306 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



deduction from the area planted the entire 50 years would plant only 

 r»00,000 acres. Yet, in the State of Washington some 250,000 acres^» 

 is logged off annually — one-half as much as would be reforested in 

 50 years at the above rate. Yet, the writer doubts the ability of the 

 profession or all the propagandists it can enlist to hold the State 

 legislature to 50 years of such expenditure bringing, as it will, no 

 return during this long period. The greatest achievements of re- 

 forestration in Europe, such as the reforestration of the Landes in 

 France, involved less than 2,000,000 acres and took over 40 years, 

 with State, commune and private ownership cooperating, according 

 to Fernow,^^ but this being turpentine forest yielded returns much 

 earlier than most American forests will, and forestration was carried 

 on in an old and densely populated country. Important as they were, 

 they are a mere drop in the bucket compared with the reforestration 

 problems of a single American State, where clear cutting is the neces- 

 sary method, as in Washington, where in seven years we cut off as much 

 as France reforested on the Landes in 40 years. The conclusion 

 seems sufficiently clear that if this resource is to be perpetuated, we 

 must start while we have the forest. Wait till the forest is gone and 

 restoration will be the work of centuries during which this resource 

 will support a small fraction of the population it could well do, and 

 other industries must feel an unnecessary pinch for forest products 

 and pay a wholly unnecessary price for what they do get. With these 

 to his mind incontrovertible facts, the writer is content to let the 

 defense rest in. the case of Laisses faire vs. Foresight in American 

 Forest Management. 



" Bull. No. 239, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Cost and Methods of Clearing Land 

 in Western Washington, p. 8. 



"Femow. History of Forestry, 2d edition, Toronto, Canada, 1911, p. 227. 



