July 31, 1968
Page 24573
MAINE'S AUSTIN CARY WAS PIONEER FORESTER
HON. EDMUND S. MUSKIE OF MAINE IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Wednesday, July 31, 1968
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the State of Maine is renowned for the natural beauty of its great forests and for the rugged individualism of the men who hunt and log or seek to preserve those tracts.
One of Maine's outstanding sons who knew and loved the north woods was Austin Cary, whose birthday we observe today. Born in 1865 in Machias, Maine, Austin Cary graduated with honors from Bowdoin College in 1887. Following a distinguished teaching career, Cary later became a pioneer in forestry during a 25-year career with the U.S. Forest Service. During those years he helped to develop improved and practical forestry practices throughout the country. His “Woodsman's Manual" became a sort of bible to hunters and woodsmen.
Mr. President, Miss Isabel Whittier has written a paper on Austin Cary's life and work. I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Extensions of Remarks.
There being no objection, the paper was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
MAINE'S AUSTIN CARY WAS PIONEER FORESTER
(By Isabel Whittier)
Thirty years have passed since the death of that great Maine man, Austin Cary, a pioneer in United States forestry, who became a man of national renown. He was widely known throughout New England and the North West and was regarded in the South as their own pioneer in forestry.
Austin Cary was a distinguished and prolific writer. He contributed to many technical and trade journals. He wrote fully 100 articles for various periodicals among which were the American Geographic Society, Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters, Journal of Forestry, Savannah Naval Stores Review, West Coast Lumberman, Southern Lumber Journal, Naval Stores Review and the American Lumberman.
His most important contribution to the literature of Forestry was his Manual for Northern Woodsmen written while he was teaching at Harvard and first published by the Harvard University Press in 1909. It underwent several subsequent editions, revised and retitled as Woodsman's Manual.
This was of great value to students and scholars in forestry and to practical workers in the wood-using industries. It has been treasured by thousands of men who have been interested in forestry. It was long considered a Bible for forestry and may still be so regarded by many.
Austin Cary was a rugged individualist, a keen observer, very straightforward, accurate and thorough. He had a tremendous influence on lumbermen, on timberland owners and on business executives. He was engaged in forestry for more than forty-two years and served for a quarter of a century with the United States Forest Service, of which he was an active and loyal member. His contributions to the Journal of Forestry made him well-known to members of the Society who found his "thoughtful and vigorous handling of forestry matters a continual inspiration" wrote W. T. Neal, when President of the Southern Pine Association.
Austin Cary was born in Port Machias, Maine, July 31, 1865. He was of English descent on both sides of his family. He was descended from John Cary who came to Massachusetts from Bristol in 1630. Caleb Cary, Austin's grandfather, left Massachusetts early in the 19th century and settled in East Machias, with his wife, Sally Jones Talbot. This couple had two sons, Charles and Lewis, both of whom lived in East Machias. Charles married Mary Eliza, his first cousin, and they became the parents of Austin and George Cary.
Austin prepared for college at Washington Academy in East Machias. At Bowdoin he was considered retiring, modest, and somewhat sensitive. Recognized as a great mathematician, he had an all round superiority in all his studies with a tendency towards the natural sciences. Not a book worm, he pursued an extensive course of general reading. He had orderly methods of study and showed persistent industry and expressed himself with clearances and force. He had a sense of humor and could enjoy a good joke, but appeared serious and cared little for social diversions.
Austin Cary graduated from Bowdoin with honors in 1887.
Cary served as an instructor in Biology and Geology for a year (1887-88) at Bowdoin, and then went to Johns Hopkins where he studied biology for a year and a half. In February, 1890, he went to Princeton for a special course in paleontology which he completed in 1891. In 1890 he was awarded an AM by Bowdoin.
In the summer of 1891, Cary went on the Bowdoin Scientific Expedition to Labrador led by Professor Leslie A. Lee of the Biological Department. An account of this expedition was told in a monograph entitled Bowdoin Boys in Labrador written by Jonathan Prince Cilley, Jr., a member of the expedition.
Austin Cary was well-fitted for the enterprise by his logging and hunting in the Maine forests near Machias. Cole, who accompanied Cary up Grand or Hamilton River, had been active in athletics in college and had served as an assistant to Professor Lee on the "Albatross" in a voyage from Washington around Cape Horn to Alaska.
One of the objectives of the expedition was the exploration of the Grand or Hamilton River. Austin Cary and Dennis Cole made the trip up the river from the Hamilton inlet for 300 miles to the Grand Falls.
The trip was difficult. One boat capsized near the Horse Shoe Rapids fairly early in the trip and many food provisions were lost and also a measuring chain, cooking utensils, rifles with much ammunition, an axe, and small stores of salt, sugar, and coffee.
They could hear what they thought was the roar of the falls long before they reached them. They came out above the falls and found that the sound they had heard was of the river running at the plateau level. Here the river was nearly two hundred yards wide, a heavy boiling rapid. They walked along the blocks of rock which was the shore and the river appeared to narrow and soon they saw the Grand Falls, 316 feet in height. The river narrowed just above from 250 to 50 yards "the water shooting over a somewhat gradual downward course and then plunging straight down with terrific force and with immense volume. At the bottom there was a large pool – the canyon extended for 25 miles through archaic rocks."
Cary and Cole named the Canyon at the bottom of Grand Falls Bowdoin Canyon after their alma mater. A name that has been retained. They gave the name Mt. Hyde to an elevation in the vicinity, after their College President, William DeWitt Hyde.
These young men from Bowdoin had solved the mystery of the Grand Falls, bringing to light a navigable waterway extending for an unbroken 90 miles, 300 miles in the interior of an unknown region. All this had been accomplished in a relatively short period.
Cary kept a journal of this expedition. This was the first accurate description of this area of Labrador. His report was published in a Bulletin of the American Geographical Society and also in pamphlet form.
In 1923 Hon. William J. Malone of Bristol, Conn., on a trip to the Grand River in Labrador found a sextant and a rifle that had belonged to Austin Cary and Dennis Cole. These were taken by Mr. Maurice Mack of Bristol, Conn. in July 1949 to Bowdoin College. These are now with the sled Peary used on his trip to the North Pole and other mementoes of Bowdoin explorers, including articles associated with another Bowdoin man, Donald McMillan.
Early in life Cary had become associated with the Maine woods where his uncles were lumbermen. Later in life, in his reminiscences, he could recall being in their camps before stoves were used when the fire for warmth and cooking was in the middle of the camps under a big smoke hole while the berth and living space were under the eaves. He could recall no mention of the word forestry until 1892 when he was 27 years old.
It was on a fishing trip in Washington County in 1892 that Cary met Professor Cleveland Abbott of the United States Weather Bureau and B. E. Fernow of the Division of Forestry. Through them he became interested in the field of forestry. Fernow, Gifford Uinchot, and Solon S. Graves were the only ones in America at that time at all versed in forestry. There was then no school or center of instruction in forestry in the United States.
Dr. B. E. Fernow, then in charge of the Bureau of Forestry in Washington, was the first systematic educator in Forestry in the United States. Fernow was able to work out a very small state appropriation for Cary who became a surveyor and investigator and soon qualified as an expert. Cary served with the Federal Division of Forestry from 1893-1896.
In the winter of 1895 Austin Cary was active in Michigan and Wisconsin gathering pine stem analyses data under Fernow for the Bureau of Forestry, in 1896 he was asked by Oakes, Forest Commissioner of Maine, to make a study and report on Forest Resources of the Androscoggin and Kennebec watersheds, and accordingly spent a full season in the Maine woods. Austin Cary may be said to have taken a significant part in state forestry.
Frank Heywood Jr. considered Cary's report the first comprehensive practical survey of this kind ever made. "He gave a good account of conditions and an analysis and new conclusions." (Cory's comment and review made 40 years later are in the Forest Commissioner's Report for 1933-1934.)
From March to Sept. 1896 Austin Cary traveled in Europe, visiting Greece for the Olympic Games and traveling the length of Italy. He spent time in the Black Forest in Germany, observing forest practices where there were trained wardens. Ownership there was divided among general government, state and private owners. More progress had been made in forestry in Germany than anywhere else.
From March 1898 until 1904 Austin Cary was employed by the Berlin Mills Co., which had large holdings in Northern New Hampshire and in Western Maine. This was the first firm in the United States known to have pursued a scientific course in preserving its timber lands by employing a forester. Cary went to different camps in the cutting season to see that "timber was well picked up – that land was cut conservatively."
During the six years that he was with the Berlin Mills, Cory surveyed, mapped, and cruised some 150,000 acres. Austin Cary was "the first American to hold such a position with a progressive corporation far-seeing and judicious enough to plan for reforestation". All of Cary's four original suggestions or innovations became established principles with large landholders and operating companies. In 1903 Austin Cary made his second trip to Europe, learning much from his observations in France. He taught the spring terms of 1904 and 1905 at the Yale Forestry School and did geographical mapping at Milford, Penna.
From 1905-1909 Cary was Asst. Professor at the Harvard School of Forestry. In the winter of 1905-06 he was in charge of a Senior class of Harvard University foresters at a lumber camp in Maine.
It was while Asst. Prof. of the Harvard School of Forestry that Cary visited the mills of Hollingsworth and Whitney Company of Boston at Waterville. This was one of the largest paper manufacturing establishments of New England. The firm owned 100,000 acres of spruce land on the Kennebec. William Lanigan, the head of the land business of the company, was a lumberman and log driver, a forcible, clear-headed man who had devised mountain watch stations connected by telephone with the wardens below, an efficient method to prevent forest fires.
Under Lanigan there were walking bosses who had general charge of a section of the company's wood operations. Cary also knew Lewis Oakes in charge of some 8-10 camps to the east of Moosehead Lake.
William B. Greeley considered Austin Cary a remarkable teacher. "He endeared himself to his students by his pithy homely way of putting things, by his practical down to earth Yankee mind and was at his best charging through the woods, axe in hand with students or landowners."
In 1908 Austin Cary was appointed by Governor Cobb to represent Maine at the Great Natural Resources Conference in Washington.
In 1908 Austin Cary began a policy of purchasing small timber tracts and became a private forester.
In 1909 he was appointed Supt. of Forests for New York, but resigned a year later due to ill health.
In 1910 Cary entered the U.S. Forest Service as a Senior Logging Engineer. (His first appointment with the U.S. Forest Service had been March 1, 1905 and he was then classified as an expert. His continuous employment did not begin until July 1910. He was honorably retired at the age of 70 in July 1935. He was engaged in special investigations and promotion of forestry. "He was a practical field man and his method of approach was direct and simple with few tools and theories," wrote Frank Heywood, Jr.
Until 1910 Austin Cary had been a pioneer in the practical field of forestry. His activities had been confined almost entirely to New England; with the exception of one winter in Michigan and Wisconsin and a brief visit to Pisgah Forest in N.C. when he was employed by the Berlin Mills.
From 1900 Cary continued to be a pioneer in forestry, but his influence extended to nearly every forest region of the United States. He continued to be a supporter of conservative lumbermen who in their practical plans, were actually practicing the best principles of forestry.
Cary carried a little black notebook in which he jotted down observations or statements made by truck drivers and company presidents. He used dozens of standard Forest Service notebooks. These he kept filed in an old steamer trunk by his desk.
Cary liked people but was not inclined to chit-chat. He was particularly at home in the woods and with people who were interested in forestry. He was definitely an informal rugged individualist. He was not argumentative, but not afraid to state his opinion even when it was a minority one. He had facts with which to back it up. He was one whose opinion was valued because he was known to have a good memory, to be sincere and accurate, and could express himself clearly and forcibly.
It was generally known that if Austin Cary said he'd do a thing it would be done, done well, and in a reasonable time, an enviable reputation to have and one well-deserved.
In 1922 Austin Cary was awarded the degree, Doctor of Science, by Bowdoin College. In 1924 he went to France and Spain with the American Naval Stores Commission.
He had become a member of the Society of American Foresters in 1905. In 1924 in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the forestry profession he was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters, the highest honor that the Society can confer on any of its members.
In 1935 Austin Cary retired from the Forest Service, having reached the age of 70. It was his intention to still spend some time each year in Florida. He had been teaching Sunday School at Lake City and spent his summers at his house on Gurnet Road in Brunswick, which he still regarded as his legal residence. He had been in the habit of being here for his birthday, July 31st, and many looked forward to being invited to his annual picnic outings. He intended to review his past studies and to assemble them all. No doubt he looked forward to some fishing in Maine and in Florida.
F.A. Silox, Head of the Forest Service, in a letter written in Washington, D.C. July 30, 1935 expressed appreciation of the work of Austin Cary:
"My attention has just been called to the fact that you are to retire on July 31st.
"I should like to express to you for Forest Service and for myself personally very sincere regret that we will no longer have the advantage of your high ability, sound judgment and practical good sense. You are to be congratulated most heartily upon the things you have done for forestry in the United States. You have been the means of improved forest practice on very large areas of forest land, especially in the South and in the Northeast. This must be a source of great satisfaction to you as it is to the Forest Service ...”
Austin Cary's last public address was the presentation of his paper "Common Sense in Conservation" at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society of American Foresters, in Atlanta, Georgia, in January 1936. At the conclusion of his address he spoke six words that he thought could convey all that might be stated at much length, "I have lived in Good Times."
Though apparently in good health Austin Cary died suddenly at 10:40 a.m. from a heart attack on Tuesday, April 18th,1936 in Gainesville, Florida. He was on his way to keep an appointment with Professor Harold S. Newins, Head of the Forestry Department The day before he had presented the Department with copies of a number of his publications and was returning with his Woodman's Manual.
On reaching the second floor of the hallway of the Agricultural Experiment Station Building he collapsed against the wall and died almost immediately.
Dr. Cary's brother and nephew, both Bowdoin College graduates, 1888 and 1910 respectively, attended the funeral services at Lake City, Florida on April 29th, as did local foresters and other intimate friends.
His body was cremated at Jacksonville, Florida, April 30th.
A poem was writer by Orville W. Struthers, one of the forestry students at the University of Florida at the time of Cary's death:
"A TRIBUTE TO DR. AUSTIN CARY
"Who fought for forestry from the start,
Who lived for it with all his heart,
Who every phase of forestry knew,
And fought the Battle hard and true?
'Doctor Cary'
"Who was a pioneer in his game,
Who never tried for worldly fame,
Whose every effort was bent
To serve mankind his heart's content?
'Doctor Cary'
"Who, when the end of life was near,
Still gave his all without a fear;
Whose dying effort, though not in pain,
Was given to the Forestry Game?
'Doctor Cory'
"Now he is gone, we will not mourn,
For him in Heaven a new life is born
And although we miss his even tread,
His work, his memory are not dead"
AUSTIN CARY MEMORIAL
Dr. Cary's death on the campus of the University of Florida along with his work in promoting forestry there led Professor Newins of the School of Forestry to inaugurate steps to perpetuate the memory of Austin Cary.
At the December 1936 annual meeting of the Society of American Foresters in Portland, Oregon, it was voted to have a memorial to the memory of Dr. Cary who since 1924 had been one of the Fellows of the society numbering over 3,900 members.
Within a year of Dr. Cary's death a nationwide effort to honor him had developed. Many professional foresters and friends of Dr. Cary contributed but it was the Society of American Foresters that was "the driving force”and the "focal point" that brought interest together.
The Austin Cary Memorial is located on the Florida State Highway No. 13, 10 miles from Gainesville – between Fairbanks and Waldo in Alachus County.
Here there is granite boulder transported from near East Machias, Maine, where Austin Cary was born. On this there is a bronze plaque with an inscription prepared by T.A. Liefeld, then in charge of the Lake City Branch of the Southern Forest Experiment station at Lake City, Florida:
"Dr. Austin Cary, 1865-1936, The Society of American Foresters and friends of Dr. Austin Cary have erected this memorial in deep appreciation of his unceasing interest and effort toward the promotion of sound forestry practices in the United States."'
There is a pine frieze around the inscription appropriate for a forester from the Pine Tree State and for the forester who had devoted a life time in promoting northern and southern pine.
The boulder is placed in a planted grove of 71 slash pine trees centered in a ten acre park-like area at the entrance to the Austin Cary Memorial Forest.
Slash pines emphasize Cary's intensive interest and his accomplishments in naval stores, pulpwood and timber production. The number 71 was selected as Austin Cary was nearing his 71st birthday at his death. (He was born July 31, 1865 and died April 28, 1936.)
The Memorial was dedicated January 14, 1939. His brother, George Cary, and his nephew, Charles A. Cary, attended.
On the occasion of the dedication of this memorial C. F. Korstian, the president of the Society of American Foresters, in presenting the memorial to the University of Florida for maintenance said in part: "May it long be a reminder, especially to those of us so fortunate to have known him personally, that the good work started by him must go on, and a reminder to future generations that Austin Cary was one of forestry's most sincere and successful pioneers and that the world is richer for his having lived and labored in it."
P. Warner Frazer, Associate Professor in the School of Forestry at the University of Florida at the 20th Anniversary of the dedication of the Austin Cary Memorial wrote:
"In retrospect it seems clear that Austin Cary as much as anyone else, realized what an expanding forest economy would mean to the South and the nation. More than anyone else he had faith and confidence in the American people and their institutions. His faith and confidence were based on the solid foundation of a life-time of experience and work throughout the United States. This had led him to the conviction that maximum progress in forestry would come about with a mixing of the general idea with the affairs and the interest of our people ... How far he (Cary) progressed along the way may never be known. But we know this: Many people have evaluated his achievements highly . . . "
"He was above all," in the words again of P. Warner Frazer, "a practical man and one with unlimited faith in what could be accomplished through the framework of American ingenuity and enterprise."
Austin Cary is generally recognized as one of the great early leaders in American Forestry.
AUSTIN CARY MEMORIAL FOREST
Every year the Forestry Club of the University of Florida at Gainesville has the privilege of cutting one acre of timber in the Austin Cary Memorial Forest. The School of Forestry has set aside 30 acres for the Forestry Club to manage "in sustained yield with a thirty year rotation."
The Forestry Club according to Reid Felsom, will each year harvest one acre and plant one acre on this area. Any profit that the club can realize after paying stumpage to the University of Florida goes into the club treasury. As the labor of harvesting and planting is done by club members the income may be considerable.
The members of the Forestry Club in addition to building up funds in its treasury gain experience in the manual and technical skill of harvesting – not only in harvesting the timber but in selling it. The School of the Forestry faculty is available for advice and suggestions, but the club members have the responsibility.
This model forest of 30 acres will be a showcase of forest management. Public and students may benefit tremendously from it. Here will be a forest to be seen "managed for sustained yield by the even age system." Planting, thinning, and harvesting can readily be seen and understood.
The Austin Cary memorial in Gainesville, Florida is an appropriate living memorial to a great pioneer forester who accomplished a great deal in his years; for his beloved state of Maine and for his country through his enthusiasm, initiative, persistent and methodical industry and the splendid traits of character that he displayed.
This is a simple silent memorial in a pine forest in keeping with the character and work of Austin Cary.