146 B. EB. Fernow—The Battle of the Forest. 
tonwood and tulip poplar, not long ago among the despised or 
only locally used, can hardly now be furnished in sufficient 
quantities, and the long-leaf pine, which had been bled for tur- 
pentine, was considered an inferior material, which, as has lately 
been shown, is nothing but an unwarranted prejudice. 
In a vague empirical way the choice of the useful has been 
attempted and only lately have we begun to systematically study 
our forest resources, to determine the qualities and adaptabilities 
of our timbers, and to find out the conditions under which they 
produce not only the largest amount but the best quality of 
timber. 
Yet in another direction do the forest users act unintelli- 
gently. As we have seen, most of our forest trees are of a so- 
cial character. With few exceptions, they keep. company with 
other kinds than their own; they appear in mixed forests. 
Hence, except where certain species as the pines and spruces 
become gregarious and form unmixed, pure forests, the axe of 
the lumberer does not as a rule level the entire forest, but he 
selects the kinds which he wishes to use—he culls the forest. 
At first sight this would appear rather an advantage for the 
existence of the forest. So it is from a botanical, geographic or 
landscape point of view, yet from an economic point it is exactly 
the reverse—it is disastrous. 
This can be readily understood if we recall our story of the 
battle of the forest monarchs among themselves, the struggle 
which each species sustains to occupy the ground. Man taking 
sides in the struggle by culling the best, the most useful, decides 
the battle for the least deserving, leaving the advantage to the 
scrubs and inferior tribes; and since these are left to overshadow 
the ground and to spread their own brood over the open spaces, 
the culled forest, while still a forest to the casual observer, has 
lost its economic value not only for the present, but for the 
future also, for it prevents the reproduction of the better kinds. 
The intelligent forester also acts as a partisan; he also uses the 
axe, but to better purpose. Before he utilizes the kinds for 
which he wishes to perpetuate the forest, he culls the inferior 
and leaves the superior—i. ¢., the most useful races; he gives 
direction and assists the most fit in the struggle for supremacy ; 
he substitutes artificial for natural selection, assuring the pro- 
tected survival of the most useful; he hastens the decision of 
the struggle by obviating, if possible, useless expenditure of 
