6 IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 



tinue in that work, and so she could and would have 

 done had we not interfered. But we have seriously and dis- 

 astrously interfered. Over vast areas we have destroyed 

 her seed trees and burned up her young growth. Instead 

 of encouraging forest reproduction we have thoughtlessly 

 and in many cases maliciously, prevented it. All this 

 must come to an end, and it will in time, but there is great 

 danger that it will not until dire necessity compels it. 



Those having faith that we shall erelong take up the good 

 work of reforesting our once productive but now barren 

 timber lands naturally turn to see what other people have 

 done in that line ; and the first thought goes out to such 

 European countries as have now attained great success in 

 growing productive forests. Now, it is true that we can 

 learn much from their experience, but it is equally true 

 that we must largely depend upon ourselves, for our species 

 of trees, our climatic conditions, and, largely, our soil, differ 

 from theirs. So far as forest conditions go, we practically 

 now stand where European nations stood two hundred and 

 fifty or three hundred years ago, and of their experience in 

 reforestation we can make use ; but, like them, we must 

 build from the bottom up, taking from the experience of 

 others such practices as may be found adapted to our con- 

 ditions. 



Realizing all this, the author of this volume has, in the 

 following pages, given the results of more than half a cen- 

 tury's arduous, earnest, and painstaking study and observ- 

 ation of forests and forest growth which prevail in this 

 country, both as a student in forestry and as a practical 

 lumberman of large experience, to which is added personal 

 observation of some of the best European forests and an 

 experience of more than seven years as a member of the 

 Pennsylvania Forestry Reservation Commission. This study 

 and experience has forced upon him the conclusion and 

 it is positive that the principal effort in forestry in this 

 country must, for the next sixty or seventy years, be directed 

 to tree-growing, and that such tree-growing must mainly be 



