FORESTRY. 47 



reached the limit of what can be done in this way, and other 

 measures must be tried. Older regions of the globe, once fertile, 

 now subsist only a nomadic population ; and by continuing the 

 course which has been pursued there we shall arrive at the same 

 result. To prevent this calamity we need first to arouse popular 

 feeling and awake popular attention. We need to compare what 

 is done in various locations. We need a National Forestry Com- 

 mission, armed with large powers for making experiments and 

 investigations ; and composed, not of politicians who will make it a 

 source of scandal, but of men who will devote themselves to the 

 study of the subject, and prepare measures for the action of Con- 

 gress, presenting a comprehensive plan for the management of 

 National and State forest lands. We need a change in the temper 

 and spirit of the people, and in bringing this about we have a vast 

 educational work before us. 



We need a National School of Forestry, with ample resources, 

 where young men shall be educated in all the va'ious methods 

 used abroad, and taught how to apply them here, so that they shall 

 be qualified to manage forests in every part of our countr}- — such 

 a school as shall make its pupils feel that they have a career before 

 them, as much as if educated at the military school at West Point, 

 or the naval school at Annapolis ; for the objects of a school of 

 Forestry would be quite as important as those of the others. 

 Such schools exist in European countries, though yet unknown 

 here because their necessity is not yet perceived ; but we shall have 

 to modify our ideas to suit the changed conditions of our times. 

 Before much can be done in protecting forests, the average 

 American will need a good deal of instruction in regard to the im- 

 portance and necessity of surrendering some of his private rights 

 for the public good. We need a periodical to discuss the subject 

 of forestry, which shall be devoted to persistent education of the 

 people, not by elaborate aesthetic essays but l)y short, sharp, and 

 incisive articles, with iteration and reiteration. What we are doing 

 now is far from being adequate to the necessity of the case, and 

 , we must be prepared to do a great deal more, or to give up 

 altogether. 



In connection with the protection of forests, thought should be 

 taken for the promotion of the higher landscape gardening — the 

 highest art that we have anything to do with in this country. The 

 genius which produces great pictures and statues is worthy of ad- 



