FOREST commissioner's rkpoht. 187 



men. These questions, velatinir to the immediate management 

 of tiinberland, had first to be answered. 



To follow that lead, however, is not for this work enough. 

 There are ways of viewing the forest which the people of this 

 State have not arrived at, ways of handling forest land of 

 which our lumbermen have no idea. The idea just stated 

 furnishes us with an illustration. With lumbermen this prin- 

 ciple of conservative cutting seems to embrace the whole 

 matter of forest econom3\ "Leave the young timber to 

 o-row," is a formula that has lonir i)assed amons: us as contain- 

 ing the sum and substance of right forest management. 



How weak this formula is face to face with the ^,,jj^^ ^^ 

 real facts of the woods, readers of this report have ^'o^e^^^'y' 

 often seen pointed out. Many, probal^ly, were already aware 

 of its weakness. How puerile it is in comparison with the 

 possibilities of the case, in comparison with the achievements 

 of genuine forestry, only those who have given the matter 

 study can know. One question will show the inadequacy of 

 the formula — where are vou goino; to set the young stuff to 

 let grow? 



In putting forth what 1 wish in this direction to Maine 

 readers I shall have to begin at the beginning, shall have to 

 take them to a new standi)oint from which to view the forest. 

 I have not, indeed, to })oint out the pLice of the forest in 

 human history, the manifold ways in which it has influenced 

 the health, the prosperity and the permanence of nations and 

 races, valuable in its place as that would be. Most of these 

 matters make no pressing call on us. Our agriculture and 

 climate can hardly as yet be affected by our lumbering ; the 

 flow of our rivers has not been so seriously affected at any 

 rate that a pointed demand has come for its investigation. 

 Forestry as it comes now to us is the production of useful 

 wood material. In this direction, however, we have every- 

 thing to learn. The conditions of tree growth, the means of 

 producing the most and the best timber, the conditions favora- 

 ble to the o-ermination of tree seeds and the growth of 

 young plants, tree diseases and enemies — all these things are 



