May 23, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



155 



by interest in this subject. I recall the years of lonely effort in 

 this field, when the only forestry meetings were held when two 

 or three pioneers met to compare notes of their observations, 

 and consult regarding' plans for arousing public attention to 

 the rapid destruction of the forests in every part of our coun- 

 try. There has been considerable discussion of forestry sub- 

 jects within the last few years, but the practical results achieved, 

 in the preservation of our forests, are, thus far, very slight. 



"The Adirondack mountain region in northern New York is 

 by far — or it was a few years ago — the most important body of 

 forest lands in the eastern portion of our country. But these 

 magnificent woods have now been for several years in process 

 of rapid extinction. There was a well equipped Forest Com- 

 mission in New York a few years ago, the most competent, in- 

 deed, that has yet been appointed in any State of our country, 

 and this Commission made a thorough examination of the 

 condition of every part of the great North Woods, and report- 

 ed a plan which, if it had been adopted by the State, and ad- 

 ministered in good faith, would have stopped the progress of 

 ruin and desolation, insured the preservation of most of what 

 at that time remained of the original Adirondack forests. But 

 there was sufficient ignorance, indifference, apathy and other 

 unfavorable influences, even in New York, to defeat this care- 

 fully matured plan. Vested interests and partisan political 

 considerations, working together in defense of existing meth- 

 ods of mismanagement, were too strong to be overcome by 

 the friends of the forests, and the process of destruction has 

 gone on with little check until now. I know of but two or 

 three men who have any just idea of the extent and thorough- 

 ness of the ruin which has been wrought in northern New 

 York. But lumbermen who have known the Hudson River 

 for forty years say that the summer flow of that stream has 

 diminished one-fourth or one-third during that time. The 

 railroad people are completing arrangements for the destruc- 

 tion of most of the woods which now remain in that region, 

 and efforts are being made to obtain legislation which 

 will permit the leasing of tracts of State fores lands to 

 rich men from the towns. It would be hard to devise a more 

 unreasonable or mischievous measure. It ought to be 

 promptly condemned by the people of the Empire State. 



"The destruction of the woods goes on in nearly every part 

 of our country in much the same way. I have observed the 

 work of the tree-slaughterers in the turpentine forests of 

 our southern Atlantic States, and have watched the work of 

 railroads and hunbermen, and of forest fires, in the great 

 mountain forest regions of the West. I have studied the mag- 

 niflcent forests along Pugct Sound and in the Cascade Range 

 through Washington Territory lukI Oregon. The forest masses 

 in every part of our country are being rapidly and inevitably 

 destroyed. As they perish the water-supply for the great 

 river systems of the country is diminishing, and vast territo- 

 ries are exposed to the evils of destructive floods and ex- 

 haustive drought. 



" The question of methods for the preservation of oiu- great 

 forests is one of exceeding difficulty, and the chief obstacles 

 are psychological — that is, they are found, not in any feature 

 or circumstance of the condition of the forests themselves, but 

 in the haliits and cjualities of mind, thought and character of 

 the American people. As a nation we are much disposed to 

 an excessive reliance upon legislation as a means for the at- 

 tainment of nearly all objects which we regard as desirable. 

 The fact is that it is comparatively easy to obtain almost any 

 imaginable legislation. But law alone, in relation to any sub- 

 ject so complex as the preservation of our forests, is of very 

 slight value. No act of Congress, or of a State Legislature, can 

 have much effect in changing the habitual course of thought, 

 feeling and action in the mass of the people of our country. 

 But precisely such a change is indispensable, if our forests are 

 to be preserved. 



" The truth is that nothing short of an advance in civilization 

 on the part of the American people would be sufficient to stop 

 the process of forest destruction which is now everywhere go- 

 ing on. The wisest forest laws would inevitably be adminis- 

 tered very ineffectively at first. IVIany mistakes would be 

 made, and if we have to depend chiefly upon the elTect of 

 legislation for the preservation of our forests, it is most proba- 

 ble that by the time we have learned how to take care of our 

 forests efficiently we shall have none remaining to take care of. 

 To prepare us for the wise care of the varied and widely re- 

 lated interests which depend upon our forests we need im- 

 portant and radical changes in the thought and spirit and 

 character of our people. While the popular feeling about 

 wealth, about bric-a-brac, about the objects of life remains 

 what it is, the destruction of our forests, and of all that depends 

 upon them, is likely to proceed unchecked. 



" I talked with a farmer in south-western Iowa last summer 

 who has cut off thousands of Black Walnut trees from ten to 

 fifteen inches in diameter, during the last thirty-five years, and 

 sold them for cord-wood. I showed him price-lists for black 

 walnut lumber and veneers from New York dealers, and easily 

 convinced him that if he had let his walnut timber stand till 

 now it alone would be worth far more than his wb.ole farm is 

 now worth. He said he had no doubt it was true. Then he 

 added, ' But it is too much trouble to think of anything so far 

 ahead.' That is the key to many things in our national 

 character. 



"In our thought of the supreme value of legislation for for- 

 est preservation and reproduction we are beginning at the 

 wrong end of the business, and are putting that first which 

 should be last. A long course of education of the people re- 

 garding the facts of the subject will be necessary before ade- 

 quate legislation can be devised or efficiently applied. What 

 we chiefly need now is an era of teaching and instruction re- 

 garding the subject — teaching that shall be intelligent and 

 intelligible, comprehensive, coherent, systematic, iterant and 

 authoritative, because based upon competent knowledge. The 

 greatest step in advance ever taken in this country in connec- 

 tion with forestry sufijects has been made this year, in the 

 estalilishment, in New York, of a journal devotecl to the dis- 

 cussion of forestry in all its aspects, and to the dissemination 

 of knowledge in relation to this subject. 



" Europe, and every other part of tlie old world, can give us 

 all needed lessons of warning ; can show us the tragical con- 

 sequences of man's want of wisdom, care and foresight in his 

 treatment of the forests in every land. But even for these les- 

 sons we do not need to cross the ocean. We already have 

 created small deserts in various parts of our own country, 

 where the area of desolation and of cureless ruin grows larger 

 every year. I remember places where the drifting sand is 

 steadily swallowing more and more of the once fertile slopes 

 where a century ago the White Pine grew four feet in diameter. 



"I do not think, however, that Europe can give lis much 

 help as to methods of forest care or management. The psy- 

 chological conditions are so very different here, that we shall 

 have to learn our own lessons by our own observation and 

 study and experience. Our social and political conditions are 

 essentially different from those of any European nation. So 

 are the relations of capital to the mass of the people. I have 

 no doubt that in time we shall evolve American methods of 

 forest management. The best means to that very desiral)le 

 end must be vigorous, free, intelligent and persistent dis- 

 cussion." 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — Any one acquainted with the southern side of Long 

 Island will readily recall the vast stretches of low land fringing 

 the borders of the various bays for which that part of the 

 coast is noted. Its only use, apparently, is to furnish a little 

 salt hay ; but it has often occurred to me that there might be 

 some tree which would grow in such situations, and be worth 

 planting there. Has anything ever been tried in these dreary 

 wastes, and with what success? If not, what would you 

 recommeiid for trial ? It goes without saying that if only 

 some arborescent growths could flourish in such spots where 

 the soil must be saturated with water more or less saline, the 

 land would in time become very valuable. 



I believe there have been some interesting and successful 

 experiments in improving low sandy wastes along the coasts 

 of New England and New Jersey, but I never heard of any at- 

 tempts to reclaim the marshy borders of our great salt-water 

 bays. Yerv truly yours, 



Now York, May ist,' 1888. ->. Z. 



[No tree hardy in the Northern States will grow in 

 saline soil or in situations where its roots reach salt water. 

 The salt-marshes, which are so common along the north 

 Atlantic Coast, are really valuable for the ha)^ the)' pro- 

 duce. This crop in some parts of New England is esti- 

 mated to yield si.x dollars a year net per acre ; and marsh 

 land finds a ready market at $100 an acre. Such land is 

 too valuable, therefore, to plant with trees even if trees 

 could be made to grow on it. The low, rolling, sandy 

 hills so common at some points on the south shore of 

 Long Island might be planted to advantage with Pitch 

 Pine (P. r/'^'-ida) in the same manner that similar land on 

 Cape Cod has been covered with this tree. — En.J 



