COMPARISONS: EASTERN COASTS ASIA AND NORTH AMERICA. 27 



who frequently prove unthrifty, are often poor, and generally exposed 

 to privations and inconveniences tbat disappear as roads and mills and 

 markets become established, and the comforts of life gather around 

 tbera. But sooner or later the transient class gives way to those of 

 more stability, and it is to this class, whether original or secondary 

 purchasers of the soil, that we must chiefly look for effectual operations 

 in tree-planting ; for this is a business that requires some surplus means, 

 an intelligent forethought that can look beyond a present outlay, and 

 see and afford to wait for, a larger profit arising at a distant period, and, 

 in short, a liberal and comprehensive understanding of the true relation 

 which forestry bears to property, and the obligations of the living age 

 to the future. 



In entering upon a new business, especially if it involves considerable 

 outlay at the beginning,*and delay in returns, every prudent man will 

 seek to ascertain the probabilities of advantage that he, or those who 

 may hold after him, may derive. Here we are sufficiently informed as 

 to first cost, and from the laws of tree-growth may estimate with sin- 

 gular precision as to the future. But in estimating the profits of forest 

 culture we are met at the beginning with the uncertainty of future 

 prices. Of these we can judge only from the past, but we may fairly 

 e.stimate that they will not be less than the present, and in all proba- 

 bility they will be greatly advanced by the time the timber planted 

 comes to maturity for sale. This circumstance gives an assurance as 

 strong as can be found in any business enterprise known, and much 

 stronger than in most branches of human enterprise. It presents espe- 

 cial inducements as an investment, and will doubtless in future attract 

 the attention of financiers as a safe and profitable subject for manage- 

 ment in large estates and by associated capital, in the same manner as 

 our transportation business and some manufactures are now conducted. 



COMPARISON OF THE FOREST VEGETATION OF THE EASTERN AND WEST- 

 ERN COASTS OF NORTH AMERICA, AND THE RESEMBLANCE OF THE 

 FORMER TO THAT OF EASTERN ASIA — THE RESEMBLANCE BE- 

 TWEEN THE LAKE SUPERIOR REGION AND THE ALPINE PARTS OF 

 CENTRAL EUROPE. 



It has been noticed that while there is a wide difference between the 

 timber growth of the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts of the United 

 States, there is a strong resemblance between the eastern coast of Korth 

 America and the eastern coast of Asia, including with the latter the 

 islands of Japan. These resemblances among trees and shrubs include 

 identical or representative species of the genera that include the mag- 

 nolias, lindens, sumacs, buckeyes, box-elder, yellow-wood, honey-locust, 

 pear, shad-bush, dogwoods, rhododendrons, holly, persimmon, catalpa, 

 sassafras, osage orange, planera, walnut, butternut, hazel-nut, birch, 

 alder, yellow and white pine, hemlock, arbor- vitse, bald cypress, and yews, 

 besides an abundance of herbaceous genera.^ Of these none bat some 

 representatives of the sumac, box-elder, pear, shad-bush, and dogwood 

 appear in the flora of the Pacific coast. 



A careful comparison has also been made by the late Professor Agassiz 

 between the vegetation of the northern shores of Lake Superior and the 

 Alpine regions of Europe, showing a close resemblance, and in a great 

 number of instances an entire identity of species. This analogy in- 



'Tliis subject is very fully presented iu the appendix to an address by Prof. Asa 

 Gray before the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Dubuque, 

 Iowa, in 1873, pp. 21 to 31. 



