WINTER MEETING. 457 



ducts would be increased. Really the protection our people need is protec- 

 tion against themselves. No landowner should depend upon his neighbor for 

 woods to shelter his own wheat fields. For every tree felled four should be 

 planted. While we may not owe anything to posterity we have no moral right 

 to make the land, which we did not create, and which is the gift of God to 

 man, uninhabitable, or even partially so, because we can pocket a few dollars 

 by the destruction of the forests. 



Perhaps, under our dual system of government, with no sovereignty any- 

 where, and with the recognized right of each person to do as he pleases with 

 his land, there is no adequate remedy — no way to prevent sylvan suicide — 

 and that whatever is done must be the result of individual, or, as in the case 

 of Arbor Day, of holiday action. If there is no remedy, then there is ruin for 

 the fairest portions of our land staring us in the face, Ujstroy the forests and 

 the capabilities of the soil to support a large population will be seriously 

 impaired. 



In Canada the parliament has passed an act which provides for reservations 

 on the slopes and crests of the Eocky mountains for the express purpose of 

 preserving an even water supply. Something like this might yet be done by the 

 United States, and thus prevent the drying up of the sources of the streams 

 that irrigate the vineyards and orange groves of California. In Michigan 

 the government owns nothing that is worth saving. What the farmer does 

 not rightly own has been turned over to the jobber and speculator for denuda- 

 tion and destruction. After the forest areas pass to private and corporate 

 ownership there is no saving remedy. We recognize the right of the individ- 

 ual to do whatsoever he will with his own, even to the extent of rendering 

 uninhabitable, so far as in him lies, the land he did not create. 



The surface of the earth is a determinate quantity. Man cannot add to it. 

 Already he has rendered some of the fairest portions of it uninhabitable. 

 The best he can now do is to protect this western hemisphere from like 

 destruction. The lessons of experience and of history are valuable. He 

 must spare the forests. As stated, this is largely an individual matter under 

 our institutions, for, while the right to destroy the country with swords is 

 denied, the right to do so with axes is regarded as inalienable. Nevertheless 

 the government ought to spend more for foresters and less for soldiers — more 

 for preservation and less for destruction. 



The theme is a fruitful one. It touches the welfare of our people in the 

 future more than any have yet conceived. But, with these few and general 

 suggestions, the chief object of which is to call attention to its importance, 

 I take leave of the subject for the present. 



Very truly yours, 



E. W. BARBEE. 



Interesting illustrations from our own State of the immediate influence of 

 forest removal as affecting climate and productions were given by President 

 Lyon and Secretary Garfield. Several gentlemen gave it as their opinion that 

 narrow belts of timber, even such as were left as hedge rows along the high- 

 way, had a beneficial effect upon crops, and especially orcharding. 



L. B. Pierce said it was the fashion to blame the pioneers for their thorough 

 clearing, and speak of their work much as we would that of the Goths and 

 vandals of old, and forget that the civilization of to-day was an outgrowth of 

 their labors, and would be impossible if the country were covered to any ex-- 



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