54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



It is stated in the last report of the forestry division at 

 Washington, by Mr. B. E. Fernow,* that the Bavarian 

 government roccatly sent an expert to this country to 

 examine into our forest resources and the demands made 

 upon them, with the view of profiting by our miserable 

 plight. Upon being questioned as to his mission this agent 

 answered: — " In fifty -yenrs you will have to import your 

 timber, and as you will proba]>ly have a preference for 

 Amoricaa kinds, wc shall now begin to grow them in order 

 to be ready to send them to you at the proper time." 



It may not bo possible for a German State to grow timber 

 for the American marliot in fifty years, bat the statement 

 shows, however, the superiority of German over American 

 methods in forest management. It also shows that an ex- 

 pert from a country where forest questions are fully under- 

 stood ac^rees with American writers in estimating the time 

 we shall take to destroy the lumber-producing forests of the 

 West. 



Our special interest is of course centered in the effects of 

 the removal of the forests in our own State and the neces- 

 sities for reforestation and the extent to which it should be 

 carried on here. We are, according to the way we look at 

 the matter, in a fortunate or an unfortunate position in 

 Massachusetts. 



The geographical position of New England, coming as it 

 does within the influence of the moisture-laden, ocean 

 breezes, assures for us a sufficient and evenly distributed 

 rainfall, and makes the forest of less climatic importance than 

 in the interior of the continent. 



Therefore, although the data and the startling conclusions 

 to be drawn from them, in relation to the calamities which 

 must inevitably follow the destruction of the forests, are 

 all important, and as patriotic citizens we should seek to avert 

 those dangers which threaten, through forest destruction, 

 our national prosperity, still, here in Massachusetts, the 

 destruction of the forests outside of New Enjjland, however 

 improvidently it may be pursued, will never in any proba- 

 bility injuriously affect our climate, water supply, or gen- 



* See Rep. U. S. Ag. Div. Forestiy, B. E. Fernow, 1886, p. 155, note. 



