PAPERS BEAD BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 



23 



for a time fight oppression and the destruc- 

 tive forces of inorganic n ture, he eventually, 

 however, after a contest more or less ex- 

 tended, yields the fields he has -won from 

 primeval nature to ruin and. desolation. And 

 so on do^n to modern times has man's evil 

 abuse of nature been extended, until to-day a 

 halt is called on this great continent that we 

 may avert the threatened ruin. It is but a 

 few years ago that this country awakened to 

 a realizing sense of the situation, to the 

 necessity of restoring the disturbed har- 

 monies of nature, whose well-bal- 

 anced influences are so propitious 

 to all her organic offspring, repaying to our 

 mother earth the debt which the improvi- 

 dence of former generations has left us as a 

 legacy. The value of forests must be meas- 

 ured solely by their usefulness to man in 

 some form or other, and as the chief wealth 

 of any nation is its population, so the forest, 

 as well as many other things, has had to give 

 way to that, but notwithstanding the recog- 

 nized importance of the preservation of a due 

 proportion of the land in forest growth, it is 

 indeed but seldom that a civilized country 

 has ever seen fit to preserve a proper propor- 

 tion of its surface in forest growth. 



The art of forestry must grow in impor- 

 tance as the world grows older and becomes 

 more populous the needs of a growing pop- 

 ulation must be met. Sylvaculture here 

 steps in and provides the remedy, for it aims 

 at the culture in the smallest practicable area 

 of the greatest number of the most desirable 

 forms of trees, best adapted \o our local wants. 

 In earlier times, for obvious reasons, the re- 

 moval of the forest caused no uneasiness. 

 But in course of time unfavorable results be- 

 gan to manifest themselves, and led to the 

 framing of many laws at an early period in 

 the history of many nations; and even where 

 no laws were passed, indications are not 

 wanting lo show that the waste of trees by 

 ignorance or cupidity was not unnoticed. 

 Among ancient nations we find the forests 

 were placed under officers of high rank in 

 the State. In Japan, an ancient law pro- 

 vides that wnere a tree was cut down another 

 must be planted in its stead. The ancient 

 Germans framed laws for the marking of 

 trees to be felled, and in certain cases pun- 

 ished with death infractions of these rules. 

 But in spite of all laws, man's ignorance, sel- 

 fishness and want of forethought, combined 

 to waste and ruin forests which should have 

 been preserved as an inheritance for future 

 generations. 



So intimately connected are plants and ani- 

 mals, that if we interfere with a species we 

 cannot tell what results will ensue. The 

 mere enclosure of a piece of land to exclude 



cattle from it, induces great changes, as was 

 frequently noticed by Darwin. By cutting 

 down our forests indiscriminately we destroy 

 a number of species of plants that eannot 

 live in a dry climate, and with "these go a 

 number of insects, which depend upon these 

 plants exclusively for their food. Again, the 

 change in the insect fauna effected by the 

 abolition of the forest, will probably have a 

 marked effect upon the birds of the district. 

 The latter are the natural protectors of 

 plants. Insects are Nature's cheeks upon 

 plants to prevent their too rapid increase, for 

 if the former were te increase too rapidly 

 certain plants would disappear altogether. 

 To obviate this contingency the smaller birds 

 are given us as a check upon insects, and 

 that the later shall not increase unduly, the 

 smaller birds of prey hold them in check, 

 and so all created things have an indirect 

 connection with one another, and the result 

 is that the most perfect harmony is the law 

 of Nature. To man is given the power to 

 modify these conditions, either for or against 

 his interests, as he will; too often, indeed, 

 the latter, due no doubt in large measure 

 to his ignorance of those laws, by which the 

 whole universe is goverened, and ly which 

 the most perfect harmony in Nature, not- 

 withstanding its diversity, is maintained. 

 It follows, then, from the close inter-depend- 

 ence that obtains throughout all Nature, that 

 many plants, and animals, are dependent for 

 their continued existence, upon circumstan- 

 ces created by trees, particularly when 

 grouped as forests. In man's case, there is 

 no necessity, there is no possibility, of exag- 

 gerating this obligation; for man himself is 

 absolutely dependent upon plant life for his 

 existence. Except salt, and water, and air, 

 there is not a mineral substance which ani- 

 mals can use directly as food. Their food 

 must be organic; and forest growth, in com- 

 mon with more humble vegetation, serves to 

 link together the animal, the mineral, and 

 man, the 'clod of the field. 



But it is gratifying to know that a knowl- 

 edge of the powers of Nature, its elements, 

 and manifestations, so indispensable to the 

 welfare of the whole people, is so rapidly 

 gainiog ground among us; as, upon a right 

 use of this knowledge, so much is dependent. 

 The health of the forests is the health of the 

 people. Our Nation, after slumbering 100 

 years, is beginning to open its eyes. The 

 reason of the profound sleep is that, till a 

 little while ago, nobody knew what air, wa- 

 ter, and earth were made of, how plants 

 grew, or whether their growth had any rela- 

 tion to animal life, or not. 



By promoting forests we shall preserve the 

 streams. Fountains and purling brooks 



