772 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



begins in weakness, immaturity, and dependence, and ends in vigor, 

 and self-reliance. It is the habit-forming period, of easy and lasting 

 impressions, the time when the seed of good or ill may be most 

 readily planted and will take the deepest root. It is the time when 

 the senses are most alert, when the feelings are most easily aroused 

 and the sensibilities are most readily appealed to, when the intellect 

 is most susceptible of development and the will of training. It is the 

 time when the imagination is most active and can be most readily 

 aroused and easily cultivated. 



The use that is made of this period will inevitably exert a wide in- 

 fluence on the industries and occupations of life, on the trades and 

 professions. It will effect the character of the home, the appearance 

 of the landscape. It will enter largely into the lives of the people, into 

 the nature of their dealings, the character of their relations; yes, far 

 more, upon it will ultimately depend the destiny of the Nation. 



The forester of old administered the forest lands to produce life 

 for the chase ; today, he must administer to produce products of first 

 importance in maintaining human values. The game, then, as a 

 forest asset for the chase, becomes secondary, and every form of 

 animal life, grouped as wild life, becomes important as a resource of 

 the forest because of the extensive use to which it can be put or is 

 now used to maintain human qualities. The wild life is a product of 

 the forest lands. In fact, a map of the forest areas might well be 

 used to designate the extent of the space where wild life can be pro- 

 duced. The forester, through his relation to the forest, must stand 

 to the fore in directing public thought and guiding public action to 

 fix a national wild life policy. 



The Federal Government must always be in the nature of a pro- 

 tectorate or guiding hand to the States. In some cases it may be 

 the extension to the States of mfluence and power which only the 

 Federal Government possesses. In other cases it may be merely 

 matters of example ; but in either case must exercise a guiding influence. 

 Therefore in the administration of the Federal lands within the States, 

 held in trust for all the people, there is a very distinct obligation to 

 produce a full quota of wild life, if for no other reason than to serve 

 as an example of what constitutes forest products. 



Wild life culture has its place and is of importance in the extent to 

 which its creatures serve efifectively as objects of study and inspiration. 

 The standards of life developed by a nation of sportsmen in the 



