10 > FOREST CULTURE AND 
universal forest supervision, nor a judicious restraint 
of consumption, nor an ample utilization of all the 
various collateral resources of our woodlands, received 
that serious attention to which such measures became 
more and more entitled. 
During the earlier years of our colonization, while 
the population was but thinly scattered over the ter- 
ritory, or densely concentrated in a few places only, 
all demands on the wood resources were comparatively 
so limited as to cause, perhaps, nowhere vast destruc- 
tion of the timber vegetation, much less any alarm 
for meeting the requirements of the future. Then 
followed the first gold period, with all its bustle, tur- 
moils and agitations, preventing reflection on almost 
anything except the immediate wants of that stormy 
time. Subsequently, when the commotion and ex- 
citement of the earlier gold era had calmed down, 
other obstacles arose, which, in their conflicts, brought 
much sadness on this young country, and retarded 
for years its full progress. But now, when apparent- 
ly also these difficulties have been surmounted, it will . 
be all the more incumbent on our statesmen and legis- 
lators to exclude no longer from their consideration 
and watchfulness that remaining portion of a bequest 
which bountiful Nature, in its rich woods, has in- 
trusted to our care, The maintenance of these forest 
riches should engage not only the loftiest forethought, 
but also a well-guided and scrupulous vigilance. 
How forests beneficially affect a clime, how they 
supply equable humidity, how they-afford extensive 
shelter, create springs, and control the flow of rivers— 
all this the teachings of science, the records of history, 
and more forcibly still, the sufferings or even ruin of 
