REPORT UPON FORESTRY. 



In entering upon a consideration of the points of inquiry specified in 

 the law under which this report is made, it is not deemed necessary to 

 present facts tending to show the importance of a suitable supply and 

 proper distribution of woodlands in the country, nor to urge the necessity 

 of forest products for the supply of these materials for the daily wants 

 of life, and the manifold uses to which they are applied in the arts. It 

 is believed that no differences of opinion could arise as to the close 

 dependence of our national welfare and individual comfort upon the 

 maintenance of these supplies of wood and wood-products, or upon the 

 importance of having a sufficient amount within convenient distance, 

 and at moderate prices, through an indefinite period of coming time. 



So abundantly supplied were the older States of the Union with a 

 native-timber growth, that questions relating to permanence of the supply 

 appear not to have suggested investigation through a long period, and 

 in fact the great excess of forest over amount required for proper use, 

 led at first to the clearing off of extensive regions to prepare the soil for 

 cultivation, without yielding in return any direct benefit from the pro- 

 duct other than the value of the potash made from the ashes. The mis- 

 fortune has been, that this clearing was made without a thought as to the 

 probable wants of the future, either for supply of materials for building, 

 manufactures, and fuel, or for value of reserved belts of timber as a 

 shelter from sweeping winds; and, as a consequence, the supplies have 

 within a few years past been found scarce, and their prices have advanced 

 to a degree that is sensibly felt by all classes of the population ; for we 

 cannot enhance the cost of building-materials, or of implements of wood, 

 or the cost of fuel, without its being felt everywhere. Wherever these 

 increased values affect the cost of building and maintaining ships or 

 railroads, the expense of transportation is proportionably increased, as 

 well upon freights of every kind as upon the cost of travelling. 



In the prairie States and in the Territories, the absence of forests has 

 been felt severely from the beginning, and the want, so far as relates to 

 lumber, timber, and fuel, has been supplied at more or less sacrifice by 

 bringing these materials from other sections of the country where they 

 grew. This necessity has in these regions, brought the question of 

 forestry before our citizens as one of practical importance, so that we 

 find throughout the treeless portions of the country, a more general 

 interest in the subject, than in those sections where the want has not 

 been as yet materially felt. But in these older and naturally well-tim- 

 bered sections of the country, thoughtful persons have for years been 

 watching the wasting of supplies and the complete exhaustion of one 

 forest region after another with an anxiety natural with those who look 

 forward to the probable conditions that must necessarily exist in another 

 generation, and v/ho feel the resi3onsibilities of the present with regard 

 to the future. 



Beginning, therefore, with the statement accepted as without denial, 

 that a proper supply of forest products is indispensable, and that shade 

 and shelter are of incalculable value to our agricultural interests, we 

 may notice some facts that depend upon the rights of property in wood- 



noKirr ubkary 7 



iV. C. State CoUtge 



