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be seen, can do no more on their return than express their convictions and urge the 

 importance of acting upon them. This they have done for many years past, but they 

 have not succeeded in arousing such a popular conviction of the necessity as should 

 enforce the action of their representatives to the point of making needful provision. 

 The enormous and costly scale on which the work of planting new forests must be under- 

 taken, in order to be effective, seems to throw a damper upon every effort to bring it 

 to pass. 



If every owner of a wood lot could be convinced that its value might be enormously 

 increased by a process which, so far from demanding an outlay, would add to his annual 

 income, it would not be long before farmers would consider it as derogatory to their repu- 

 tation to leave the forests in the wild condition they now are, as they would to have a 

 field of corn presenting a similar appearance of slovenliness. To produce such conviction 

 the truth must be demonstrated in actual practice, and the cost of such demonstration 

 will be but a trifling price to pay for the returns it will bring. Let any State or city 

 select a tract of woodland at some easily accessible point, and put it under a proper 

 course of management, as an experimental forest, and it would very soon excite an in- 

 terest which could not fail to increase. A portion of it should be suffered to remain in 

 its original unimproved condition. Another part should be improved as " open park," 

 for the best development of individual trees in their fullest natural capacity of dignity 

 and grace, and a third portion should be devoted to the production of timber by the 

 process of thinning, pruning and proper culture. The progress of development could 

 then be seen and watched from year to year in all its stages, and the demonstration thus 

 afforded would touch the interest of every owner of a wood lot. The process would soon 

 begin to be imitated, a conviction of the value and importance of a knowledge of forestry 

 would become established in the popular mind, and the demand for the services of those 

 who had acquired it would lead to a demand for the means of acquirement, and thus the 

 schools of forestry would be called into existence by the natural course of events. 



The inauguration of such an experimental or illustrative forest as a means of excit- 

 ing public interest is surely an object that is well worthy the consideration of legislative 

 and municipal bodies, or of corporations whose interests are connected with this form of 

 national wealth. The cost would be insignificant in comparison with that of planting 

 and maintaining new forests, and the spur of personal interest would incite such general 

 action as would add incalculably to the wealth of every State without further outlay 

 than the cost of demonstration. 



It is of course desirable that the experimental forest should be as conspicuous and 

 easily accessible to the public as possible, for which reason the vicinity of a city would 

 seem the most appropriate point. And municipal bodies would be justified in making a 

 liberal appropriation for the promotion of such an object, since it would certainly con- 

 stitute, for great numbers of people, one of the principal attractions of the city. The 

 beneficial results which would follow, however, would add so largely to the substantial 

 wealth and power of the State that its main support should be derived from legislative 

 rather than municipal action. 



It is not, however, my province to discuss the means of effecting the work, beyond 

 this general suggestion. 



I have aimed only to convey a conception of the rich resources which nature has 

 placed at our disposal, if we choose to avail ourselves of her offer. 



I have made no statement in regard to forest growth which will not be recognized 

 as true by all who are familiar with the subject, and all such persons will endorse my 

 statement that, jyracticaUi/, the rules which govern the process are universally ignored. 



I have pointed out what I conceive to be the readiest means of awakening public 

 attention and creating such general interest as will insure reform, and I leave to other 

 hands the task of arranging the laws which must govern its execution. 



