FOREST ARBORETA 259 



Where is the remedy for this wastefulness? For this obUvioiis- 

 ncss to the future? For this feverish appetite for wood, about 

 twenty times as great per capita as that of the great nations of 

 Europe. Where hes the remedy for this — what shall I say — 

 for this somewhat perverted, artificially stinmlated appetite? 

 What are the methods under which our forests may be madi^ 

 not only storehourses, but factories of wood? Three great forces 

 must work together to save our forests — the nation, th(> states 

 and individual citizens. No one force can in time accomplish 

 adequate results in forest conservation. 



Assuming effective co-operation between these three great 

 forces, these are the things Americans need to do: First, to protect 

 all forests from fire. That is the fundamental thing. The first 

 duty of any man to whom is entrusted the funds of other men 

 is to see to it that they are made safe, so far as safety is humanly 

 possible. Our first duty towards the forests is precisely the same 

 duty. To make them safe not only from destructive logging, 

 .but first of all, to make them safe from their arch-enemy — fire. 

 Once that is done, once that great step is fully taken by co- 

 operation between the states and the individual land owners — 

 the nation already has its rangers in the national forests to man 

 the fire lines — once that essential step is taken, the next step is 

 right methods of forest management. I hold the conviction that 

 foresters have kept this matter of forest management, this matter 

 of practical sylviculture which is what your forest management 

 really is, a little too guarded from the public mind. For though 

 he be a layman, as soon as a man conceives the basic idea of what 

 sylviculture means, then if he be reasonable he can no longer 

 oppose its application or fail to appreciate its obvious benefits. 



To me, one of the most inspiring phases of forestry is the 

 way in which the forester acquaints himself with the complex 

 and many-sided life of that city of trees, which is what the forest 

 really is. The way in which he looks upon the trees, a good deal 

 as masters of men must look upon the people whose energies they 

 direct. The way in which he studies the fighting qualities of the 

 trees, which is what the sylvicultural characteristics really are, 

 and so designs his forest methods, so fixes diameter limits of 

 cutting, so provides for protection of yoimg growth, so reduces 

 lumbering to a careful, culling process, that the whole struggle 



