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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FOREST POLICY. 



PARAGRAPH IV. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



Many are the writers on forestry and on conservation who have 

 claimed that a country losing its forests loses its prosperity in- 

 cidentally. 



Attention has been drawn to the change of economic conditions 

 brought about in the course of many centuries, allegedly 

 through deforestation in Mesopotamia, Palestine, Asia Minor, 

 Egypt, Greece, Italy, and Spain. All these countries, once to 

 judge from historic records the leading countries of human 

 civilisation, have been on the decline for centuries after reaching, 

 many centuries ago, the culminating point of prosperity. 



Can it be true that destruction of the forest has brought about 

 national and economic decrepitude? Can it be true that the in- 

 fluence of the forest on national health and on economic con- 

 ditions, on the rivers and streams, on climate and hence on 

 crops on navigation, and on irrigation is such as to hinge the 

 conservation of a nation's prosperity on the conservation of a 

 nation's forests? 



The answer to the question must be, necessarily, a personal 

 one: an answer of personal opinion. The historian will affirm 

 that, without a doubt, many causes have contributed to the 

 decrepitude of the ancient and modern countries enumerated. 

 The climatologist is ready to prove that the influence on the 

 climate exercised by the forest is, on the whole, a small influence. 



In all probability the destruction of the forests of a given 

 country has rather been a sign of economic decrepitude than a 

 cause of it. 



There are, indeed, many exceptions to the rule, the most 

 distinguished exception being that of Great Britain and Ireland, 

 where the forests have been neglected and badly destroyed for 



