248 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



The federal government also practised the 

 method of furnishing plant material; this was 

 done, however, with inadequate means and with- 

 out proper discrimination. 



The writer himself, when in charge of the For- 

 estry Division, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, was enjoined by law to distribute plant 

 material, and did so long enough to convince him- 

 self that the size of the country and the number 

 of people with equal rights to this bounty, as well 

 as the practical difficulties in handling such plant 

 material, which must necessarily vary in kind 

 according to locality, forbid the practice, or, at 

 least, do not promise adequate results, except pos- 

 sibly in planting a few shade trees. 



Yet, in connection with other methods of state 

 action and with proper organization, this method 

 has proved satisfactory in the European countries, 

 namely, when the state enforces, and, by techni- 

 cally educated officials, supervises reforestation of 

 alpine locations, barrens, and waste places, and 

 when the distribution of plant material is made, 

 not to private owners, but to associations and com- 

 munities, free, or at cost of production and on an 

 adequate scale. It may, of course, under similar 

 conditions and with similar judicious supervision, 

 but only then, be employed successfully in our 

 country. 



Within the last few years the federal govern- 

 ment of the United States has inaugurated through 



