258 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



aware, I am a banker, somewhat interested in lumbering and 

 farming. Bankers get into the habit of dealing not much in 

 glittering generalities as in contrasting concrete cases with tangible 

 results — things so concrete and tangible, for example, as capital and 

 interest. 



Let us apply the same wholesome standard and measure to 

 this question of forestry. I hardly need to argue, at least not here, 

 that forests are essential to all human welfare. Next to our need 

 of food, comes our need of timber. And forests not only yield 

 timber but they yield water as well; water for domestic use, for 

 power, for irrigation, for every useful purpose known to man. 

 Not only do forests render these two great services to mankinfd 

 but they harbor game, they make the world beautiful, and they 

 upbuild, as all history drives home the fibre, health and happiness 

 of all human beings. 



So I think that we may fairly assume that forests are needed. 

 Now if they are needed, what is the common sense in utterly 

 destroying them, or partly destroying them, or reducing their 

 yield, and consequently reducing their usefulness to men? I 

 am inclined to think that part of the reason why forestry is 

 adopted so slowly by private owners in America, part of the reason 

 why forestry is still looked upon by many as an obtruse science, is 

 that it is not yet generally understood that forestry is the further 

 application to the woods of the great basic principle of agriculture. 

 The principle of so raising and tending crops and so husbanding 

 the land, as to keep the land productive for all time. 



I do not need to delve into statistics. You know how this 

 nation stands, with respect to her forests. The forest is capital. 

 The yearly growth is the interest thereon. That growth can be 

 measured and taken just as can the interest from capital invested 

 as money instead of as trees. This nation, as you are aware, has 

 thrown away all considerations of the safety of the capital, and 

 is rapidly spending both interest and forest capital about three 

 times as fast as the forests grow. Our yearly use of wood in the 

 United States is about three times as fast as wood is being pro- 

 duced in all our forests. 



vSuch a procedure would not work in banks. I hardly need 

 to tell you that it does not work well for a nation which will need 

 wood and timber, and running streams, and all industries de- 

 pendent upon the forest so long as the nation stands. 



