with profits. No agency can do so much to bring this about as can the Pine Institute of America supported by the great landowners and leaders in related industries all the way from Texas to Virginia.

With the men who represent the primary resources of the Coastal plain solidly behind the Pine Institute, that will in itself, be an event of sufficient import to focus nation wide attention

on the territory and gain for it free publicity of greater values than any amount of paid advertising would produce.

When properly supported and ethically conducted the Institute can have an advisory council composed of the foremost scientists and experts from industrial, financial and educational institutions and thereby gain access to all the sources of modern progress and influence. Such men freely give their best where worthwhile public service can be rendered, but they cannot be hired for money or persuaded by halfway measures.

The chosen field for this institution is unoccupied, its scope is empire wide and its opportunity without limits. In this obvious situation the spirit of our finest traditions now challenges the courage of our convictions to make history that shall eclipse the glories of an older South in its culture, wealth and influence.

WHAT OF A LOCATION

When the Pine Institute of America has been organized as a going concern and its trustees empowered to shape its course where the most good can be done, their next problem will be to provide a home for it wherein the stated objects and purposes can be realized.

The fortunate selection of a location and suitable quarters are matters of supreme importance and deserve more than casual consideration, because of the far flung membership the geographical aspects of the case deserve particular attention. To properly accommodate the personnel and business of such an Institute with its multiplicity of departments devised to function with the sources of useful knowledge from many public and private sources, and the service bureaus required to aid its supporting members in the best possible use thereof are matters that cannot be definitely determined in advance, but we may safely assume that the space and facilities required will be considerable and that room for expansion must not be lost sight of.

To house and accommodate the activities of such an Institute in any of our larger cities involves expenditure for office rentals as well as for the higher living costs of its officials and employees, which can in no way be translated in terms of equivalent service. These extra burdens would have to be supported out of institutional funds for which better use can be found.