FOREST AND FORESTRY DEFINED. 95 



food production. That part which is not cleared for 

 such purpose he exploits, usually regardless of the 

 conditions in which he leaves it, cutting out the best 

 trees of the most useful species or else cutting off 

 the entire growth and leaving nature to take care 

 of the future. 



When this crude forest exploitation and destruc- 

 tive process has gone pn so long that virgin sup- 

 plies are nearly exhausted, that the effects of 

 inconsiderate clearing or forest devastation be- 

 comes visible in soil washes, in high and low 

 water stages of rivers, more frequent and more 

 destructive floods, etc., then he begins to consider 

 more carefully the relation which the forest and 

 its continuance bears toward the further develop- 

 ment of society, toward the conditions of his sur- 

 roundings ; he realizes that he may not continue 

 to disturb the balance of nature unpunished, nay, 

 that he must be active in improving the methods 

 of nature, and weight that side of the balance 

 which is favorable to him and his pursuits ; he 

 begins to bring more rational method into his use 

 of the forest, he attempts to apply knowledge and 

 care in its treatment, he makes it an object of eco- 

 nomic thought, in other words he arrives at a first 

 conception of and applies forestry, which may be 

 most comprehensively defined as the rational treat- 

 ment of forests for forest purposes. First he deter- 

 mines upon a rational policy for his further conduct 

 toward the forest, and then, having studied the 



