12 PRIZE ESSAY. 



more on man than on Nature." The Ohio River is dwindlig in size, 

 because the forests of Ohio and Pennsylvania are disappearing. Our 

 Atlantic States, are also beginning to feel the effects of the too rapid 

 destruction of theif woodlands, and it is a common observation that 

 our summers are become drier,and our streams smaller. There are many 

 streams that a century ago were capable of turning mills that can do 

 so no longer. But if our country is exempt from the terrible calami- 

 ties which inundations and droughts have brought upon some of the 

 fairest portions of the Old World, we may ascribe it to the fact, that 

 we have not as yet bared the sources of all our streams, nor stripped 

 the mountains entirely of their natural covering. 



European countries felt the necessity of forest planting many years 

 ago, and the laws of almost every state of Europe more or less 

 adequately secure the permanence of the forest. England and Scot- 

 land can boast their thousands of acres of majestic pines, larches and 

 oaks, while the artificial forests of France, Austria, and Russia rank 

 among the most valuable government property of those countries. 

 Germany has imported thousands of dollars worth of seeds of the 

 valuable redwood from California, and the young forests growing from 

 them are the pride of that nation. She has also established special 

 departments for forest culture wifb the schools, necessary to educate 

 the ofl&cers in their duties of cultivating and protecting trees. Spain 

 is said to be the only European land that makes no provisions for its 

 forests. The Spaniard's "hatred of a tree" is proverbial, and they 

 have reduced their once fertile and beautiful country, to one renowned 

 for its extreme aridity and desolate appearauce. Eminent writers and 

 scientific men of France and Germany have written and studied upon 

 the forests and their influences, until the science of Sylviculture is 

 acknowledged in those countries as of the greatest importance. 



The proportion of woodland required for an agricultural country, 

 according to Rentzsch, is 23 per cent, for the interior and 20 per cent, 

 near the coast. Of all the countries of Europe, not more than four or 

 five have over 23 per cent, while some are reduced as low as 5 per 

 cent. For the whole of Europe the proportion is but 26^ per cent., 

 while in the United States and Canada it is as high as 48 ; but while 

 in Europe the proportion is increasing, with us it is decreasing. If 

 we proceed with the destruction of our timber lands at the rate with 

 which they have disappeared for the last eighty years, we shall in 

 less than thirty years reduce our proportion of timber to but 30 per 

 cent. 



There are thousands of acres in New England fit for no other use 

 than to grow wood. If the farmers of Massachusetts, and all our 

 Eastern States would restore their rough and rocky fields and steep 

 hill-sides to forest growth, and expend their time on half the land they 

 are now trying to cultivate, they would be far better off than they are 

 today, both physically and financially.- The East needs a work of 

 restoration, and the West a new creation. Let our New England hills 

 and mountains again be clothed with forests, and the fertile prairies of 

 the great interior dotted with groves and woodland until they shall 



