266 Proceedings of the 



is by one of the gentlemen connected with the Bureau 

 of Forestry, in his article in a late Encyclopedia. I 

 refer to the article by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, "Forestry 

 in the United States," Encyclopedia American, Vol. 

 VII, where he defines the subject as covering this 

 broad ground: 



"Forestry is the art of using the forests continuously 

 to meet the needs of men. In the United States for- 

 estry has to do principally with the supply of wood for 

 various purposes, with the maintenance of water-flow 

 in streams, with the prevention of floods and with the 

 supply of foliage for grazing animals within the forests. 

 Nowhere else are forest problems of more vital impor- 

 tance to the welfare of the people than here, and in no 

 other country of civilization has so little progress been 

 made in their solution. This condition follows natu- 

 rally from the vast area of the United States, its 

 comparatively sparse population per square mile, and 

 from the nature, location, and extent of the forests 

 themselves." 



Referring to the same authority, "Some Uses of 

 Wood:" "The yearly product of wood in the United 

 States is about 35,000,000,000 feet. In 1900 the 

 lumber industry employed two hundred and eighty- 

 three thousand two hundred and sixty (283,260) wage 

 earners, to whom it paid one hundred and four million 

 six hundred and forty thousand five hundred and 

 ninety-one dollars ($104,640,591). The perpetuation 

 of this industry is of vital concern to all the people. 

 Its ramifications are as wide as the industrial life of 

 the nation, and its perpetuation is a most pressing 

 concern of the forester. The use of wood for the 

 maintenance of railroad tracks, for example, rises to 

 about 120,000,000 ties a year, together with the vast 

 amounts of bridge timber, piling, etc. Since the use 



