132 SCIENCE IN FORESTRY 



From the nature of things, and in the proper 

 balance of nature, much of our waste land would 

 in the course of time become covered with trees, 

 by natural processes. The trees are prolific in 

 seed-production, and the seeds can germinate and 

 the young trees establish themselves in the most 

 inhospitable of conditions. The balance of nature 

 however has been disturbed. Sheep runs and game 

 preserves occupy much of the land. Deer and even 

 rabbits are preserved, and as soon as nature 

 attempts to reestablish the forest her efforts are 

 defeated. That nature would once more re-afforest 

 the waste lands is demonstrated time and again, 

 and where conditions have been right, self-estab- 

 lished forest areas exist. The time is past, however, 

 when we can wait on nature's rate of production. 

 The nations are neither fed nor clothed by the 

 casual production of nature. There is no com- 

 parison between the yield of the up-to-date wheat 

 field and the food value given by a like area under 

 natural conditions. So, the forest area must be 

 cultivated and the given space of ground made to 

 render its maximum yield. As time goes on the 

 farmer is becoming more and more dependent on 

 the botanist, the chemist, and the zoologist. The 

 farmer's work provides him with repeated experi- 

 ence of the same problem. He sows and reaps his 

 crop each year, and yet his mere empirical knowledge 

 has long since proved inadequate. Nowadays the 

 cultivation of timber crops is as much a necessity 



