i68 ARBOR DAY 



continue to cover the springs of the rivers that rise 

 in the mountains and give irrigating waters to the 

 dry valleys at their feet, prevent wasting floods, and 

 be a blessing to everybody forever. 



Every other civilized nation in the world has been 

 compelled to care for its forests, and so we must if 

 waste and destruction are not to go on to the bitter 

 end, leaving America as barren as Palestine or 

 Spain. In its calmer moments in the midst of 

 bewildering hunger and war and restless over-indus- 

 try, Prussia has learned that the forest plays an 

 important part in human progress, and that the 

 advance in civilization only makes it more indis- 

 pensable. It has, therefore, as shown by Mr. 

 Pinchot, refused to deliver its forests to more or less 

 speedy destruction by permitting them to pass into 

 private ownership. But the state woodlands are 

 not allowed to lie idle. On the contrary, they are 

 made to produce as much timber as is possible 

 without spoiling them. In the administration of 

 its forests, the state righteously considers itself 

 bound to treat them as a trust for the nation as a 

 whole, and to keep in view the common good of the 

 people for all time. 



In France no government forests have been sold 

 since 1870. On the other hand, about one half of the 

 fifty million francs spent on forestry has been given 

 to engineering works, to make the replanting of 

 denuded areas possible. The disappearance of the 



