580 



SCIEI^GE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 174. 



in some measure to appreciate the fact that 

 the prosperity of the State has been due 

 very largely, if not chiefly, to its forests, 

 and that the State must inevitably suifer a 

 loss not easily estimated through the certain 

 diminution of this great source of wealth. 



We may now raise the question whether 

 all this is any concern of the State, whether 

 as a Commonwealth it is under any obliga- 

 tion to seriously take up the question of 

 forest reserves and State control, and, if so, 

 what can be done? And, in the second 

 place, we may inquire whether individual 

 citizens, and especially those who have had 

 scientific training, have a duty in the 

 premises. 



There is a school of sociologists who hold 

 that the functions of government should be 

 reduced rather than extended; that they 

 govern best who govern least ; and that 

 " the good of the nation is attained by in- 

 activity rather than by active exertion of 

 the government, by allowing the individual 

 to work out his own salvation (or damna- 

 tion) amid the free and unrestricted play 

 of natural forces, rather than making them 

 do so." Such laissez-faire doctrines, how- 

 ever, will hardly appeal to that more en- 

 lightened and healthy public sentiment 

 that regards the function of government as 

 legitimately exercised " wherever coopera- 

 tion of the whole will accomplish the end 

 aimed at by society better than individual 

 effort." * 



N"ow, as pointed out by Dr. Fernow, from 

 whom I have already quoted, government 

 has what may be called providential func- 

 tions in regard to natural resources. It is 

 the " representative not only for communal 

 interests as against individual interests, 

 but also of future interests as against those 

 of the present. * * * Its activity must 

 be with regard to continuity, must provide 

 for the future, must be providential," and 

 this in the case of such a natural resource 



* Fernow, B. E., Science, Vol. 11., p. 258. 



as the one under consideration is possible 

 only under the supervision of permanent 

 institutions, with which present profit is 

 not the only motive. 



These principles embodied in the scien- 

 tific forestry of the Old World have resulted 

 in the establishment of a well-nigh perfect 

 system under which in France the sandy 

 wastes of Gascony have been covered with 

 productive forests, and denuded mountain 

 slopes, the play of destructive torrents, 

 have been clothed again with their protec- 

 tive covering of sod and trees ; while in the 

 German Empire a clear annual revenue of 

 $40,000,000 shows something of what is 

 practicable under State control of forest 

 property. 



In the N'ew World, in recent years, one 

 State after another has come to recognize 

 the necessity as well as the reasonableness 

 of government care of the forests, and in 

 several States important Legislative enact- 

 ments have defined the policy and rights 

 of the Commonwealth in this direction. 



In the State of New York a law enacted 

 April 25, 1895, provides for a Commission 

 of Fisheries, Game and Forests, with power 

 to appoint thirty-five foresters, whose duty 

 it is to enforce all laws and regulations of 

 the Commission for the protection of fish 

 and game and for the protection and preser- 

 vation of the forest reserve and all rules 

 and regulations for the care of the Adiron- 

 dack Park. The law provides further for 

 the care and superintendance of the forest 

 preserve, for protection against fire, actions 

 for trespasses, and for the purchase and tax- 

 ation of lands belonging to the State. 



The New York State Legislature last year 

 appropriated $1,000,000 for the purchase of 

 land in the Adirondack region, and the 

 State now owns 800,000 acres (out of 

 the 2,500,000 acres) of forest land in that 

 section. This year $500,000 will be placed 

 in the hands of the Forest Preserve Board 

 to continue the purchase of forest lands, 



