[From the Report of the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, 1901.] 



/I 



SOME ASPECTS OF THE FORESTRY PROBLEM. 

 DR. J. T. ROTHROCK, HARRISBURG, PA. 



Gentlemen of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture: The 

 dictionaries in one sense mark the growth of ideas. They 

 seldom if ever coin a word until the need for it is apparent, or 

 give a clearer definition of an existing term than its ordinary 

 use warrants. 



If we were to turn to a German dictionary a century old we 

 would discover that forestry had already taken its place as a 

 well-established art, and that the forester was one who was 

 charged with every detail of the forest crop, both in mainten- 

 ance and in restoration. 



If, on the other hand, we take a Webster's unabridged 

 dictionary, which is but half a century old, we shall find that 

 the word forestry is not given, though we are told that a 

 forester in England " is an officer appointed to watch a forest, 

 preserve the game, and institute suits for trespasses." In other 

 words, he was merely a policeman, and there is no indication 

 that he ever received a technical education or knew one tree 

 or its use from another. So far as the United States were 

 concerned neither forestry nor foresters were .found here half 

 a century ago. 



I find that Worcester, o'f much later date, gives essentially 

 the same definition of the word forester, though he has ad- 

 vanced a short step by defining .forestry as the art of forming 

 or cultivating forests, and gives the Saturday Magazine as his 

 authority. 



No one who is up to date would, now be content with any 

 definition of the word forestry unless it included every element 

 in the production, protection, felling, marketing, and restora- 

 tion of forests. The definition would convey the idea that the 

 forester was a man of liberal education and of special mental 

 attainments. 



These statements are, of course, of no interest except in so 

 far as they indicate that a change has taken place here, that a 

 new idea has been introduced into our civilization, and starts 

 us to inquiring what causes have led to this change. 



