LAISSEZ FAIRE VS. FORESIGHT IN FOREST MANAGEMENT "303 



worker type would form a desirable leavening to the population of 

 the factory towns. It would also have maintained greater freedom 

 of opportunity and meant life to the soul of many a worker whose 

 spirit is crushed by the industry of the cities, but who can choose no 

 other because the opportunity is limited. This limitation of oppor- 

 tunity is indeed dangerous to society and a far healthier community 

 life is possible where a reasonable balance is maintained between the 

 open-air occupation of the country and those of the town, because 

 under these conditions a constant interchange can take place between 

 the population of the country and the town. Moreover, in the more 

 remote districts the maintenance of forest industry would also have 

 maintained agriculture on the better lands, as the presence of forest 

 industry in the Pacific Northwest makes profitable agriculture possible 

 on lands which could be cleared with difficulty to compete in distant 

 markets. 



Thus it appears that least of all American communities can New- 

 England afford to see her forest lands be idle for a period of 

 recuperation, while her population is confined to the towns, and the 

 Pacific Northwest supplies her lumber. 



Fortunately for New England, many of her stands are of such 

 type that temporary self-interest did not permit clean cutting, there- 

 fore, forestry has been practiced to a large degree, although until 

 recent years inconspicuously. To these facts and not to temporary 

 self-interest New England owes the forest wealth she still possesses, 

 and on the basis of which she is in a position to restore her forest 

 wealth at less cost than can be the case in the complete ruin of much 

 of the Lake States pineries. 



The picture of the sawmill settlement is as attractive to the 

 forester as to the lumberman, perhaps more so, for the former 

 wants to see that picture perpetuated forever, while too often the 

 latter is content to see it vanish with timber handled on the timber 

 mine basis.^ The forester does not wish to see deserts and abandoned 

 shacks and waste of sawmill debris succeed this prosperous com- 

 munity. The forester has his own idealism and would add other 

 beauties to the picture. He would see permanent homes, lawns, 

 flowers, succeed the temporary shacks of the average sawmill or 

 logging camp. Even the wood substitute in its proper place — the 



' For effects of permanent timber supply in the sawmill see Forestry Quarterly, 

 Vol. XIII, No, 4, p. 493, Article on European sawmills by J. B. Berry. 



