PUBLIC ASPECTS OF FORESTRY 



By H. S. graves 



(Address delivered at Bretton Woods, N. H.. August 2, 1911.) 



fiORESTRY is a national necessity. There must be forests to provide the 

 wood, lumber, and other products of trees required by the people. 

 Forests are needed to protect the slopes of mountains, and to conserve 

 the sources of rivers; and they are valuable as health and pleasure resorts, 

 game refuges, etc. Altogether, they are practically indispensable to the 

 general public. Extensive forest destruction invariably results in serious 

 public injury. In a new country with extensive forests and a relatively small 

 population the effects of forest destruction are not at first noticed. This has 

 been the case in the United States and it is only recently that people have 

 awakened to the realization of the economic loss already suffered by the 

 country through unregulated exploitation and by forest fires. The United 

 States can no longer afford to ignore the inevitable consequences of forest 

 destruction. 



FORESTRY A PUBLIC PROBLEM 



Forestry is fundamentally a public problem. The purposes of forestry are 

 essentially public in character. Forestry aims to continue the growth and pro- 

 duction of the forests for future needs and to secure those general public 

 benefits arising from the mere existence of forests. 



The production of timber differs from that of other crops in the great 

 length of time required to grow trees of useful sizes. In the case of field crops 

 the quickness of results makes it profitable for private owners to use good 

 methods, as soon as these can be demonstrated to them. The forest problem 

 is different. A private owner ordinarily purchases timber land for the 

 merchantable stock standing on it. This represents an accumulated growth of 

 many years, often 200 to 500 years, or even more. The usual method is to 

 cut the merchantable timber without reference to the future. Even when not 

 followed by fire, the treatment is often destructive. There is a popular idea 

 that if fires are kept out a forest will take care of itself, no matter how the 

 cutting is done. In many places a forest cover is restored sufficient to conserve 

 quality of soil, but the productiveness of forest measured in growth of valuable 

 species of commercial qualitj' will not usually be maintained without special 

 attention. Forests as handled by most private owners continually 

 decline in productiveness. The practice of forestry involves initial investments 

 with a view to securing larger harvests in the future. Most private owners 

 have been unwilling to make the investment in view of the length of time 

 required to mature the crop and the risks from fire and other enemies of the 

 forest, and because they fear that the present system of taxing growing timber 

 will absorb possible profits. 



It is true that forestry is being practiced today by some private owners. 



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