1 66 North American Forests and Forestry 



public ownership cannot be entirely dispensed with. 

 Exclusive state forestry would perhaps not be de- 

 sirable because it would create a state monopoly in 

 the raw material of some of the most important 

 industries. Such a thing is tolerable only under a 

 despotic or a socialistic government. As long as 

 we desire to have neither, a mixed system will 

 probably be best, in which public and private own- 

 ership is represented in such proportion that per- 

 manency of supply is insured by the one and fair 

 treatment of the consumer by the competition of 

 the other. 



There is a class of forests which ought to be 

 maintained irrespective of revenue or questions of 

 supplying raw material to industries. These are 

 forests which protect the water supply of river sys- 

 tems. This branch of the subject has been given 

 rather excessive prominence by most writers on 

 forestry in this country, and a large portion of the 

 public has been led to believe that it embraces the 

 whole of the forestry problem. Much indiscrimi- 

 nate theorizing has been indulged in about the 

 influence of forests on climate, rainfall, waterflow, 

 and erosion. Much of this has not been verified 

 sufficiently by actual observation or experiment to 

 be at all above question. Some of the favorite 

 statements of popular writers are directly false ; 

 others are true with important qualifications. 



No assertion is more familiar than that the fer- 

 tility of the countries surrounding the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea has, within historical times, become 



