560 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1406. 



morning until night wood dn one or another of 

 the diverse forms into which man has shaped 

 it is influencing your life and mine. 



If we trace the progress of industrial de- 

 velopment in the civilized nations of the earth 

 we are impressed by the apparent fact that : 



1. Industrial development proceeds faster in 

 countries when domestic or imported wood is 

 available in considerable quantities. 



2. Industrial development becomes arrested 

 when available wood supplies are reduced below 

 the essential needs of industry. 



China at one time was well wooded. Prior 

 to the exhaustion of her timber supplies she 

 reached a stage in civilization and economic 

 development beyond that of most other nations. 

 She exhausted her forests centuries ago and 

 has been without wood adequate for her essen- 

 tial needs for many generations. Historians 

 have assigned many reasons for the early arrest 

 in economic progress by the Chinese. It ap- 

 pears, however, that the progressive destruction 

 of her forests far below the point of essential 

 wood needs made the development of other in- 

 dustries impossible or extremely difficult. 



Japan, on the other hand, although surpassed 

 in civilization and industry by China during 

 the long period while Chinese wood was avail- 

 able in quantity, has never exhausted her 

 forests and now has wood in abundance. There 

 is every reason to believe if Japan had followed 

 China's example and had devastated and ex- 

 hausted her forests and made no provision for 

 regrowth, we would hear little of Japan to-day 

 as a world power. Greece, once powerful and 

 prosperous, fell from her high estate centuries 

 ago. She swept the forests from her hills and 

 mountains in attaining her power and in build- 

 ing her civilization and did not make provision 

 for regrowth. She destroyed her forests, she 

 neglected regrowth and lost her place in the 

 sun. She is still without adequate wood for her 

 essential needs. Switzerland, a small nation 

 of mountains and hills, though poor in soil and 

 most other resources upon which the strength 

 of a nation depends, has retained her forests. 

 She still has wood, a basic resource. She is 

 prosperous and forward moving. 



The republic of Switzerland, only a little 



larger than the state of Connecticut, has three 

 million people tilling less than 20 per cent, of 

 the land. Some of her forests were organized 

 as early as 853 a.d. They have been continu- 

 ously under timber production for more than 

 1000 years and are more intensively managed 

 and more productive to-day than ever before. 

 The government assumes control over all abso- 

 lute forest land and the following three re- 

 quisites are a part of the forest laws : 



(ffl) The forests must not be divided in area 

 or broken up by sales. 



(&) The volume of the cut must be pre- 

 scribed and the fellings must follow a plan 

 which maintains a growing stock of trees. 



(c) All areas cut must be promptly re- 

 stocked. 



The forest laws of Switzerland declare that 

 her forest area must not be diminished but the 

 private owner can demand that his forest be 

 bought by the public if he feels unable to man- 

 age it under laws which insure its perpetua- 

 tion. These laws have for their object the 

 maintaining of the forest in area and with 

 stocked stands of growing trees. 



England, though a leader among nations 

 in economic and industrial development, has 

 reached her place of eminence in world affairs 

 without maintaining an adequate domestic sup- 

 ply of wood. Great Britain, an island empire, 

 the first sea power of the world, has been able 

 to meet the need of her industries for wood by 

 bringing it from the four ends of the earth. The 

 recent war, however, has shown her the neces- 

 sity for domestic wood resources and she is 

 now expending millions of pounds in refor- 

 estation. 



America was blessed with abundance of wood 

 when settlement began early in the seventeenth 

 century. More than half of what is now the 

 United States was covered with virgin forests, 

 composed of a great variety of species, many 

 of which are unexcelled for lumber and other 

 essential products. "We have been called a 

 nation of home builders; we have built our 

 homes out of the forest and we have kept them 

 warm with wood cut in the forest. We have 

 been more lavish in the use of wood than any 

 other nation. We have used and destroyed the 



