THE FORESTER. 



February, 



The True Forestry. 



Not many years ago the people in this 

 country who were interested in forestry 

 were few in number and were more or less 

 discouraged. Looking further ahead into 

 the future than their fellows and foresee- 

 ing the grave dangers and difficulties which 

 threatened North America from the de- 

 struction of the forests, they were yet un- 

 able to impart their enthusiasm to others, 

 or even to make them see the dangers that 

 were ahead. 



Nowadays things are very different. 

 The number of people interested in for- 

 estry is large, the number of trained for- 

 esters in the country is considerable. Work 

 is being done on every hand to demon- 

 strate to the public that forestry is some- 

 thing practical ; a means of investing pro- 

 perty so that an adequate return shall be 

 had for the investment. It is but a few 

 years since it was first definitely explained 

 to the American people that the chief pur- 

 pose of protecting and cultivating the for- 

 ests is that the crops which they produce 

 may be harvested and sold, but when this 

 statement came to be believed, and when 

 what it meant came to be understood by 

 the public, it was seen that land owners, 

 lumbermen and foresters were all working 

 for a common end, and it became evident 

 that they ought all to work together. The 

 business of the forester is to manage the 

 forest so that the land owner and the 

 lumberman can get out of it as much as 

 possible. 



Before that the lumbermen had been 

 bitterly opposed to the forester because 

 they supposed that he wanted to keep the 

 lumbermen out of the forest ; that he 

 wished to prevent the cutting down of the 

 trees ; that he desired to keep them per- 

 haps to look at. In other words, that the 

 forester had some incomprehensible senti- 

 ment which led him to go about constantly 

 singing " Woodman, spare that tree." 



We all know a little better than that 

 now, and are rather disposed to laugh at 

 the ideas which perhaps we ourselves 

 cherished not long ago. And at the same 

 time, the notions of many people who are 



really interested in forestry are still suffi- 

 ciently vague as to what forestry means, 

 and they know little more than that it 

 rneans in general the protection of the 

 forests, which many of them have seen 

 ruthlessly destroyed by the lumbermen or 

 by fire. 



In a Primer of Forestry recently pub- 

 lished by the Department of Agriculture 

 as one of its bulletins, Mr. Gifford Pin- 

 chot tells us something about forestry 

 which, we take it, will be news to 90 per 

 cent, of the people into whose hands the 

 book comes. * * * 



We are told first what a tree is ; its parts, 

 its food, what wood is composed of, how 

 the tree breathes, how it grows and of the 

 structure of wood, including the annual 

 rings and the heart wood and sap wood. 

 The second chapter teaches what are the 

 various requirements of trees as to heat, 

 moisture and light; it shows that some 

 are tolerant and others intolerant of shade, 

 while some tolerate shade at one period of 

 life which yet cannot bear it at another. 

 Rate of growth, reproductive power and 

 succession of forest trees are treated, as 

 well as pure and mixed foi'ests and repro- 

 duction by sprouts. 



Then comes the treatment of the forest 

 as a community. The life of a forest crop, 

 the seven ages of the trees, the struggle 

 among the trees for existence, the growth 

 of those which survive, the culmination of 

 the tree in size, the end of the struggle and 

 finally the death of the tree from old age. 



So long as the forest was left to nature 

 it did very well, but man interferes with 

 nature and trouble follows to all natural 

 things. 



Since Mr. Pinchot returned to this coun- 

 try and took up the practice of forestry as 

 a profession, he has done a great deal of 

 good in many ways and in many places. 

 It may perhaps be doubted, however, 

 whether he ever did any one thing so use- 

 ful in spreading a comprehension of what 

 forestry really means, as the writing of 

 this little book. Forest and Stream, 

 N. Y. City. 



