ENCOURAGEMENT BY STATE GOVERNMENTS. 199 



might be saved by dispensing with needless fences, and legislative pro- 

 vision may be made by which these may be avoided, iu requiring the 

 owners of farm-stock to keep them upon their own premises. Tliis is 

 already done in some States, but not iu all. It would be found in prac- 

 tice much cheaper to fence cattle in than out, and pasturage upon the 

 highways imposes, for the benefit of others, an unjust tax upon the 

 owners of land who may wish to cultivate grain in fields adjacent. In 

 the prairie States, farmers have found from necessity, that it is cheaper 

 to tether their domestic animals if few, or to herd them if many, than it 

 is to inclose their range with fences. 



5. A State may pass stringent laws for preventing/ores^ ^res, by im- 

 posing heavy penalties for negligence, and by requiring great precau- 

 tions where fires are necessarily set in or near woodlands. These regu- 

 lations should apply to the burning of fallow lands or brush, the making 

 of charcoal, and the careless use of fire generally, where danger is pos- 

 sible. Additional restrictions might be laid upon railroad companies, 

 tending to prevent accident by fires along the line of their roads, as 

 elsewhere more fully specified. The destruction by forest fires in some 

 years greatly exceeds the demand for consumption of the whole country, 

 and so far as can be done by vigilance and precaution, enforced by legal 

 measures, nothing should be left undone. 



6. In every State, cases may occur in which injuries may arise from 

 sand shifting or drifting snows, the former burying fertile lands and the 

 latter obstructing travel on the highways. Both of these evils may 

 generally be prevented by judicious planting, and laws should be pro- 

 vided under which this might be done at local public expense where 

 needed. The planting of an evergreen screen on the windward side of 

 a road exposed to drifting snow, might be of great and permanent serv- 

 ice, and these should be within the power of road-ofi&cers to establish 

 and maintain. 



7. A State may aid institutions of learning in establishing means of 

 instruction in sylviculture, and may require this to be done in institu- 

 tions either wholly under its control, or those receiving appropriations 

 from its treasury. Useful ideas imparted in the normal schools might 

 be carried to the primary schools, and through these agencies the rising 

 generation might, in some degree, be taught the importance of this sub- 

 ject as regards the public welfare as well as private interests gener- 

 ally. The State might encourage the planting of trees as objects of in- 

 struction upon the grounds belonging to institutions of learning by 

 offering suitable premiums or by paying a part of the expense. Every 

 collection of trees thus planted should be suitably labeled with the com- 

 mon and scientific names. It might also aid, and in some instances 

 require, the formation of experimental stations, for showing the best 

 methods of planting, or for studying the effects of woodlands upon 

 climate. This should be done, if attempted, under a central direction, 

 with the view of obtaining trustworthy instructions and comparable 

 results, as is now done at public expense in several countries in Europe. 



8. A State can cause its forest resources to be explored and its wants 

 and capabilities to be made known, and it can cause useful information 

 upon this subject to be published for the information of its citizens. 

 The State of Iowa has set an admirable exam pie in this by enabling a. 

 State society to prepare for distribution an annual pamphlet upon this, 

 subject, giving concise and useful information for the guidance of those 

 who might wish to engage in treecultnre. 



The State could give additional powers to city, town, and village gov- 

 ernments, for the planting of parks and the encouragement of other im- 



