RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION OF FORESTS 



48 



full production and be as remunerative 

 as the German forests noted. By doing 

 this, it would have come into possession 

 of a large number of lakes with which 

 that elevated region abounds. These 

 could have been converted into storage 

 reservoirs for the numerous clear, pure 

 streams that flow into them, by con- 

 structing dams at their outlets. Then, 

 if at the time of purchase, it had con- 

 ducted that pure water supply by grav- 

 ity to the distributing system in its 

 borders the elevation is ample it 

 would to-day be far better off finan- 

 cially, and thousands of lives would 

 have been saved. The city's depend- 

 ence now is upon a filtering system both 

 costly in maintenance and uncertain in 

 results, and. withal, insufficient. The 

 returns from the forests would more 

 than defray the expense of maintenance 

 to the city limits. 



Such an undertaking would have 

 been no more gigantic and expensive 

 for Philadelphia than is the one New 

 York city i? now carrying on to se- 

 cure a new source of \vater supply from 

 the Catskill Mountains, where no rev- 

 enue can come to the city from the 

 forests ; nor as much so as that of Los 

 Angeles, where water is being obtained 

 in the Rocky Mountains 300 miles away. 

 Besides, Philadelphia could have fur- 

 nished water to towns and cities along 

 the route. When our people come to 

 understand and appreciate how impor- 

 tant forests are in maintaining an 

 equable flow of springs and streams, 

 they will see that municipalities, by an 

 investment in forests on the water- 

 sheds of streams which supply them, 

 can secure a pure and continuous sup- 

 ply, and, beyond that, reap a financial 

 profit from the sale of forest products. 



Dismissing national and state gov- 

 ernmental action, and that of all kinds 

 of corporations, we come, at last, to 

 the land owner, who must do what the 

 others will not, and who must do it 

 in his individual capacity ; and here is a 

 problem so complicated and so large 

 that it can be discussed only in a gen- 

 eral way at this time. Conditions here 

 are wholly unlike those in most coun- 

 tries. With us, large land holdings by 



individuals are frowned upon as inirr 

 ical to public interests, and entail is nc 

 tolerated. Our land owners compris 

 a vast multitude. They hold in fee, an 

 their domains are mainly small, an 

 nearly all of them should, for their ow 

 protection, engage in restoration an 

 conservation of the forests of the cour 

 try. This is especially true of farmer: 

 who must, of necessity, possess wh; 

 are known as woodlots, where shall h 

 grown their fuel and such other timbe 

 as may be required about the farm. I 

 a short time such work will become in 

 perative, and the farmer should n 

 longer delay entering upon it. Twc 

 thirds of the people in the United State 

 use wood for fuel, and more will a 

 soon as natural gas and coal becom 

 less plentiful. Unfortunately, the gre; 

 importance of this feature is not y( 

 realized, and every effort should t 

 made to awaken the farmer to a cor 

 ception of it. There is no more reaso 

 why the farmer should purchase hi 

 fuel than that he should buy his fooc 

 He must become an important factc 

 in restoration. 



Besides the farmer, there are other 

 who may own large areas, and thes 

 can in no other way leave a more benef 

 cent legacy to their children than in 

 well-forested domain. It will be bette 

 than life insurance, and individual 

 whose large wealth gives them an op 

 portunity to bestow benefits upon pos 

 terity can do so in no better form, no 

 one which will so benefit mankind 

 large and bless those whose rightful in 

 heritance we are rapidly destroying 

 From whatever standpoint we may loo 

 at it, we will see that individual actio 

 must largely control, and that it will nc 

 prevail until the people are educate 

 to an appreciation of its importance. 



But, after all this insistence that cor 

 porations, municipalities, and individ 

 uals shall engage in the good work, 

 am forced to, and sorrowfully do, ad 

 mit and declare that under the presen 

 tax laws of our own and most othe 

 states neither corporations, municipal! 

 ties, nor individuals can now afford t 

 rngage in reforestation, for if tru-v d 

 their trees wilt be practically confiscate' 



