226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



areas of the Northwest Lave brought rapidly near to us the possibility 

 of a time when a scarcity of wood may be felt. For the haulage over 

 so long distances of so bulky freight, in addition to other obstacles, 

 allows only a small amount of the timber growing in those distant 

 forests to be profitably moved to market, and from fifty to sixty per 

 cent, often even more, of the trees cut is left in the woods to rot or 

 to furnish food for the yearly conflagrations. Even now, in the more 

 remote lumber-camps, any part of a tree less than one foot in diame- 

 ter is considered unprofitable, and is left in the woods. 



But while — as I will show farther on — the fear of those early 

 alarmists is with renewed force, and upon a more reasonable basis, 

 again pressed upon us, other considerations besides a waning lumber- 

 supply compel our attention to forest-preservation. A vague idea 

 that some connection existed between the forest-cover and the climatic 

 conditions of a country has been prevalent from olden times. "The 

 tree is the mother of the fountain," or " the father of the rain," are 

 significant expressions of the sages of old. But it was due to the 

 representations of such eminent naturalists as Humboldt, Boussingault, 

 and Becquerel, that the im^Dortant and complicated part which the 

 forest plays in the economy of Nature was first clearly recognized. 

 And now, in the light of recent scientific experiments and investiga- 

 tions, added to the historical evidence of earlier times, we are forced 

 to consider the forests of a country in a fourfold aspect : 



1. As furnishers of raw material. 



2. As regulators of climatic conditions. 



3. As regulators of hydrologic conditions, influencing the water- 

 flow in springs, brooks, and rivers. 



4. As regulators of soil-conditions. 



I need not stop to call to your mind the endless variety of articles 

 into which the product of the forest enters. There is hardly any 

 manufacture, hardly any branch of human industry, in which wood 

 does not find application in some way or other ; and we can say, with- 

 out exaggeration, that the progress of the human race in civilization 

 has been largely dependent on this material. A continued supply of 

 such an important substance must, then, be deemed a necessity. To 

 the assertion that substitutes are being and will be easily found, I 

 would reply that, with the invention of substitutes, new applications 

 of wood are also invented ; that with the growth of civilization the 

 use of wood has grown disproportionately ; and that the population of 

 the earth is constantly increasing, so that substitutes would have to be 

 found to meet a demand for wood by far greater than that of the 

 present. Besides, if we can, by reasonably husbanding present sup- 

 plies, and by exercise of. management, prolong for the human race the 

 use of this most convenient material, should we not rather curb our 

 spendthrift tendencies than rely upon the ingenuity of our children in 

 supplying substitutes ? 



