METHODS OF FOREST POLICY. 273 



also to inconsiderate clearing. On good soils this 

 clearing may lead to something permanently better ; 

 on mediocre and poor soils the result has been 

 that agriculture, after the fertility stored up by 

 the forest is exhausted, impoverishes the deluded 

 farmer. These soils are now utterly ruined wastes, 

 and can be made useful by reforestation only. 



Finally, when the ideal, the socialistic, coopera- 

 tive, most highly organized state will have de- 

 veloped, the policy will be that the community shall 

 own or control and devote to forest crops all the 

 poorest soils and sites, leaving only the agricul- 

 tural soils and pastures to private enterprise. 



