36 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [DEc. 3, 
as diversity of climate, situation and other economic reasons 
will make the proper training of the foresters in the various 
States in certain respects a diversified one. 
As for the cost of establishing and maintaining such an insti- 
tution, it would not be large, especially if adjoining States of 
similar climate and topography would unite and contribute pro- 
portionately to its support. Indeed, the labor performed by the 
students upon the grounds of the institution would make it 
nearly self-supporting; and the demand for trained foresters in 
the United States would bring more pupils than could be accom- 
modated. But the benefit which our commonwealth would de- 
rive from the introduction of a systematic treatment of the State 
forests would be so great as to make it nearly impossible now to 
give even an approximate estimate of its value. Besides setting 
a good example in the management of forests, to be followed by 
private citizens, and deriving a considerable income from the 
State forests, the army of men who are now used by unscrupu- 
lous lumbermen and their agents in illegally cutting timber on 
the State grounds, and who are becoming every year more de- 
praved on account of the unpunished continuance of their pub- 
lic plundering, could then easily be made to return to an honest 
and well paid activity, as a great many hands would be required 
for bringing the State forests into such a shape as to secure (1) 
a sustained forestal growth; (2) a natural regeneration of the 
trees; and (3) a continually improving condition of the forests. 
DISCUSSION. 
Dr. HusBaArp opened the discussion by remarking that some 
time ago he was reading the laws of New York of 1810, in re- 
gard to the preservation of fish, and that he doubted, notwith- 
standing those laws, whether a salmon could now be found in 
the streams of western New York. There is no reason why these 
rivers could not be re-stocked. In 1810, it was also the law that 
mills should never build a dam such that a salmon could not 
ascend the stream; but that provision is probably a dead letter. 
We have good laws,but what is needed is a more thorough and 
careful enforcement of them. It is the same with regard to our 
forests in a great degree. 
Mr. J. C. HENDERSON remarked that he had lived a good 
deal in the West, in sections of the country where there are few 
trees, and had noticed a certain enthusiasm among the people 
for arboriculture, which there is not inthe East. Where people 
