1889.] XEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 57 



and the first paper was read by Dr. II. Nicholas Jarchow, 

 upon 



THE PRACTICAL IXTRODUCTION" OF FOREST-CULTURE IXTO 

 AMERICA ; — THE DIFFICULTIES, AND HOW TO OVERCOME 

 THEM. 



When I last had the honor, now a year ago, of addressing 

 this learned audience in bebalf of the forestry interests of our 

 State, I showed that the Forestry Act, passed by our Legishiture 

 in the year 1885, if properly executed, was a great step toward 

 the arrest of further devastations of the natural forests owned 

 by the State ; but that, in order to repair the damage done during 

 a century to the beautiful mountain-forests in the Adirondacks, 

 more effective measures should be taken, of which the first 

 ■would be the establishment of a forest-school for training 

 young men properly to care for the preservation and restora- 

 tion of the woods. Our Forest Commissioners have since their 

 installation moved on pretty slowly, and contented themselves 

 with saving the woods in the Forest Preserve from the axe 

 of the lumberman and from the torch of the careless or wilful 

 incendiary. 



Now, I do not know whether the gentlemen of that Commis- 

 sion have been influenced by the transactions which took place 

 in this hall a year ago; but it is a fact that, — as the present 

 President of that board lately told me, — there will soon be 

 established a nursery for raising seedlings to restock the many 

 denuded woodlands in the State Forest Preserve. This nursery, 

 I am sure, will only be the precursor of the much-desired forest- 

 school ; and when we have obtained this, the time will arrive 

 when we may boast of having discovered the way in which we 

 may be able not only to restore and preserve our woodlands, 

 but also to exploit them and to transmit them in good shape to 

 future generations, who will need them just as much as we do. 

 In other words, we shall have reached that period when system- 

 atic forest-culture can make its appearance in our State. 



What is forest-culture ? What is systematic forest-culture ? 

 These are questions which I often hear propounded. I shall 

 answer by referring to a closely allied branch in the economy 

 of a nation, viz. , agriculture. While the latter endeavors, by 

 correct management, to produce, without exhausting the soil, 

 and at the smallest expense, crops of grain and fodder, the aim 

 of scientific or systematic forest-culture is directed to producing 

 a growth of trees for fuel, timber, and lumber, in such a way 

 that, when a crop of trees is felled, certain measures are taken 



