1899- 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



263 



lumberman's ax. On medium and poor 

 land, however, the tree must be followed 

 by the tree, lest the national soil be al- 

 lowed to lie unproductive. We hear a 

 great deal of talk relative to reclaiming 

 barren soil for production by means of ir- 

 rigation. Why does no one lift his voice 

 with a view of preventing productive lands 

 from being changed into a barren waste ? 



Reforestation of absolutely denuded 

 tracts is difficult and expensive. France 

 and Switzerland are spending millions of 

 francs annually to restore the forest on 

 tracts wherefrom reckless use removed it 

 decades ago. We learn abroad how to do 

 this and that. There are a few things 

 which we should learn not to do. Forest 

 destruction is one of them. 



Forests and swamps are nature's storage 

 basins. If we destroy them agriculture 

 and commerce must suffer. Suppose the 

 advantage annually derived from the mere 

 existence of forests, owing to their influ- 

 ence on water supply, public health, com- 

 merce and manufacture amounts to a 

 million dollars. Should we not spend 

 $200,000 annually for the maintenance of 

 forests? We maintain an army, a navy, 

 an administration, a foreign service. 

 Should we not employ local police, or- 

 ganized after the army pattern, to guard 

 the forests on our private, state and federal 

 land ? Germany and France have a forest 

 service. Why not we? 



The "Forest Soldier." 



After some slight training the "forest 

 soldier" might be employed for laying out 

 and keeping in order public roads travers- 

 ing the forest. The importance of roads 

 to transport forest produce and for fire- 

 breaks will make it advisable to put road 

 matters in charge of the foresters. The 

 revenue derivable from sale of forest pro- 

 duce will soon be sufficient to more than 

 cover all expenses. 



The American people have seen their 

 way clear in many a case. If they only 

 were aware of the facts they would soon 

 find a broad highway out of the difficulty. 

 This is an economic question, and on bet- 

 ter business men than the American peo- 

 ple the sun never shown. 



The facts are plain enough ; millions of 

 acres in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan 

 and elsewhere, productive of timber, have 

 laid idle for years. Private enterprise 

 cannot transform the waste into produc- 

 tive land, the transformation not having 

 proved to be remunerative under the pres- 

 ent economic conditions. Change the con- 

 ditions ! We not only complain of the 

 non-production of 150 feet board measure 

 per acre per annum on the deserted land. 

 Every 150 feet board measure produced 

 means employment of common labor in 

 manufacturing hundreds of commodities 

 out of wood fiber furniture, etc. The 

 labor required to transform 150 feet board 

 measure into some sort of a manufactured 

 product averages about $3. If 50,000,- 

 000 acres fit for timber growth are lying 

 idle, $150,000,000 are lost annually to the 

 American laborer in the near future. 



Bewildered at our own conclusions we 

 stop just in time to see at our feet the 

 foot-prints of deer long, pointed, a nar- 

 now bench left between the hoofs, the 

 hind hoofs slightly impressed in the wet 

 soil. This is a stag's calling-card, and a 

 big animal he was. Game is getting 

 scarce, losing its abode in the vanishing 

 forests. Large forests cannot and shall 

 not be kept for sport and fun only. But 

 if sport and fun can be had in addition to 

 economic use, why not have them ? Con- 

 stant use makes the instrument dull, and 

 even sharp American wits will require 

 filing now and then. 



The White Pine, being exacting, re- 

 quires nourishment and help to propagate 

 its family. Often a erencration of Poplars 

 and Birches must act as nurses for the 

 much-exacting aristocrats. The old tree, 

 on the other hand, although it sends its 

 roots over a space of 600 square feet, em- 

 bracing rocks and dead stumps with root 

 fibers, is readily killed by heaw fires. 

 No wonder, then, that the lumbermen, 

 instead of leaving this sensitive treasure 

 in the forest, prefer to transform it into 

 fire-proof money at the quickest possible 

 rate. 



If you have not seen those giants of the 

 woods, overtowering their neighbors by 

 sixty feet, go quickly, before they all dis- 



