II 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FORESTS 



No proof should be demanded to show that the pro- 

 ducts of the forests are absolutely essential to modern civil- 

 ization. Neither should it be questioned that a civilized 

 people must have such products in abundance in order to 

 strengthen and maintain that civilization. That the supply 

 should be ample in quantity and acceptable in quality and 

 character is undeniable ; and, furthermore, it needs little 

 proof to demonstrate that the presence of forests assures 

 an equable flow of springs and streams, and that in the 

 absence of that equable flow there are destructive floods fol- 

 lowed by dry stream-beds and disastrous erosion of the soil. 

 Argument to show all this would be superfluous ; but there 

 are other features of the forest problem which are not so 

 apparent or so well understood. 



In former times the lumberman took only that which 

 would make merchantable sawed lumber, and small stuff 

 was allowed to grow; but now, between the lumberman, 

 the tie, pole, pulp, and acid man, practically everything is 

 taken and the ground is cleared of all timber growth that 

 can ever amount to anything. No seed trees are left, and if 

 fire follows, as it usually does, the ground becomes a barren 

 waste. Land once denuded of trees and other vegetable 

 growth is subject to inevitable erosion of the soil, and such 

 erosion destroys not only the hillside and mountain slopes 

 on which it occurs, but fills the water courses, and in time, 

 through the deposition of earth brought from above by the 

 water, may ruin the valleys also. Serious erosion renders 

 natural reforestation impossible and makes any other very 

 difficult and expensive, and in many cases entirely prevents 

 it ; and if such erosion is long continued it leaves the re- 



