MODERN FORESTRY 



the wind ; and this is a most important factor, 

 as the particles of rich organic matter in the 

 sandy soils are, when dry, so light that heavy 

 and constant winds blow them out of the soil 

 and reduce its fertihty. 



Individual states, for the most part, have 

 been lamentably slow in taking up the impor- 

 tant work of forestry. An unwritten law has 

 prevailed, one would think, providing that the 

 forest must first be destroyed before any steps 

 at preservation could be made. The frontiers- 

 man, opening up a new forest region, has 

 seemed to have no conception of the value 

 of the forest, and the greed of the timbermen 

 has swiftly destroyed what the frontiersman 

 left. GifFord Pinchot, in a bulletin issued by 

 the government, calls attention to the fact 

 that the early English settlers of America had 

 been accustomed to a country where timber 

 was already scarce, and where the penalties 

 for its destruction were severe and rigidly 

 enforced. This bred a regard for the forest 

 which later generations have not known. 



In Nebraska, early in the period of the New 

 Earth, Arbor Day was instituted by the Hon. 

 J. Sterling Morton, later Secretary of Agri- 



167 



