34 POREST PLANTING. 



of forestry by the Federal Government, but to wait until 

 this sensible advice should be acted upon, would show 

 too much faith in the activity of Congress regarding 

 affairs other than those merely political. * It is entirely 

 a matter for each separate State in the Union to take care 

 of its forestry interests and to educate its own officers, 

 the more so 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 di- 

 versified one. 



As for the cost of establishing and maintaining such 

 an institution, it would not be very large, especially if 

 adjoining States of similar climate and topography would 

 unite, and contribute in proportion to its support. In 

 fact, the labor performed by the young men of the Institu- 

 tion would make it nearly self-supporting, and the de- 

 mand for trained foresters in the United States would 

 bring more students to the Institution than could be ac- 

 comodated. But the benefit which the commonwealth 

 would derive from the introduction of a systematic treat- 

 ment of the State forests would be so great as to make it 



* In the First annual report of the Ohio State Forestry Bureau for 

 1885, p. 20, we find the following well founded complaint on this point : 



" When a few years ago the St. Paul, Minn., Chamber of Commerce 

 petitioned the Congress of the United States to establish a National 

 School of Forestry at St. Paul, the subject offorcstal cdwation, and more 

 especially its necessity in this country, was discussed by the friends of 

 forestry. 



" Five years have elapsed and many of the warm advocates of the pro- 

 ject have died. The subject seems to have been stricken from the pro- 

 gramme of subjects at forestry conventions ; the press too is silent on 

 the question, and yet the subject has lost none of its great importance. 

 No one who has studied the extent, the distribution and condition of our 

 forests, and who has inquired into the prospet of a renewal of our 

 forests, will hesitate to assert that the need of instruction in forestry is an 

 absolute ncc< 



" The objection that there is no need of trained foresters in this coun- 

 try, which was urged som : years ago, was not based upon a knowledge 

 of the extent and true condition of our forests, but rather upon a blind- 

 ness to the best interest of our land." 



