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PAPERS READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION. 



can only gladden our summer by having a 

 sufficiency of forest growth to protect the 

 land from the pitiless sun. What does our 

 civilization amount to if it cannot preserve 

 and increase the conditions of the highest 

 health for the human race and its auxiliaries? 

 Truly ''there are hooks in trees," and in 

 every leaf a tribute to him who planteth 

 them. 



From the foregoing examples we may read- 

 ily infer the gravity of the situation to our- 

 selves. This country is no exception to the 

 laws of nature. Why should, it be? Many 

 portions of this country already feel the first 

 symptoms of that general deterioration of the 

 eartn, which is nature's retribution lor the 

 disturbance of her harmonies, evidenced in 

 uncertain climate, floods ever increasing in 

 number and direful consequences, streams no 

 longer to be relied on, savage winds against 

 whose violence there is no barrier, blighting 

 vegetation, intensifying disease, inducing de- 

 rangement of the seasons, and in the old, set- 

 tled States ending in the abandonment of 

 lands once fertile. It is, indeed, to be feared 

 that we will not in this country recognize 

 the value of the forests until the advent 

 of calamities, which thoughtful con- 

 sideration of the subject would avert. 

 And as the Old World holds out the beacon 

 light of danger ahead, so must we look to 

 her for the remedy. The care of the forests 

 in all European countries is now a matter of 

 governmental concern. But six of them now 

 possess more than 25 per cent, of land in for- 

 est growth, and only four of them, Norway 

 and Sweedea, Russia, Germany and Belgium, 

 yield more than they consume. The leading 

 governments of Europe to-day are tree- 

 planting on an extensive si-ale, endeavoring 

 to protect especially the forest growth at the 

 head waters of the principal strearrs, and to 

 introduce in every way possible the most 

 economical management and reform. In 

 some of the United States there is now less 

 land in forest growth than the rule of the 

 Duke of Burgundy required, one-third to the 

 hunter, two-thirds to the husbandman, The 

 rule of William Penn, one acre in woods for 

 five acres in tillage, exclusive of the wooded 

 hills and mountain forests, is not as yet, per- 

 haps, materially lessened. 



The feature most essential to the efiicient 

 working of these forest departments of State, 

 as well as perhaps most striking to Ameri 

 cans, is the system of forest schools. There 

 are thirty-five of these schools in Europe. In 

 these continental schools the student may 

 learn how to draw from the forest the quick- 

 est returns, and how to replace, in the most 

 certain and quickest manner, what these 

 forests should produce annually; he will 



likewise learn how to build up the scarifie 

 hillside with a growth of trees and shrubs; 

 how bare and desolate plains may be re- 

 clothed with verdure, and impoverished soils 

 so treated as to support a successful system 

 of agriculture. 



England, owing to her insular position and 

 a variety of natural advantages, has been en- 

 abled to destroy her forests with impunity to 

 accomodate the wants of a growing popula- 

 tion, and yet she feels no inconvenience 

 therefrom. She has in their stesd, however, 

 all the accompaniments of a diversified agri- 

 culture. She has magnificent parks, every 

 variety of tree growth, magnificeatly devel- 

 oped and arranged, her green valleys and 

 leafy knolls are pleasing to the lover of 

 natural and artistic beauty, but she has not a 

 single forest in the continental accceptiou of 

 the term. The Britisher must look to 

 England's Colonial possessions to learn how 

 to manage forest property. But in India, 

 Britain has the finest forestry system in the 

 world. 



In France and in Germany the care of the 

 forests constitutes a department, the magni- 

 tude of whose operations may be inferred 

 from the fact that besides the work in the 

 Alps' provinces and elsewhere, a forest, 150 

 miles long and ten miles wido, has been 

 formed along the sand dunes of the western 

 coast, by which millions of acres were re- 

 claimed and made arable. Looking at home, 

 we find that very little has been done to 

 preserve and restore forest lands; and worst 

 of all that total ignorance of the interests 

 involved is well nigh universal. ' The forest 

 lands of the United States amount to less 

 than one-fourth of the entire are*. The 

 proportion of wooded area is less than in 

 Eastern, Northern and Central Europe, and 

 is very unequally distributed. Norway has 

 two-thirds of the area wooded, Sweden six- 

 tenths, Kussia one-third and Germany one- 

 fourth. Spain is the only European 

 country that makes no provision 

 for its forests. The Spaniard's hatred 

 of a tree is proverbial, and they have re- 

 duced their once beautiful and fertile coun- 

 try to one renowned for its extreme aridity. 

 Generally speaking, the American views this 

 question in one of two aspects: First, as 

 affording means for great and rapid profit; 

 and, second, as obstacles to the culture of 

 the ground. Yet a broader knowledge of 

 such matters is beginning to bear its inevit- 

 able result. We may diagnose two phases of 

 growing interest in the matter. In the older 

 States, the once-grandly woode i hills being 

 deforested, and the people being awakened 

 to the serious consequences resulting there- 

 from, considerable efiort is being put forth 



