388 AMERICAN FOREST PLANTATIONS. 
for such purposes, but there can be no doubt that it would be 
sound economy in the end. 
In countries where there exist municipalities endowed with 
an intelligent public spirit, the purchase and control of for- 
ests by such corporations would often prove advantageous; and 
in some of the provinces of Northern Lombardy, experience has 
shown that such operations may be conducted with great benefit 
to all the interests connected with the proper management 
of the woods. In Switzerland, on the other hand, except in 
some few cases where woods have been preserved as a de- 
fence against avalanches, the forests of the communes haye 
been of little advantage to the public interests, and have very 
generally gone to decay.* The rights of pasturage, every- 
‘where destructive to trees, combined with toleration of tres- 
passes, have so reduced their value, that there is, too often, 
nothing left that is worth protecting. In the canton of Ticino, 
the peasants have very frequently voted to sell the town-woods 
and divide the proceeds among the corporators. The some- 
times considerable sums thus received are squandered in wild 
revelry, and the sacrifice of the forests brings not even a mo- 
mentary benefit to the proprietors.+ 
Fortunately for the immense economical and sanitary in- 
terests involved in this branch of rural and industrial hus- 
bandry, public opinion in many parts of the United States is 
thoroughly roused to the importance of the subject. In the 
Eastern States, plantations of a certain extent have been made, 
and a wiser system is pursued in the treatment of the remain- 
ing native woods.{ Important experiments have been tried in 
* A belter economy has been of late introduced into the management of 
the forest in Switzerland. Excellent official reports on the subject have been 
published and important legal provisions adopted. 
+ See in Beruepscn, Die Alpen, chapter Holzschliger und Flésser, a lively 
account of the sale of a communal wood. 
¢ When the census of 1860 was taken, the States of Maine and New York pro- 
duced and exported lumber in abundance. Neither of them now has timber 
enough for domestic use, and they are both compelled to draw much of their 
supply from Canada and the West. 
