THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 493 



]u tin- central portions of the Atlantic region the general replacement of the sweet-fruited valuable white oaks in 

 the young forest growth by the less valuable bitter-fruited black oaks is noticeable, and seriously endangers the 

 future value of the forests of this whole region. The damage inflicted upon the California mountain forests by sheep 

 is immense; they threaten the complete extermination of these noble forests, and with them the entire agricultural 

 resources of the state. 



The pasturage of the forest is not only enormously expensive in the destruction of young plants and seeds, 

 but this habit induces the burning over every year of great tracts of woodland, which would otherwise be permitted 

 to grow ii]) naturally, in order to hasten the early growth of. spring herbage. Such fires, especially in the open 

 pine forests of the south, do not necessarily consume the old trees. All undergrowth and seedlings are swept 

 away, however, and not infrequently fires thus started destroy valuable bodies of timber. This is especially true* 

 also, in the coniferous forests of the Pacific region. 



The railroads of the country, using in the construction and maintenance of their permanent ways vast quantities 

 of timber, inflict far greater injury upon the forests than is represented by the consumption of material. Railway 

 ties, except in California, are almost invariably cut from vigorous young trees from 10 to 12 inches in diameter; 

 that is, from trees which twenty or thirty years ago escaped destruction by fire or browsing animals, and which, if 

 allowed to grow, would at the end of fifty or one hundred years longer afford immense quantities of valuable timber. 

 The railroads of the United States, old and new, consume every year not far from 60,000,000 ties ; the quantity of 

 lumber in 60,000,000 ties is comparatively not very great, and would hardly be missed from our forests; but the 

 destruction of 30,000,000 vigorous, healthy young trees, supposing that an average of two ties is cut from each tree, is 

 a serious drain upon the forest wealth of the country and should cause grave apprehensions for the future, especially 

 in view of the fact that in every part of the country there are now growing fewer seedling trees of species valuable 

 for railway ties than when the trees now cut for this purpose first started. 



The condition of the forests of Maine is interesting. They show that forest preservation is perfectly practicable, 

 in the Atlantic region at least, when the importance of the forest to the community is paramount. The prosperity 

 of this state, born of the broad forests of pine and spruce which once covered it almost uninterruptedly, was 

 threatened by the prospective exhaustion of these forests, in danger of extermination by fire and the ill-regulated 

 operations of the lumbermen. The very existence of the state depended upon the maintenance of the forest. The 

 great forests of pine could not be restored, but the preservation of the few remnants of these forests was not 

 impossible. Fires do not consume forests upon which a whole community is dependent for support, and methods 

 for securing the continuance of such forests are soon found and readily put into execution. The forests of Maine, 

 once considered practically exhausted, still yield largely and continuously, and the public sentiment which has 

 made possible, their protection is the one hopeful symptom in the whole country that a change of feeling in regard 

 to forest property is gradually taking place. The experience of Maine shows that where climatic conditions are 

 favorable to forest growth the remnants of the original forest can be preserved and new forests created as soon as 

 the entire community finds forest preservation really essential to its material prosperity. 



The production of lumber is not, however, the only function of forests; and the future extent and condition of 

 those of the United States cannot, in every case, be safely regulated by the general law which governs the volume 

 of other crops by the demand for them. Forests perform other and more important duties in protecting the surface 

 of the ground and in regulating and maintaining the flow of rivers. In mountainous regions they are essential to 

 prevent destructive torrents, and mountains cannot be stripped of their forest covering without entailing serious 

 dangers upon the whole community. Such mountain forests exist in the United States. In northern Vermont and 

 New Hampshire they guard the upper waters of the Connecticut and the Merrimac; in New York they insure 

 the constant flow of the Hudson. Such forests still cover the upper slopes of the Alleghany mountains and 

 diminish the danger of destructive floods in the valleys of the Susquehanna and the Ohio. Forests still cover the 

 upper water-sheds of the Missouri and the Columbia, the Platte and the Rio Grande, and preserve the California 

 valleys from burial under the debris of the sierras. The great mountain forests of the country still exist, often 

 almost in their original condition. Their inaccessibility has preserved them; it cannot preserve them, however, 

 much longer. Inroads have already been made into these forests ; the ax, fire, and the destructive agency of 

 browsing animals are now everywhere invading them. Their destruction does not mean a loss of material alone, 

 which sooner or later can be replaced from other parts of the country; it means the ruin of great rivers for 

 navigation and irrigation, the destruction of cities located along their banks, and the spoliation of broad areas of 

 the richest agricultural land. These mountain forests once destroyed can only be renewed slowly and at enormous 

 cost, and the dangers, actual and prospective, which threaten them now offer the only real cause for general alarm 

 to be found in the present condition of the forests of the United States. Other forests may be swept away and the 

 country will expeiience nothing more serious than a loss of material, which can be produced again if the price of 

 lumber warrants the cultivation of trees as a commercial enterprise; but if the forests which control the flow of the 

 great rivers of the country perish, the whole community will suffer widespread calamity which no precautions taken 

 after the mischief has been done can avert or future expenditure prevent. 



