METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 259 



to maintain a " sustained yield " management which 

 requires maintenance of a large wood capital sub- 

 ject to depredations and to destruction by fires 

 unless properly guarded. 



Forestry as a business is practicable, nay, think- 

 able, only under the assumption of civilized, stable 

 conditions, and the first requisite of civilization is 

 reasonable safety of property. 



There are, to be sure, especially in only partly 

 developed countries or sections of country, special 

 difficulties in enforcing laws and preventing crime ; 

 nevertheless, the obligation of the state is to make 

 an adequate effort. 



It is not sufficient for the state to legislate, but, 

 at least wherever broad communal interests are at 

 stake, it must provide the machinery to carry out 

 this legislation. The impotency of the laws de- 

 signed to prevent forest fires is too well known 

 to need comment. In this respect, in police organ- 

 ization and the proper means of executing the laws 

 and of preventing damage, even the states which 

 have attempted to remedy the evil of forest fires are 

 wofully backward. We can learn from Canada 

 and from the British India forest department, how 

 a large amount of this damage can be prevented, 

 even in countries which as yet lack a systematic, 

 thoroughly established forestry system. Such pro- 

 tection is a conditio sine qua non, the first step 

 to a state forest policy, and the beginning of for- 

 estry practice. 



