536 



CONSERVATION 



ago. Europe is paying now for her 

 wastefulness centuries ago, just as we 

 are soon to begin to pay for our similar 

 wastefulness. 



Much as we may admire the Germans 



j 



for the many artificial forests which 

 they have planted, we must not over- 

 look the fact that this is a very expen- 

 sive way of securing forests. It is far 

 easier and less costly in money and 

 labor to keep a forest than to make one. 

 Fortunate it is, indeed, that when we 

 have lost our forests w r e can make new 

 ones ; but let us not delude ourselves 

 with the thought that it is, after all, 

 quite as easy as to bother with the 

 preservation of the natural forests. As 

 one looks at the planted forests of Ger- 

 many the thought comes forcibly that 

 man is, after all, a puny creature. Com- 

 pare the little patches of artificial for- 

 ests, composed of "sapling" trees, with 

 the endless stretches of forests of gi- 

 gantic trees that once covered the re- 

 gion from the prairies to the Atlantic 

 Ocean. In my boyhood I was fortu- 

 nate enough to live where there were 

 yet large tracts of untouched forests 

 of oak, beech, maple, ash. elm, hickory, 

 walnut, and chestnut, and I have wan- 

 dered for hours among the giants that 

 had held their ground for centuries. 

 And later, I lived for a time in the pine 

 woods of Michigan, where one might 

 walk for days without leaving the prim- 

 eval forest. Do you wonder that I ad- 

 vocate the conservation of forests rather 

 than the planting of forests? Not that 

 I would discourage planting ; do that 

 by all means ; but where nature has al- 

 ready established a forest, let us keep 

 it let us preserve it. Let us stop the 

 reckless destruction of trees by the ax- 

 man ; let us say to the plowman that 

 the public good forbids him to kill the 

 forest merely that he may plow the 

 ground for his crops. Let us not do 

 as w r as done in western Europe kill 

 the natural forests, and then be com- 

 pelled to depend upon planted ones 

 alone. 



Between Halle, in south Germany, 

 and Berlin, there are numberless little 

 blocks of planted forests. And indeed 

 they looked very pretty, and are very 



interesting to study, with their care- 

 fully planned successions of plantings, 

 looking like so many green steps on the 

 landscape. And yet I could not help 

 thinking of the big sawmills I have seen 

 in the Michigan woods, and later on 

 Puget Sound, and I wondered how 

 many days these little forests would 

 last before one of them. And when I 

 have heard about the great mills that 

 make paper pulp I have wondered again 

 how many hours it would take one of 

 them to grind up these pretty patches 

 of planted trees. 



Between Berlin and Moscow the arti- 

 ficial forests are mainly planted upon 

 the sandy areas that stretch across the 

 country, here and there, and as one goes 

 farther eastward these finally merge 

 into natural timber belts that have been 

 conserved, and somewhat improved by 

 additional plantings, and these, in turn, 

 are followed by unmodified natural for- 

 ests. 



But none of these forests impresses 

 one as of great value as compared with 

 the original forests of eastern North 

 America, since the trees are small, and 

 of species that have low value as timber 

 producers. Southward from Moscow 

 to the Caucasus Mountains are the 

 great, treeless steppes, exactly like the 

 region of the prairies and plains be- 

 tween the Mississippi River and the 

 Rocky Mountains. Here is a black soil 

 which is covered with grassy vegeta- 

 tion, but upon which trees will grow 

 if planted. Here and there one finds 

 thrifty trees or groves, planted by the 

 landholders, showing that the condi- 

 tions there and here are alike. 



Farther south lie the Caucasus Moun- 

 tains, with a sparse forest growth on 

 the north slopes. I was told that these 

 mountains were once forest-covered on 

 their northerly sides, and I can well 

 believe the statement, for here and there 

 are forest areas that appear to be the 

 remnants of a former general forest 

 growth. Here, however, the destruc- 

 tion of the forests was the voluntary 

 act of an invading army seeking to 

 dislodge the fierce tribesmen. The re- 

 sult, alas, is that the great mountains 

 are now bare of trees, and the rivers 



