230 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



To dwell on the aesthetic aspect of the forestry question would lead 

 me too far, though its effect upon national life should not be under- 

 estimated, and deserves fully our attention. 



From this hurried review of the relation which the forest-cover of 

 the earth holds toward the economies of Nature, it should appear that 

 more than a private interest must attach to it ; that, wherever men 

 are aggregated as a nation or a government for the protection of the 

 public against the willfulness of the few, the care of the forest should 

 receive earnest and timely consideration, and, if necessary, legislative 

 action. 



The forestry-problem, then, exists because of the dependence of 

 favorable agricultural conditions upon the existence, proper manage- 

 ment, and location of forests, and because the common interest of the 

 nation in the maintenance of such conditions does not find a responsive 

 appreciation on the part of those private citizens who own the forests, 

 and who refuse to be restricted in the exercise of their free-will 

 and their property rights in respect to them, though they suffer a 

 number of other interferences imposed for the common good without 

 grumbling. The forestry-problem is, to reconcile and adjust these 

 opposing interests, and, either by persuasion or coercion, to insure the 

 preservation and the conservative management of forest areas whose 

 devastation would injure the interests of the whole community, and 

 also to encourage the creation of new forest areas where needed. 



Let us now ask, How far are we concerned in this forestry-problem 

 in this country at the present time ? Is the condition of our forests, 

 in comjjarison with our present and future demands upon them, such 

 as to make the immediate consideration and speedy solution of the 

 problem a necessity ? Has the time arrived for us when the needs of 

 the future should be considered in our actions in the present ? 



First, in regard to material supplies : it is a most difficult task to 

 arrive at precise data from which to judge as to supplies at hand ; and 

 still more difficult, if not impossible, to predict exhaustion or the time 

 of scarcity. The way of speaking on this aspect of the question has, 

 by necessity, been without proper basis. The vast stretches of so- 

 called forest still standing encouraged the notion that exhaustion was 

 impossible — that Nature's provisions would, unaided, recuperate the 

 drains made upon her. "Anyhow, there are a good many years' sup- 

 plies ahead." Supplies of what, and for what demands ? It is evident 

 that we should discern, for instance, between building-timber supplies 

 and hard-wood supplies, which latter, for useful purposes, are repro- 

 duced by Nature more easily and in shorter time. Unfortunately, we 

 lack sufficient data to make any such discrimination ; but we know 

 tolerably well that the " inexhaustible " white-pine forests of the 

 Northwest, which have supplied the bulk of our building material, will 

 practically be exhausted in a very few years. The hemlock is soon 

 to follow. We hear it stated that the capacity of the Northern 



