Vermont Agricultural Report. 61 



proved that, in the long run, such forest management is very 

 profitable. But it is so only in the long run and the long run 

 does not appeal to most private producers who prefer to reap 

 all they can in the present. Here and there circumstances will 

 exist which make a man look differently at this problem, and 

 large corporations of continuous life, depending like the paper 

 manufacturers for instance, on a continuance of supplies near 

 to their factories, may be induced to adopt measures for such 

 continuance. But in the main, human nature is inclined the 

 other way: the present or at least a very limited future is the 

 concern of the private individual. 



We find, then, an antagonism of interests, namely the pri- 

 vate interest, which lies in the present utilization of forest sup- 

 plies without regard to the future, and the public interest, which 

 lies in the continuance of such supplies for the future. 



Unless human nature is different in the United States from 

 that of Europe — and 30 years of life here has not shown me 

 m.uch,, if any, difference — the selfish interests of the private in- 

 dividual will almost invariably be placed ahead of the really not 

 less selfish interests of the public. 



It is only fair, therefore, that the public should in some way 

 pay for the taking care of its interests or else step in and do 

 for itself what cannot be charged fairly to the private individual 

 to do. 



It has, hitherto, been supposed that the interest of the public 

 was mainly, if not entirely, in the protective quality of forest 

 cover and hence where this quality of the forest was of moment, 

 the State, as representative of the public, should interfere with a 

 use of forest properties which might result in damage to a 

 neighbor or to a section of country. 



It was supposed that the business of wood production, like 

 all other producing business, might be left to private enterprise, 

 regulated by the conditions of supply and demand. But it is 

 now dawning on the public that this reliance is misplaced, in a 

 business in which such a long time element is involved. 



The experience of European nations has proved this and 

 the modern tendency of their governments is to increase the 

 State forests, which had come into their possession first only 

 through peculiar historic development, but are now held, im- 

 proved and enlarged, as a matter of proper economic policy. 

 Prussia alone has spent for the last 40 years annually at the 

 rate of not less than one quarter million dollars in purchasing 

 and reforesting wasted forests and wasted farms,, because private 

 interest, even in that country of thrift, conservatism and high 

 wood prices is not sufficient to take care of these wastes. The 

 same policy is imitated elsewhere. Incidentally I may here in- 



