THE SILVA OF COLORADO 255 



This latter publication is the organ of the American Forestry Association. 

 The Flora of Colorado 1 is valuable for the professional botanist — indeed 

 it is a perfect mine of information — but is rather too technical in its 

 treatment for the amateur. The present writer has made free use of 

 this work in the preparation of his account of the tree species of Colorado. 



At the close of the present paper are noted some of the books and 

 special articles which deal with Colorado trees. It is not intended as a 

 complete bibliography, but merely as a useful working list for reference. 



Economic considerations. — The great importance of forests is now 

 recognized on every side and it is desirable that the people of Colorado 

 should know something of the trees of the state and of their value. 

 Perhaps the most important function of forests in mountain districts 

 anywhere is to conserve the water and prevent the land from washing. 

 But they may serve also to supply much needed timber for mining and 

 manufacturing purposes. In many parts of the state large areas of the 

 original forest have been cut and burned over so that there is now much 

 waste land in the foothills and in the mountains. Since this is neither 

 fit for mining nor agriculture it should, in time, come to be valuable for 

 purposes of forest growth. For the most part, reproduction in the forests 

 of Colorado is rapid and all that is needful to insure the reforestation of 

 old lands is careful supervision and protection. It matters little from the 

 standpoint of the botanist or one interested in forests how this protection 

 is attained. It may be done either by federal or state authority. Private 

 supervision of forest lands elsewhere, at least, has not been successful. 

 Not only must illegal cutting be prohibited but fires must be kept out. 

 If this is attended to the forests will take care of themselves. 



The waste and desolation which come in the wake of forest destruc- 

 tion is well known. France has spent millions of dollars in reforestation 

 of mountain slopes. Spain, Greece, Turkey, northern Africa and China 

 have suffered because there was no supervision of forests. Conditions 

 in China have been recently described: 



The ruthless destruction of the forests in northern China has brought about, or has 

 aided in bringing about, desolation, just as the destruction of the forests in central Asia 

 aided in bringing ruin to the once rich central Asian cities; just as the destruction of the 

 forests in northern Africa helped toward the ruin of a region that was a fertile granary in 



1 Rydberg, P. A., Flora of Colorado, Bull. 100, Colo. Agric. Exper. Sta., pp. 1-447, Ft. Collins, 1906. 



