FOREST CONSERVATOEIES. 427 



It is a rational query, therefore, whether, if certain 

 birds and q[uadrupeds were annihilated, the extinction 

 of the trees and shrubs that bear a vital relation to 

 them would not follow as an inevitable consequence, in 

 the course of time. Those species whose seeds are scat- 

 tered by the winds wiU never want a planter. But pulpy 

 fruits and heavy nuts cannot be scattered by the winds, un- 

 less they be of destructive force ; they can only be washed 

 down a declivity. They cannot be carried upwards ; nor, 

 if the tree that bears them stands on a level, could they 

 without the agency of certain animals be distributed 

 much beyond the space covered by the tree that produced 

 them. Yet if seeds were never strewn beyond the Umits 

 of the ground covered by the parent tree, the species, 

 accordiug to certain laws of vegetation perfectly well 

 understood by the agriculturist, would ultimately become 

 extinct. On this continent, which is destined to be 

 crowded more densely with human population than any 

 country on earth, it behooves us who are now living to 

 take measures to prevent that sort of devastation which 

 would cause it to be depopulated more rapidly than it 

 was peopled. 



I propose, therefore, that in every State of the Union, 

 certain forest lands be purchased, comprising an area of 

 three or four square miles each, in the ratio of one such 

 tract to every square degree of latitude and longitude. 

 These reservations should be kept as nearly as practica- 

 ble in their primitive condition, or rather one closely 

 resembling our primitive forest, by encouraging the growth 

 of all their spontaneous productions, and excluding from 

 them every description of culture. I do not mean that 

 trees and other plants indigenous in each respective region, 

 if wanting, should not be introduced, but that, after their 

 introduction, they should be left entirely to nature. This 

 tract should be a perpetual growth of wood, never to be 



