Forestry. 171 



The lepjislation in these countries which I have mentioned 

 is aimed at preservation and protection, and restrictions are 

 laid upon private owners, so that the management of all pri- 

 vate forests are in harmony with those of the government. 

 They do this not so for the commercial value of the timber 

 as they do to protect their countries in a sanitary point as 

 well as to keep the available land in a state of productive- 

 ness. 



France, though, may be an exception to this in one res- 

 pect, for she imports annually about thirty million dollars 

 worth of soft wood, mainly for building material, notwith- 

 standing a very large per cent, of their building material is 

 hard wood, grown at home. 



The world is full of examples where by the ignorance or 

 stupidity of man large areas of country once fertile, are 

 now barren wastes. The entire coast of the Meditteranean, 

 once the garden of the world, has been blighted by the pro- 

 cess of denuding it of its once magnificent forests. A por- 

 tion of this country belonging to Austria has of late years 

 been reforested, at great expense, by the Austrian govern- 

 ment. 



Some of the West India islands that were once almost 

 gardens of paradise were denuded of trees and are now 

 nearly worthless. Facts in this direction could be multiplied 

 indefinitely, showing very conclusively that " if we sow not 

 neither shall we reap," or in other words, " if we sow to the 

 wind we must expect to reap the whirlwind," for nature is 

 an exacting school-master and will not be cheated. 



Owing to the lack of correct data we have no definite 

 means of knowing the number of aires of forest land in the 

 United States, or its estimated value according to the kind 

 or quality of its timber; for of farm lands we find from one- 

 third to one-tenth or twentieth only in wood. And our for- 

 ests, which now possess a commercial value, owned by pri- 

 vate individuals or by the states or general government, are 

 being fast swept away by the woodman's ax, with no pro- 

 vision for a future supply of the kinds of timber growing on 

 such lands. And in those states where lumbering was once 

 the great industry, it has ceased to be productive; and in 



