446 



Garden and Forest. 



[September io, 1890. 



and to divert them from the fertile plain. Much money has 

 been sacrificed in irrigating the land, because the almost free 

 watering of the country by means of the natural brooks from 

 the mountains, has been made impossible by the reckless 

 destruction of the mountain forest. 



The path along which the country is advancing toward the 

 future here depicted may now be plainly seen. In the descrip- 

 tion of the different regions, in subsequent chapters, an op- 

 portunity will present itself to prove the correctness of the 

 gloom}-, although not hopeless, forecast. Let us consider a 

 few more facts that everywhere meet the observant traveler 

 in America. Many treeless mountain slopes retain a little soil in 

 the fissuresof the rock-ledges with here and there sparse grass, 

 which cattle crop from day to day. But the stumps of the trees 

 are still there, and their roots, hanging like a spider's web 

 over the bare rocks, show what a depth of soil, and the best 

 of soil, has been washed away. One year has here destroyed 

 what a hundred years cannot restore. The rain, which for- 

 merly was caught for the most part by the forests and slowly 

 given up into the valley through the springs, tlows now with- 

 out hindrance into the lowlands, to devastate instead of to 

 bring fertility. The noble mountains and valleys of the Alle- 

 ghanies, of the Adirondacks and of the western mountain 

 region are hastening with giant strides to the same fate. 



Already many have raised their warning voices, but they 

 have been regarded as dreamers ; and the people have de- 

 ceived themselves with the cry that the forest wealth of the 

 country is inexhaustible. They cry the loudest who profit 

 most by the present destructive methods, while the nation 

 remains blind to the condition and the future of the forests. 

 The nation is not informed about its own possessions even ; 

 much public land is officially reported as "covered with 

 forest," from which the best timber was stolen long ago ; 

 much has been burned, and the rest is doomed to destruc- 

 tion in a few decades. And as if to destroy all hope for the 

 future, fire is let loose to run through the forests every year. 



The state of New York, to give an example, has, or rather 

 claims to -have, in the Adirondacks 780,000 acres of " unim- 

 proved " land, or woodland. The Commission appointed to 

 inquire into the condition of the woods of these mountains 

 found itself unable to settle the bounds of the public lands, 

 because private persons claimed so much of the state wood- 

 lands as their own property. In a few districts the state has 

 continuous woods, but commonly only in parcels less than 300 

 acres in extent. Nothing practically has been done by the 

 state of New York to protect and preserve her woods. She 

 does not even know their boundaries. Many settlers live no- 

 toriously by robbery from the state woods, and with fire and 

 axe help the state to "improve" the woodland belonging to 

 the people, — that is to say, to destroy the forest and the forest- 

 soil. 



Naturally it fares thus with national property under the 

 protection of the general Government, since the nation pays 

 no attention to the matter; indeed, the public lands are spoken 

 of almost as if they belonged 'to private persons, or rather to 

 nobody, and as if every citizen had not a legal interest in them. 



As one goes westward from the metropolis in America, the 

 perception of legal rights becomes less clear. According to 

 the official report for the year 1883 the national Government 

 some time ago allowed poor settlers and miners in Colorado 

 to take wood from public land for the building of houses. 

 The statute was liberal ; the interpretation of it by the settlers 

 was, however, still more so. Government officers who went 

 out there after a few years, found lying in a mountain torrent 

 half a million railway ties destined for the " domestic use " of 

 a broad-gauge railway. Moreover, I read in the report of Mr. 

 Fernow that the Government pays every year hundreds of 

 thousands of dollars for the protection of the forests ; but of 

 what use is this, when the money disappears, one knows not 

 whither, without the forest's deriving the least benefit from 

 it? 



To the honor of the present administration of the public 

 lands, I may now add that the Government has awakened to the 

 needs of these lands, and can boast that it has given back to 

 the nation large quantities formerly held and used unlawfully 

 by private persons and corporations. 



In all mountain country, and poor land that has little agri- 

 cultural value, on all banks of streams, as long as they are not 

 regulated artificially, the preservation of the woods is de- 

 manded by nature for the protection of the lowlands. I am 

 not of the opinion that it is necessary for the Government to 

 retain land suitable for agriculture, in order to cultivate it as 

 forest. The Government should concentrate its means and 

 energies where its help alone can preserve a condition profit- 

 able to the people at large. 



In consequence of the enormous wealth of the country and 

 the productive power of its enterprising people, the Govern- 

 ment has a large surplus in its treasury. I am of the opinion, 

 which might be thought ridiculous in America, that there 

 could be no more fitting return of part of the money to the 

 people than to buy up the woods on the mountains and upon 

 natural forest-land, in a word, all the forests which in the 

 hands of individuals are doomed to destruction, and through 

 legislation of the simplest kind, something like the system 

 in use in India, to protect the forests against fire, to administer 

 them through public officers, and, by means of a sufficient 

 number of guards, to preserve them against thieves, hunters 

 and tourists. The Government, and only the Government, 

 can afford to make the sacrifice of present loss of interest 

 upon the investment. In a few decades it would come 

 back tenfold. 



The consequences of the deforesting of the mountains are 

 well known. We have the best examples of it in the Old 

 World. Let us throw aside the delusion that all things are 

 different in America ; the laws of nature are everywhere the 

 same. The soil may be better, the climate more favorable 

 for tree-growing; but the disasters which have visited the Old 

 World can only be delayed, not prevented, in the New. If the 

 mismanagement and the burning go on in the old fashion, it 

 needs no prophet to foretell the fate of the mountains and the 

 land watered by their streams ; America will soon have pro- 

 duced pictures which for grandeur of devastation cannot be 

 surpassed by the mountains of the southern Tyrol, southern 

 France and Spain. The Government owns numerous moun- 

 tain forests, yet it strives to free itself of the burden as quickly 

 as possible, and often at a ridiculous price. The giving away 

 of the forests by the Government is equivalent to their ruin. 

 It may be said that the Government even helps the destruc- 

 tion, although its duty is to prevent the spoliation of the land 

 by a few at the expense of the whole people. Personal 

 liberty and inviolability of property are fundamental ideas of 

 the Constitution of the United States. But paying respect to 

 the personal freedom of an unscrupulous person means 

 trampling under foot the personal freedom of a thousand 

 better men. 



This proposition in itself justifies a demand by the nation 

 that the mountain forests, no matter to whom they may belong, 

 must be preserved. In order that hundreds of others may be 

 able to have the full use of their own possessions, it is not 

 unjust that the rights of one should be restricted. It is amus- 

 ing to hear American opinions about the despotism of 

 European governments which restrict private citizens in their 

 right to property. The law for the protection of the moun- 

 tain forests and land useless for agriculture, as well as lands 

 upon water-courses, is made only to restrain the ignorant or 

 unprincipled ; the great majority of owners of mountain forests 

 do not need the law at all, since they themselves are wise 

 enough to know that in preserving the forests they are main- 

 taining the value of their own property. If under the Consti- 

 tution it is impossible to compel the individual to preserve 

 his forest, the Government should have the right, for the 

 good of all, to take possession of the property of a refractory 

 citizen for a reasonable compensation, and manage it. The 

 forests in the mountains or on the poor sandy plain which 

 are now given away or sold, the Government in the next 

 century will be obliged to buy back at great outlay, because 

 the individual, unlike the Government, does not give anything 

 away. The amount which the French Government has ex- 

 pended for reforesting denuded mountain slopes affords an 

 instance of the costly character of such work. Let us hope 

 that in the meantime all productive soil will not be washed 

 away. 



As before said, the forest must be preserved upon all kinds 

 of land which admit only of tree-culture, especially upon dry, 

 sandy soil and land of a swampy character. Such lands are 

 common in America, particularly in the south, where they em- 

 brace thousands of square miles along the coast of the Gulf of 

 Mexico and of the Atlantic Ocean. The noble forests of the 

 finest Pines in the world have there been swept away, and the 

 young growth destroyed by fire. The white sand already 

 shines in its nakedness through the thin grass, the very pic- 

 ture of the future that I have described. With the last tree and 

 its shade, the grass also will die. The great quantity of fructi- 

 fying rain which this region receives cannot prevent the dis- 

 appearance of all vegetation under this management; and only 

 the sand will remain. Nothing is done here to check the 

 evil and to save the land. Perhaps laws now exist for guard- 

 ing the mountain forests ; but laws that no one fears to set 

 aside lightly, are worse than none. Wisconsin, Michigan and 

 Minnesota contain extensive broad-leaved and coniferous 



