90 FORESTRY IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. [Dec. 



legislatures is powerless as a factor to prevent that wholesale 

 destruction of national wealth probably without parallel in the 

 history of a people, which is emphasized by the fact that in the 

 memory of men still far from agL'd, 12,000,000 acres of pro- 

 ductive forests have disappeared from the line of the Mississippi. 



The results of the Census of 1870 seem to have first strikingly 

 arrested the public mind. An Act was passed in 1S76 requiring 

 the Commission of Agriculture to appoint some man of approved 

 attainments to ascertain tlie annual consumption, import, and export 

 of timber and other forest products, and Dr. Franklin B. Hough was 

 aiipointed to the dutj-. Dr. Hough's iiupiiries liave been carefully 

 directed, besides the question of timber supply, to the climatic 

 influence of forests, and to the prevention of the destruction by 

 torrents from the mountains of the agricultural and manufacturing 

 interests of the valle3-s. The alterations from floods and silting of 

 the Wheeling Bar of the Ohio, and the unexampled iloods of the 

 current year, IS 84, in which the waters of that river are reported 

 to have reached a higher level by one inch than at any former 

 period, have been specially studied. The American Association of 

 Science have also recently memorialized the Legislature to institute 

 a thorough .system of forest conservanc}' for the whole of the 

 Union. With a population of fifty millions, possibly destined to 

 more than double itself in the next fifty years, such action is none 

 too soon. If for the national weal, unless under very exceptional 

 circumstances, there should always be in a country, from one-fourth 

 to one-third of its total area in forest ; or according to the rule of 

 the Duke of Burgundy, one-third to the hunter, two-thirds to the 

 husbandman ; or that of William Penn, one acre in woods for five 

 cleared for agriculture, exclusive of the wooded hills and mountain 

 forests. The Union has but one acre of forest to six of uncovered land. 



Eailroads and manufactures combined are estimated to consume 

 annually the produce of 175,000 acres of forest. 



It is roughly stated that 10,000,000 acres of forest are consumed 

 annually, while but 10,000 are planted. Minnesota has taken the 

 lead, and Nebraslca a very prominent place, in the movement of 

 replanting, to which a special day, " Arbor Day," is consecrated. 

 In 1876 it is stated that nearly 800,000 trees were planted in 

 Minnesota on "Arbor Day," and 5,000,000 trees during the season. 

 These are spirited and laudable efforts, but it is hard to keep up 

 such popular enthusiasm. Over 400 miles of windbreaks are stated 

 to have been planted, and the State of Minnesota is credited Avith a 

 total of 26,500,000 trees planted; liut no .statements are availaljh' 

 as to the total amount of reboisement or re-afforesting throughout 

 the Union. 



