344 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



fined and naturally not bverproductive area possible. Agriculture 

 and forestry are practiced there on the most scientific methods. 



Besides the production of useful material for the arts, there has been 

 more or less distinctly recognized from olden times, a certain connec- 

 tion of forest growth with climatic, water, and soil conditions. Lately 

 this assumed or observed connection has been subjected to scientific 

 scrutiny, and while in some respects the claimed inttuences have not 

 yet been quantitatively determined, or as in the case of the influence 

 on rain-fall even qualitatively defined, yet the most advanced students 

 of the question of forest influences are agreed upon the existence of 

 certain mechanical influences which a forest cover may exercise upon 

 the seasonal flow of water, upon local conditions of atmospheric 

 and soil humidity, and upon all local and climatic hygienic conditions 

 which are determined by the atmospheric movements in the lower 

 strata, and upon which the mechanical barrier of a forest belt must 

 natually bear. 



The forest, then, has an interest to man both for the valuable mate- 

 rial it furnishes and for its bearing upon conditions of life hydrologic, 

 climatic, cultural, hygienic, and ethical; this last influence is by no 

 means to be underrated in the life of a nation. 



In our own country the recognition of the value of this natural re 

 source, the forest, is only just dawning. We are only just realizing 

 that under the clearing for agricultural laud, and under the drain for 

 wood and lumber — which now represent an annual product valued at 

 over one billion dollars — and under careless destruction by fire, and 

 the absence of all application of the art of forestry, the natural forests 

 are being decimated at a rapid rate; no regard being paid to future 

 requirements, no regard to the disturbances which begin to make 

 themselves felt here and there in water-flow, and to other conditions 

 produced by the removal of their protecting cover. 



The tree-planting on the Western wind swept plains, scanty indeed 

 when compared with the large area in need of such protection, is almost 

 the only sign of intelligent appreciation of the value of forest growth. 

 A begiuuing has been made to remedy matters, which in a country 

 with our institutions, must consist mainly, in the first place, in educat- 

 ing the masses. 



This educational work is carried on by associations, by the press, by 

 the Forestry Division in the^ United States Department of Agriculture; 

 and now the National Museum, which with its object lessons is the 

 great educator of the people, joins these forces by making the subject 

 of forestry a part of its exhibits. The reasons, then, for forestry ex- 

 hibits and the justification of instituting a separate branch of forestry 

 collections in the Museum are: 



(1) The importance and singleness of the art of forestry being sep- 

 arate in its aims and methods from all other arts and industries: 



