248 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fairly baffles the imagination to divine the source of constant inex- 

 haustible supply. 



Yet notwithstanding this enormous drain on the forest resources of 

 the land, no real scarcity has thus far been felt, nature's bounty being 

 still equal to the emergency. The intelligence of the nation, however, 

 is fully aroused to the imperative necessity of adopting a wiser policy 

 in the future than has characterized the past epoch of wasteful man- 

 agement of the nation's most precious inheritance. 



Opinions, quite naturally, differ widely even in this respect. A 

 goodly portion of reasoners still indorse the French Monarch's saying, 

 "after me the deluge,"' believing that posterity will take care of itself. 

 True intelligence, however, recognizes the grave importance of deal- 

 ing wisely and in time with so important a national problem, as is 

 involved in the perpetuation of the timber sources of the continent, 

 to which the national prosperity is so closely linked. 



Consulting the policy pursued by every well governed European 

 nation, we see that the government itself is the watchful custodian of 

 the forest resources of the country, protecting them by stringent laws 

 rigidly enforced. 



Forestry is a branch of the Executive Government itself, which de- 

 rives an important revenue from that part of the public domain. With- 

 out this safeguard the wants of a great nation, inhabiting a compara- 

 tively limited area of country, could never be supplied. Only a system- 

 atic routine of planting and cutting timber can secure a never failing 

 supply. 



Notwithstanding the radical difference existing between the politi- 

 cal system of Europe and America, and the mode of ownership of the 

 forest lands of both continents, we can nevertheless learn two import- 

 ant lessons from the European plan. The one is rigid protection of 

 the forest districts owned by the government itself, the other is the 

 necessity of the system of forest culture, by which alone the most val- 

 uable and indispensable timbers can be perpetuated and their gradual 

 extinction prevented. 



If America would hold fast to these axioms and live up to them, 

 then her forest interests could be considered safe for all time to come. 



We may point with eatisfaction to the vast areas of timbered lands 

 still intact and ready to yield their timber wealth at the shrine of na- 

 tional progress, and fancy that there is still enough for all possible 

 demands. 



But let it not be gainsaid that this array of timbered territory is to 

 a great extent deceptive as to the quantity of timber valuable for in- 

 dustrial purposes contained therein. Much of it has often been picked 



