DUE PROPOKTION OF WOODLAND. 295 



The demand for wood, and of course the quantity of forest ro 

 quired to furnish it, depend upon the supply of fuel from other 

 sources, such as peat and coal, upon the extent to which stone, 

 brick or metal can advantageously be substituted for wood in 

 building, upon the development of arts and industries employing 

 wood and other forest products as materials, and upon the cost of 

 obtaining them from other countries, or upon their commercial 

 value as articles of export. 



Upon the whole, taking civihzed Europe and America togeth- 

 er, it is probable that from twenty to twenty-five per cent, of 

 well -wooded surface is indispensable for the maintenance of 

 normal physical conditions, and for the supply of materials so 

 essential to every branch of human industry and every form of 

 social life as those which compose the harvest of the woods. 



There is probably no country — there are few large farms even 

 — where at least one-fourth of the soil is not either unfit for 

 agricultural use, or so unproductive that, as pasture or plough- 

 land, it yields less pecuniary return than a thrifty wood. Every 

 Western prairie has its sloughs where willows and poplars would 

 find a fitting soil, every Eastern farm its rocky nooks and its bar- 

 ren hillsides suited to the growth of some species from our rich 

 forest flora, and everywhere belts of trees might advantage- 

 ously be planted along the roadsides and the boundaries and di- 

 viding fences. In most cases, it will be found that trees may be 

 made to grow well where cultivated crops will not repay the out- 

 lay of tillage, and it is a very plain dictate of sound economy that 



cutting ther woods, liave made three profits," the sale of the timber, the rent 

 of the ground, and the " good portion" they received of the grain grown by 

 the peasants upon it. To this argument Palissy replies : " I can not enough 

 detest this thing, and I call it not an error, but a curse and a calamity to all 

 France ; for when forests shall be cut, all arts shall cease, and they which 

 practise them shall be driven out to eat grass with Nebuchadnezzar and the 

 beasts of the field. I have divers times thought to set down in writing the 

 arts which shall perish when there shall be no more wood ; but when I had 

 written down a great number, I did perceive that there could be no end of my 

 writing, and having diligently considered, I found there was not any which 

 could be followed without wood." .... " And truly I could well allege to 

 thee a thousand reasons, but 'tis so cheap a philosophy, that the very chamber- 

 wenches, if they do but think, may see that without wood, it is not possible 

 to exercise any manner of human art or cunning." — (Eut/res de Bernabb 

 Palisst. Paris, 1844, p 89. 



