132 AMERICAN FORESTKY 



of tlie apparent slowness with which the lumbermen as a class have assimi- 

 lated forestry methods and ideas. The few people who are really in earnest 

 in the matter of forestry are great big forceful men standing on the hill-tops 

 of the lumber world and it is natural that it should be so. The rank and 

 file are coming along in the direction of a full indorseuient of these methods, 

 just as swiftly and more swift, as among lumbermen as a class, than the 

 great public is moving, as indicated by the remarks of the young railroad 

 man made about Mr. Louis Brandies, whose name he saw on the butcher's cart. 



FORESTS FOR WYOMING 



By HON. JOSEPH M. CAREY 

 Governor op Wyoming 



I BELIEVE everything in reason should be done by the general govern- 

 ment, by the states and the several counties of the states, to protect 

 the forests of the country ; that w^herever it is possible there should be 

 seed ])] anting and tree planting, with a view of growing forests where it is 

 possible to grow them, or w^here the former forests have been destroyed. 

 This can only be done successfully in a dry country — and Wyoming may be 

 said to be one of the arid states — where there is a little moisture, or where 

 the trees and plants may be fed moisture from irrigation canals and irrigation 

 systems. 



By actual experience it has been found that where certain kinds of trees 

 may be artificially watered, they grow rapidly in a comparatively short time 

 to such a size as would make railroad ties or ordinary building lumber. To 

 illustrate: Wherever a ditch or canal is cut in this country and there is any 

 protection whatever from the winds, trees spring up rapidly from the seed 

 borne on the waters of the irrigation ditch. The late Sterling Morton, who 

 did so much for tree i)lanting in this country, said that in this prairie country 

 trees should be planted on the ground not needed for rights-of-way, for ordi- 

 nary farm roads and railroads. He even went so far as to say that in a very 

 short time, by the planting of certain varieties of trees, that railroads would 

 have near at hand a supply of lumber to meet their annual demands for 

 railroad ties. 



Wyoming has some good forests, and in most instances the plan adopted 

 by the government is followed, in that only the mature trees and those ap- 

 proaching a condition of decay may be cut down, with all precautious being 

 taken to destroy the refuse and avoid fires. The only objection to their system 

 is that the government has included within its various reservaticms, large 

 areas without lumber and lands that they do not expect to try to forest or 

 reforest. 



I go so far as to state that I think if the great white pine forests of 

 Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan — probably as valuable as ever has been 

 discovered — had been protected by the cutting of the decayed trees and pro- 

 tecting the young growth, that these forests would have lasted for all time. 

 They are gone, however, or virtually so, and the question now is to see what 

 can be done to sui)ply their places and to j)rotect the other great forests that 

 exist within the domains of the United States. 



