62 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



areas as have fires. In fact, fire, man's chief agent for forest destruc- 

 tion, seems not to have been seriously considered anywhere in the 

 paper. Is it not a fact that wherever a civiHzation has arisen on the 

 border of a forest, that up to the time it has entered the third stage 

 of dominating the forest, that its need for areas for growing crops and 

 for grazing purposes is so great that it has deliberately destroyed a 

 very high percentage of its forest area, both on agricultural and non- 

 agricultural areas, at the same time using only a small part of the forest 

 products? This is also true of many parts of the tropical countries 

 that have been visited by the writer. In such countries where modern 

 lumbering methods of logging have been introduced a larger per- 

 centage of the forest products are being utilized, but still much larger 

 areas are being cut and burned for cultivation. 



It seems to the writer of this review that the author has greatly 

 underestimated the degree to which primitive people have dominated 

 the forests. Thus on page 153 he states that "the primitive agricul- 

 tural system, caingin making, of the Philippines could never have 

 brought about the destruction of the forests, since the cultivator's 

 efforts were never centered long enough in one place." A note at the 

 bottom of the page supplements this with a quotation that "it is esti- 

 mated that caingin making has destroyed over half the original forest 

 cover in the Philippines. The abandoned areas cjuickly become cov- 

 ered with cogon grass and if kept free from fire forest ultimately 

 comes back." As a matter of fact fires are vuicontrolled, the control is 

 centered on maintaining the remaining virgin forest areas, but in spite 

 of efforts of forest officers large areas of forests are still being de- 

 stroyed. The fact of the matter is that this primitive method of agri- 

 culture has dominated nearly three-fourths of the virgin forest area 

 of the Philippines. Strange to say with their crude instruments they 

 are better able to conquer the forest than rid the soil of the rank growth 

 of grass with its net work of underground stems which fire will not 

 kill. Here is a case where grass and not forests has dominated primi- 

 tive mankind. 



On page 140, in support of the contention that the early recorded 

 civilization originated in arid regions, in a footnote the author quotes 

 Huntington's theory that the ancient Maya civilization arose and 

 flourished during a time of drier climate and that the succeeding 

 moister climates favored the growth of a heavy type of forest that the 

 Mayas could not overcome. 



