66 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



thing, is being done about it? Is the restoration to a stand of valuable 

 species of trees on this vast area of devastated and non-agricultural 

 land a subject that is being lucidly and fully brought to the attention of 

 the people and through them to those in charge of State and municipal 

 affairs? For it should not be denied that if any great amount of 

 restoration is to be accomplished such work must come first through 

 governmental or municipal action ; and those in control cannot be 

 expected to act unless the people direct them to do so ; and if educated 

 foresters do not advocate prompt and effectual restoration of the 

 forests of the east, and indicate how it can be brought about, what 

 action can be expected of those who do not comprehend the condition 

 of things along that line as should educated foresters? 



Unfortunately, the general conception is that all that is needed to 

 bring about restoration is to keep out fires — a something which every- 

 body knows must be done no matter what system of restoration or 

 management may be adopted — and Nature will promptly attend to the 

 rest. While this would have been partially true in regions where the 

 chestnut has been the prominent and prevailing tree, is it true at pres- 

 ent, or likely to be in such regions, now that the fatal bark disease is 

 rampant and wiping out the only tree that we have in the east that 

 will throw up sprouts from a cut stump and become large enough for 

 saw timber when the tree cut from which the sprouts spring is suitable 

 for that purpose? Or is it true that natural regeneration can occur 

 to any acceptable extent on any of the cut-over and burned-over 

 eastern lands? And if so, should not the facts be known? Or if resort 

 must be had to artificial restoration should not that be determined? 

 Sooner or later the real facts should be ascertained and acted upon and 

 why not begin the work at once? Surely it must come about at some 

 time, and why delay? Dr. Fernow, in the University of California 

 Journal of Agriculture, in speaking of general conditions throughout 

 the country, recently said: "The restoration of these lands to useful 

 production will be the task of the foresters, and within less than a 

 generation this reconstruction work will be quite generally undertaken 

 in all parts of the country." Whether or not this will prove a correct 

 prophetic utterance I do not propose to discuss, but that it should so 

 prove I most emphatically maintain ; and if it is to prove true there 

 should be prompt investigation of conditions ; and where can come the 

 benefit of delay in entering upon it, or, at least, why delay determining 

 what must be done in the varying conditions which exist, when every 

 day's delay adds to the burden of restoration? 



