THE LESSON OE THE E ORE ST EI RES. 595 



unpunished ; cattle kill the young growing timber, and no effort 

 is being made to protect and renew the forest growth. 



There is not a State in the Union that does not need to adopt 

 similar precautionary measures, and these should be accompanied 

 with some practical plan for management. It would be well for 

 each State to have a single forest commissioner appointed by the 

 Governor, whose duty it should be, in addition to the collecting 

 of such statistics as above, to organize in each county and town- 

 ship a system of fire ivardens or patrols ; to see that special pre- 

 cautions are taken in cases of unusual peril ; to ascertain the 

 causes of fires and who is responsible, and to prepare evidence. 

 He should be a man fully instructed and thoroughly competent, 

 should be well paid, and should be held personally responsible. 

 All officials appointed to such service should be removed as far as 

 possible from political affiliations, should be under civil-service 

 rules, and the position should be permanent during good behavior. 



The adoption by the General Government of a national forest 

 policy can not be much longer delayed, although Congress is very 

 slow to act. In the sale of the treeless portions of the public do- 

 main the Government may require that a certain portion be 

 planted in trees as soon as the proper conditions, means of irriga- 

 tion, etc., exist, and that a certain proportion of the timbered 

 land be kept in timber, the title to be dependent upon the stipu- 

 lated conditions. Whether the United States will eventually come 

 to adopt the methods of administration of the timbered lands in 

 vogue in Europe is a question that time must determine. The 

 country has as yet few persons that have been educated to for- 

 estry as a profession, and simple rules must suffice for the pres- 

 ent. Both the General and State governments possess, in the 

 right of eminent domain, the power to preserve and condemn 

 where necessary such lands as it shall be decided the public ben- 

 efit requires to be maintained as forest in perpetuity. Private 

 rights must give way to public utility. The owners of premises 

 which have become a menace must be made to contribute their 

 proper share of the expense of protective measures and forest 

 police. 



A forest policy is at last taking form. A bill, introduced by 

 Senator Paddock at the close of the Congress of 1892, provides in 

 the first place for a survey to determine the extent and location 

 of all forest lands, after which the President is to withdraw from 

 sale all such lands, except those found to be more favorable for 

 agriculture than for forest these reserved lands to be trans- 

 ferred to the Department of Agriculture, where a Forestry Bureau 

 exists. 



It provides for a Commissioner of Forestry, to be appointed 

 by the President, with consent of the Senate, who shall have con- 



