22 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 



yard, they ought to he shot, but on the fields 

 they always will be useful to the farmer. 



Hence the Legislature should protect the 

 birds by ordering a bill, prohibiting the kill- 

 ing of any bird, grouse, prairie chickens, 

 wild geese, ducks and suipe exoepted, and by 

 ordering a bill that forces every man willing 

 to hunt to procure a license, and such license 

 should not be issued for less than $5, minors 

 per se excluded, as they always have proved 

 to be the birds' worst enemies. 



FORESTRY IN COLORADO. 



BY PEOF. JAS. CASSIDY, OF THE AGRIC'L COLLEGE. 



I cannot indulge in the hope that what I 

 may say to you to-day will have the novelty 

 of freshness, but I content myself with the 

 reflection that it is often profitable to re- 

 view again principles and facts in nature 

 that may have been once familiar, and es- 

 pecially important I deem it, assembled as 

 we are here in convention, for the purpose of 

 impressing public attention with the import- 

 ance of the Forestry question in its several 

 aspects, to the citizens not alone of this State, 

 but to the people of the United States at 

 large. The word Forestry is as yet a new 

 one to many people. This is but natural, 

 inhabiting, as we do, a country wealthy in 

 timber resources, to which, until recently, 

 we felt there was no limit. Forestry is the 

 application of science and skill to woodcraft. 

 It is the result of long continued observation 

 and study of all that relates to the planting, 

 treatment, disposition and utilization of 

 trees produced on lands especially set apart 

 for them. Its subject matter is so volumin- 

 ous and varied that it has been found neces- 

 sary to classify and subdivide it into five 

 separate divisions, i.e., sylvaculture, conser- 

 vancy, utilization and organization the 

 history, laws and political economy of forest 

 administration. 



Without stopping to inquire into the rela- 

 tions forestry bore in earlier times to hunt- 

 ing and the chase, we may for the present 

 awume that for us forestry has special refer- 

 ence to the conservancy, utilization and 

 organization of existing public forest lands, 

 by means of an efficient State Forestry De- 

 partment. 



Our tree-planting on the plains may be 

 more appropriately termed woodlands than 

 forests. Planted in lines of one or of several 

 rows of trees, intended to break currents of 

 air, they constitute hedge-rows, wind-breakes 

 and shelter-belts. 



In all ages of the world's history man has 

 been a destructive agent rather than a con- 

 server of the gifts of nature, in fitting the 



earth for his continued occupancy on a high 

 plane of civilization. The pages of history 

 exhibit abundant evidence of this in the 

 progress of man up to the present day, ex- 

 hibititing as it does his ability and desire to 

 investigate the physical condition of the 

 earth, and to estimate the past, present and 

 prospective result of his own labor, as it has 

 helped shape these conditions to suit his own 

 purposes. 



As man multiplied and extended his agri- 

 cultural industry, he naturally trenched on 

 the forest, which once covered the greater 

 part of the earth's surface. In the removal 

 of the forests, with all their vast conse- 

 quental influences, we are brought to realize 

 men's ability as a transforming power, seen 

 in the changed condition of earth and clini- 

 ate. Countries once densely peopled are 

 now a vacant and bleak wilderness, brought 

 about, we know, by the slow and sure result 

 of man's own improvidence. And as we 

 look at the evidences of a high civilization 

 that showed once a dense population over 

 the present thinly inhabited districts of 

 Western Asia, Northern Africa and Southern 

 Europe, we may apply to this vast region 

 our present theory of cause and effect, and 

 in the gradual diminution of the forest 

 area, a corresponding change in 

 climate, and a diminished productiveness 

 of soil. Such physical changes in this once 

 garden of the world extended over vast 

 epochs of time, but owing to the advanced 

 condition of science and art at this time, 

 these, people were enabled to conceive and 

 execute gigantic works of irrigation, by 

 which the mountain streams were spread 

 upon the thirsty land and so prolonged man's 

 occupancy of these fair fields. It is indeed 

 lamentable to compare the present physical 

 condition of these countries with the ac- 

 count given us by the ancient historians of 

 heir glorious agriculture of the past; their 

 luxurious fields of cereals waved over hill 

 and dale, and every accompaniment of a suc- 

 cessful system of agriculture was theirs. All 

 this wealth, however, the, cumulation of ages 

 of toil, has been surrendered to desolation, 

 and extensive districts are now with- 

 out commerce, art or agriculture. Their 

 forests are a thing of the past; 

 the virgin earth, the cumulations of ages, 

 has disappeared, the once fruitful meadows 

 are unproductive, because the water supply, 

 ;he reservoirs, have dried up. Eivers like 

 ;he Jordan fail to reach the sea and the trees 

 that shaded and protected their banks have 

 disappeared; the rivulets cease to exist in 

 summer* but in spring are roaring torrents. 

 And all this the result of man's selfish disre- 

 gard of the laws of nature. While man may 



