ARBORICULTURE. 



317 



tion except for the present generation, 

 having no competent adviser. 



After a century oi destruction and 

 most wasteful onslaught upon the natural 

 forests O'f this continent, largely from ne- 

 cessity, to clear for farms and homes, 

 and to supply the requirements of m'anu- 

 facturers, commerce and the building 

 trades, we have come to see some of the 

 disasters resulting from the too great 

 clearing of hill and mountain tracts 

 which are not needed and can not be 

 profitably employed for agricultural op- 

 erations. 



Unprecedented floods, serious dhanges 

 in climatic conditions, such erosion of 

 hill and mountain slopes as to destroy 

 them for agricultural uses, while filling 

 the channels of many streams with soil 

 from the hillsides — these are but a few 

 of the many evils resulting from the loss 

 (Tf American woodlands. 



The problem of timber supply in the 

 future is one of the most important ques- 

 tions which statesmen and business men 

 have to consider. 



Two systems of timber supply are ad- 

 vocated by students of the forest condi- 

 tions. 



The first Method may be considered 

 as the one practiced, in a way, by the 

 United States Government and consid- 

 ered by a majority of forestry students. 

 This contemplates the entire production 

 of all wood and timbers from the natural 

 forests, supposing the increment of 

 growth to equal the demand for lumber. 



The other System assumes that, as 

 the natural woodlands are rapidly being 

 denuded, the future supply must of ne- 

 cessity be met by advance planting of 

 vast quantities of trees. 



Of the first method, which includes the 

 various forest reserves of the Govern- 

 ment, and timber lands owned by lumber 



syndicates, the actual quantity of timber 

 standing on these tracts is very much less 

 than Congress and the public are led to 

 believe. 



Estimates have been published by offi- 

 cials of the Government evidently em- 

 ployed by, or greatly interested in, the 

 manipulation of trusts who were anxious 

 to obtain possession of Government for- 

 est property, which bave officially shown 

 such vastness of our forest wealth that 

 Congress and the people have been 

 soothed into the behef that no legislation 

 was necessary to guard the people from 

 the fraudulent acts of powerful combina- 

 tions of speculators. 



One c^ these estimates a few years ago 

 represented Indiana to be possessed of a 

 wilderness of timber, no less than one- 

 fifth of the State being forest, while 

 other States were estimated by this indi- 

 vidual as having from ten to a hundred 

 times as much timber as really existed. 



Recently the Forestry Bureau issued 

 a circular showing the rapid decrease of 

 the forests, and immense quantity O'f 

 lumber consumed and exported. Still 

 Congress does not act. The stand-pat- 

 ters in Congress refuse to remove the 

 duty on imported timber, thus enconrag- 

 ing the hastly destruction of the remain- 

 ing forests. 



Under the leadership of a Western 

 Senator, who represents the sawmill 

 interests and those who would seize 

 upon all timber lands remaining, 

 Congress asserted there shall be no 

 MORE Government reservation of for- 

 ests. 



We take it that this is but a beginning, 

 and that in due time the various tracts of 

 timber land which have been reserved 

 from sale and destruction will be opened 

 up for entry, presumably as farm lands, 

 but the timber will be sold to speculators. 



