INTRODUCTION 5 



States disposed of their lands as rapidly as possible to 

 private owners and for private exploitation. Private 

 owners, in handling their forest lands, had no other idea 

 than to cut the accumulated stock without any regard 

 whatever for future growth. While a few far-sighted 

 lumbermen in Maine, and in some other sections, 

 began 30 or 40 years ago to restrict their cuttings to the 

 oldest timber, and to reserve the intermediate and young 

 growth, and w r hile a few individuals planted trees and 

 otherwise practised forestry in a small way, it is only 

 within a decade that there has been any wide-spread 

 conception of the management of timberlands on a large 

 scale with a view to perpetuating the forest. 



Unregulated Cutting. Ordinary lumbering, even 

 when not accompanied by fire, results in a steady deteri- 

 oration of the forest. The best individuals are taken 

 out and the crooked and defective trees, which the lum- 

 bermen do not want, are left. In mixed forests, the poorer 

 species are usually left, and these seed up the ground. 

 The soil is often exposed, trees are blown over, and at 

 best the production is very much lowered. So great has 

 been the damage to our forests that the annual growth 

 upon them is less than one-third of what is actually used 

 by the country. To meet the future demands of the 

 country, with the ever-increasing population, waste and 

 destruction must be stopped and the productive growth 

 of the forests increased from 300 to 400 per cent. 



Disturbance of Stream Flow. One of the most seri- 

 ous effects of destructive lumbering, followed by fires, 



