ARBORICULTURE 



433 



THE CORNELL FORESTRY 

 SCHOOL. 



Dear Sir— I have great respect for 

 Mr. Fernow, but everyone sometimes 

 misjudges a situation. There are, rough- 

 ly speaking, three kinds of forestry : 



1. Forestry proper, which aims to 

 get the largest possible timber product 

 from a piece of land, regardless of ev- 

 ery other consideration. 



2. Protective forestry, which aims 

 rather to secure some benefit ai)art from 

 mere wood product, like shelter from 

 wind or conservation of water. 



3. Landscape forestry, which seeks 

 beauty for the eye and thus satisfaction 

 to the mind, rather than the more mate- 

 rial benefits afforded by the two previ- 

 ous types just mentioned. 



It seems to me that ]\Ir. Fernow was 

 virtually acting as trustee for the people 

 of New York in handling this great nat- 

 ural domain, yet subject to their pleas- 

 ure. They trusted him as one who would 

 carefully consider the whole subject and 

 not confine too specifically to the first 

 proposition, or Forestry proper. As a 

 trained forester in the strict sense of the 

 word, he may have acted wisely, but in 

 his enthusiasm to better the stand of 

 timber, he apparently lost sight of the 

 third article of faith, which takes in a 

 vast body of influential men and women 

 who are opposed to any system that ad- 

 vocates the cutting of large trees in such 

 fashion as to sensibly diminish their 

 present limited area. 



It was in all probability this wide- 

 spread, silent disapproval that brought 

 out Governor 'dell's opposition. The 

 people of New York are willing to pay 

 for a great natural reservation of this 

 description, but they are not ready to 

 see so large a space treated as a school 

 for lumbering. They don't care whether 



it pays for itself or not, provided they 

 have the trees which they now see, left 

 largely undisturbed, even though they 

 may not represent the best type of pos- 

 sible gro\\i;h. This mental condition is a 

 conservative and healthy one ; not an un- 

 usual frame of mind that calls for crit- 

 icism or discipline. 



Lqt the larger trees stand for the pres- 

 ent. If Mr. Fernow had treated a small 

 portion of the property as he wished, 

 and shown and proved to the people that 

 under pr^-per conditions much good 

 could be eventually accomplished by 

 careful treatment, he would thus have 

 gradually taken the public into his confi- 

 dence. 



He has simply moved too rapidly for 

 the average outsider to keep pace with 

 him, and the result is that the outsider 

 says, ' * Stop ! I do not like this, you are 

 spoiling my woods, and I would rather 

 that nothing whatever be done than that 

 such devastation take place ! ' ' This 

 seems to be the situation to-day. 



]\Ir. Fernow has apparently done no 

 wrong ; he has simply erred in judgment 

 — a thing that any one of us might have 

 done in this or some other form if placed 

 in his difficult position. We, therefore, 

 heartily sympathize with him in hisi dis- 

 appointment; but the fact remains that 

 the public is a slow and questioning 

 learner, and needs to be led gently in 

 any direction that takes it off on an un- 

 usual or scientific basis. 

 Very truly yours, 



James H. Bowditch. 



Every number of Aboricui-ture con- 

 tains some good information to the tim- 

 ber land owner and lumberman. At 

 present all back numbers can be sup- 

 plied. Price, $1.00 per volume. 



