548 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



December 



the story of the Sybilline books is be- 

 ing repeated. Their values are mount- 

 ing by leaps and bounds. Again, 

 action already had on the bill is good 

 until March 4. next. After that, with 

 failure in this session, it will be neces- 

 sary to begin de novo. Beginning 



then, however, will be like locking the 

 stable door after the horse is stolen, 

 for the woods are falling now like au- 

 tumn leaves. The time for decisive 

 action is at hand. If we would save 

 these forests we must save them now. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR 

 FOREST INVESTIGATIONS 



BY 

 TREADWELL CLEVELAND, JR. 



V S. Forest Service 



THE need of action set American 

 forestry going before there was 

 time for thorough investigation of the 

 laws on which American forestry must 

 be based. From the experience of 

 other countries it was seen to be im- 

 perative, here, to snatch the brand of 

 our forest wealth from the burning of 

 haste, business, and national short- 

 sightedness, but proof was at first 

 largely wanting, so far as our own con- 

 ditions were concerned, to show the 

 wi irking of the causes which elsewhere 

 had produced such dire effects. This 

 new country, so large, crowded with 

 so much diversity of life, climate and 

 opportunity, presented problems far 

 more numerous and complex than did 

 any of the smaller nations whose ob- 

 ject-lessons we realized it would be very 

 advantageous for us to follow. But 

 we rightly assumed that the natural 

 and economic forces which had 

 brought calamity in Europe and Asia 

 and Africa would make themselves 

 felt in the Western Hemisphere, and 

 we saw that it was good to oppose 

 those forces, to avert that calamity. 

 And ever since we were first convinced 

 of this, and the leaders of American 

 forestry called upon the country to 

 hold up their bands in the new work, 

 have pressed on with the character- 

 national vigor and hurry, insist- 

 ing nn forestry first and content large- 

 lv to justify it afterwards. 



To the alertness, energy and sagac- 

 ity which enabled us to do this without 

 a firm scientific foundation for much 

 of our work, we owe it that as a na- 

 tion we have established American for- 

 estry where science can now defend it, 

 expand it, and gradually complete it. 

 Had we delayed in order to possess 

 ourselves in advance of every least 

 local detail, American forestry would 

 have taken its place in the realm of the 

 might-have-been. This is the inces- 

 sant paradox of American civilization 

 the wisdom of taking a leap in the 

 dark, sure that the leap will land us in 

 the light. 



Thus we find ourselves with over 

 half a billion acres of forest lands, of 

 which 127,000,000 acres are now na- 

 tional forests, representing the widest 

 divergence of soil, climate and topo- 

 graphy, and the richest variety of for- 

 est flora in the world. In place of the 

 single dozen commercial trees of Eu- 

 rope we have at least seven dozen in 

 America, and the same species are 

 found growing in so many different 

 localities and situations that within 

 their natural range they show wide va- 

 riation in form, size, and rate of 

 growth. Every one of these commer- 

 cial trees we must learn to know as in- 

 timately as the European forester 

 knows his spruce or his larch, his 

 beech or his Scotch pine. We must 

 know not onlv what kind of wood it 



