THE FORESTER. 



June 



practical to construct fire lines, and on 

 these tracts the most disastrous fires occur. 

 Mr. Graves points out, however, that 

 many lumbermen have devised methods of 

 protection, based usually on systems of 

 ranging and patroling the woods, which 

 have proved successful in every way. 

 Some of these are described with more or 

 less detail. Among them is that used by 

 Dr. W. S. Webb on his tract of 4,000 

 acres in the Adirondacks. 



Several interesting pages are devoted to 

 forest plantations. Of these many have 

 been made not only in the treeless regions 

 of the West but in the East also, and no- 

 tably in Massachusetts. 



The fact that stands out above all others 

 in this article is that the land owners who 

 devised and put into practice the simple 

 but effective methods of forest manage- 

 ment which it classifies and describes, 

 were guided in almost every case solely by 

 their business instincts. Most of them 

 probably had no knowledge of what Euro- 

 pean foresters have accomplished, but they 

 also had no unattainable ideals before their 

 minds. Their rough-and-ready methods 

 have doubtless been defective in more ways 

 than one ; but most of them have been based 

 on sound common sense. In so far as con- 

 siderations for the future shaped their work 

 it has been true forestry. It shows that in 

 this country, although technical knowledge 

 has been entirely lacking, forestry, even in 

 small private woodlots, is not inconsistent 

 with management solely for profit. 



The nature of the article by Mr. Pin- 

 chot on the " Progress of Forestry in the 

 United States/' can easily be gathered 

 from its title and from two sentences which 

 are quoted in the preface of the Year Book 

 from the annual report of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture for 1898. "For 1899 I am 

 considering the propriety of making a 

 special effort to prepare a publication 

 which shall contain a resume of the achieve- 

 ments of the United States in every branch 

 of science as related to agriculture during 

 the nineteenth century, for distribution at 

 the Paris Exposition." 



" Every bureau and division in the De- 

 partment charged with scientific work 



should therefore contribute one or twi 

 articles reviewing the progress made in th 

 application to agriculture of the particula 

 science in which it is concerned." 



The article occupies twelve printe< 

 pages and is illustrated by a map and b; 

 photographs. It first gives a brief bu 

 clear and very interesting account of th 

 way in which the forest resources of th 

 country have been regarded and treatei 

 since the earliest times. This is don 

 chiefly by sketching the changes whicl 

 have taken place in the treatment of th 

 forest, from the time when the first settler 

 hindered rather than helped themselves b_ 

 an economy, which was the result of thei 

 early associations with the game and fores 

 laws of Europe, through the period whei 

 every man could own woods and cut then 

 freely, to the era of railroads and grea 

 lumber markets in which lumbering on ; 

 vast scale came into existence. When th 

 cutting of great stretches of prim as va 

 forests for railroads and for distant cities 

 states and countries began, the need o 

 taking preservative measures again becam 

 apparent. Little by little a distinct inter 

 est in forestry and a forest policy de 

 veloped. At first the signs were all to 

 faint, partly perhaps because " contrar 

 to the general rule in other countries 

 practical forestry here began first on pri 

 vate lands and w 7 holly without relation t 

 government action." But legislative meas 

 ures for protection against fire in many o 

 the states, the creation of public preserve 

 and parks ; the action of the Nationa 

 Academy of Sciences, the American Foi 

 estrv Association, and other associations 



*/ 



and the work of committees and commit 

 sions, brought forest questions to the at 

 tention of the public generally, and at 

 tracted to them an ever increasingly wid 

 and active interest. 



Mr. Pinchot devotes the last half of hi 

 paper to a thorough survey of the presen 

 situation, not only in the separate states 

 where more or less control of the forests i 

 beginning to be exercised, but also as re 

 gards the work of the Federal Government 

 and the general condition of public opinioi 

 expressed through various associations 

 schools of forestry, etc. Of the positioi 



