ANNUAL WINTER MEETING AT WARRENSBURG. 247 



AN AKGUMENT ON FORESTKY. 



BY M. G. KERN, COMMISSIONER OF FORRESTRY, ST. LOUIS, Mv). 



The intimate relation existing between the people and the forests 

 of a countiy, has of late years become a topic of animated discussion 

 in the United States, although our forest resources have heretofore 

 been considered practically limitless. Scientists and students of polit- 

 ical economy, who, supported by the valuable statistics collected by 

 the National Government, have pointed out the danger of exhusting 

 from the primitive forests various species of timber most valuable in 

 the industries reaped by their philanthropic labors quite frequently the 

 name of alarmists. The elaborate discussion of so important a subject 

 should not fail to arouse the intelligent attention of the people, especi- 

 ally of those directly interested in the leading industries, which depend 

 GO certain regions of surrounding country for a constant supply of raw 

 material for their respective workshops. 



The marvelous transformation of the country from a state of nature 

 into an empire ot agriculture and industry such as the world never 

 beheld before, has necessarily caused the destruction of untold acres 

 of primitive forests, and the waste of much valuable timber. 



The evils incident to the destruction of the forests, recorded in the 

 history of the countries of the Old World, have been sensibly felt in 

 America likewise. Sudden changes in the climate, alarming diminu- 

 tion of the volume of the water courses, excessive droughts, destruc- 

 tive floods, and sweeping storms, and hurricanes have become the un- 

 welcome visitations, and must be attributed in great measure to the 

 great reduction of the forest area of the continent. 



The leading centers of manufacture having used up the most val- 

 uable timbers of vast territories surrounding them, have been compelled 

 to extend into districts far remote from the factories for their indis- 

 pensable supply of material. The lumber industry has assumed the 

 most gigantic proportions, and bids fair to exhaust the forest wealth of 

 districts formerly supposed to be practically inexhaustible. 



Our railway system, embracing fully 200,000 miles of track resting 

 on a bed of wood, undergoing a constant process of decay, demands 

 each year a quantity of the most valuable hard wood timber, and it 



