COMMENT. 



The great war, as everybody by this time must have realized, 

 extends its bHghting influences to the remotest corners of the 

 earth and into the smallest concern of the single individual, of 

 combatant and neutral nations alike. Even the Forestry Quar- 

 terly is no exception, for an important part of its raw material, 

 the European forestry literature, is to a large extent, cut ofT. 

 The German and Austrian magazines have ceased to arrive since 

 August, and the probability is that they have ceased to be issued. 

 We still receive, albeit belated, Swiss and Scandinavian publi- 

 cations, but the French have been discontinued or have at least 

 not reached us. 



That most serious consequences must appear in time may be 

 inferred from the contemplation that in this war from 12 to 15 

 million men are withdrawn from useful productive occupations — 

 and that the most efficient portion of population — while the less 

 efficient portion has to feed these millions ; that daily not less than 

 30 million dollars are wasted in destruction of materials, leaving 

 out of consideration the destruction of capital values in the war 

 zones; that five billion dollars' worth of trade (Germany's export 

 and import trade) is practically entirely stopped, and that half 

 the world's trade (that of the warring nations) to the extent of 

 some 25 billion, is jeopardized ; and the neutral nations see their 

 trade injured proportionately. 



At this juncture we are naturally inclined to speculate as to 

 what the influence of the war on forest administrations may be. 

 In our neutral nation, the financial depression which is in part 

 here, in part still to be accentuated, will bring naturally in its 

 train industrial depression, discourage enterprise, reduce not only 

 exports, but home consumption, and hence curtail logging and 

 mill operations. Such setback may also be inimical to forestry 

 work, wherever such had been begun by private forest owners, 

 for retrenchment is the word, and this can be most easily applied 

 by pruning off^ unnecessary innovations. The same feeling of 

 the necessity of retrenchment may also be reflected in the public 

 services. At least expansion is not likely to be permitted; the 

 forestry movement will be at a standstill while more urgent 



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