1895.] ESSAYS. 99 



more of the State forests are to be sold or exchanged. A National 

 Forestry Association has been formed which has lield several inter- 

 esting and instructive conventions in different parts of the country. 

 Many local forestry societies have also been organized which have 

 done much in bringing about correct opinions on forestry matters. In 

 Massachusetts the Legislature has incorporated the Trustees for Public 

 Reservations, and in New Jersey Governor Werts, in a recent message 

 to the Legislature of that State, recommends the appointment of a 

 commission empowered to receive and hold any land or place they 

 may deem to be worthy of reservation for public use. An act for a 

 similar purpose is now pending in the New York Legislature. And 

 thus by degrees a public opinion is being formed, which realizes that 

 the hallowed places and the natural beauties of a country are worth 

 preservation, and can be put to higher uses than those which are 

 merely commercial. And in due time let us hope public opinion will 

 become intelligent enough to warrant the enactment and enforcement 

 of State laws allowing the confiscation of private land by eminent 

 domain for forest reservations, or providing for the proper use and 

 management of forests by their owners. A law requiring the owners 

 of woodland to manage it in accordance with the principles of good 

 forestry, may at first seem contrary to the long accepted opinions in 

 this country and Great Britain, that the owners of land are entitled 

 to the absolute and unlimited control of it. But in Great Britain this 

 ancient doctrine is becoming impaired, by the enactment of laws 

 requiring the owners of factories and buildings to provide them with 

 fire-escapes and good sanitary arrangements ; of laws allowing the 

 courts to regulate and fix the rent of real estate between landlord and 

 tenant ; and of laws permitting municipalities to appropriate old build- 

 ings for the purpose of erecting in place thereof model tenement- 

 houses. 



And in this country the tendency of the law is to make the owner of 

 real estate hold it as a trustee for society at large. He is not per- 

 mitted to create, or allow anything like a private or a public nuisance 

 on his premises. He is liable to have it flowed against his consent for 

 mill or factory purposes. It may be taken from him upon fair com- 

 pensation for a park or a cemetery, for a highway or a railroad, for 

 a reservoir or a sewage farm, for a post-office or a school-house, or 

 for some other public use. 



The belief is becoming quite general that society treats one of its 

 members very generously, when it allows him to fence in a certain por- 

 tion of the earth's surface, and say to everybody, " keep oft'; this is 



