V Dkcknxial Record 



culture of the forest-starved regions of Europe leaves, in the minds 

 of those who have had opjjortunities to make comparisons, no doubt 

 that there is a point belo^v which forests can not safely be reduced. 

 Europe itself recognized that fact several centuries ago, but America, 

 with its boundless forests, once thought inexhaustible, is just begin- 

 ning fully to awaken to the cause of forest conservation espoused in 

 this country a few decades ago by a small group of far-seeing men. 

 The present Forest Service, a bureau of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, is the outgro^^i:h of the study, thought and efforts 

 of these men. 



Their purposes, however, were much opposed and misunderstood 

 from the start. A common misconception was that they j^roposed to 

 lock up the forests against use ; whereas what they sought was to re- 

 place heedless and wasteful exploitation by rational management of 

 the forests and by rational utilization of their products. They spoke 

 from the experience of older countries and urged tlie application of 

 knowledge then available as well as the acquirement of an additional 

 knowledge needed to })iit our forest lands and our wood crops to their 

 highest use in perpetuity. They stressed the forest management that 

 they had learned from Ein-ope. but they did not fail to recognize that 

 a knowledge of the properties of our many different woods is funda- 

 mental to the economical utilization and conservation of our forest 

 resources. 



In tlie report of the Division of Forestry for the year 1887. E. E. 

 Fernow. Chief of the Division, wrote: 



"The properties upon which the use of wood, its technology, is 

 based, sliould be well knoMn to the forest manager if he wishes to 

 ])roduce a crop of given quality useful for definite purposes. Our 

 ignorance in this direction has been most fruitful in fostering a 

 wasteful use of our natural forests, and the same ignorance mis- 

 leads even the forest planter of today in choosing the timber he 

 ])]ants and the locality to Avliich he adapts it. How the Black 

 Walnut lias ])een sacrificed for fence material, how the valuable 

 Chestnut Oak lias rotted in the forest unused, how the Hemlock 

 has been despised and passed by when it might have been suc- 

 cessfully used to lengtlien the duration of White Pine supplies, 

 how tim])ers are now used in unnecessarily large sizes and applied 



