34 



mills of a wide section. To furnish timber and to conserve the 

 water supply is the main purpose of those reserves, and the same 

 is true of the New York and Pennsylvania reservations also. As 

 a secondary consideration, they constitute vast public pleasure 

 and hunting grounds. Of course we have those other reservations, 

 the great national parks like the Yellowstone and Yosemite, which 

 are pleasure grounds pure and simple, and whose timber is not to 

 be considered in a commercial light. These stand in much the 

 same relation to the nation as do the Blue Hills, Middlesex Fells, 

 Mt. Greylock and Mt. Wachusett public reservations to the State 

 of Massachusetts. They protect the water supply of certain areas, 

 and furnish wild recreation grounds for vast numbers of people. 

 These are not forests in the forester's sense of the word, and yet 

 they represent one branch of the science, in that these woodlands 

 are being cared for with a view to improving the native growth, 

 that a perpetual wild forest may be maintained. 



But Massachusetts has entered upon yet another piece of impor- 

 tant forestry which has an indirect commercial side. This is the 

 protection of one of our most important harbors and its neighbor- 

 ing town from a slow but certain engulfment in shifting sand. 

 Provincetown, out on the tip of Cape Cod, is the proud possessor 

 of the only good and available harbor between Boston and Martha's 

 Vineyard ; but, owing to the improvident cutting of the original 

 growth of trees and beach sod along the eastern side of the cape, 

 the storms have driven in the sand of the Atlantic until it stands 

 to-day in miniature mountains, but moving mountains, over against 

 the town and steadily creeping upon it. To stop this movement 

 of the sand was the forester's work, and the State for the past 

 five or six years has been working at establishing a plantation of 

 pine and smaller growth along the seaward side, to anchor the 

 sand and prevent further encroachment upon the town. A similar 

 work was undertaken some years ago on the coast of France, and 

 with entire success, and the work at Provincetown has thus far 

 gone on prosperously. This is forestry of a thoroughly legitimate 

 order, although it is not a plan to grow timber for market. 



Massachusetts has therefore made a good beginning in State 

 forestry, but it is all purely of a protective nature. Inasmuch as 

 we have no great timber area like that in New York, there is no 

 reason for the State to enter upon the cultivation of commercial 

 timber. The application of this branch of forestry should be left 

 in this State to private enterprise ; and it is safe to predict that, 

 if our own citizens do not undertake it, outside capital will event- 

 ually come in and begin operations. There is at least one such 

 company established on Massachusetts territory to-day. It con- 



