RELATIONS OF GOVEEKMENTS TO FORESTS. 27 



authorities to undertake any enterprises, except such as 

 are necessary for the promotion of the public welfare ; 

 and to this certainly belongs the care of the areas which 

 secure to our navigable rivers a constant flow. 



As for 3, the time has not yet arrived with us, in 

 which we have to be so sharply on the lookout for utiliz- 

 ing every piece of land. But it is not to be denied that 

 something should be done to make useful the 3,526,030 

 acres of the State lands which are by the last census 

 registered as wild and uncultivated. This area comprises 

 more than one-eighth of the entire territory of the State, is 

 mostly hilly or mountainous, has been stripped of all 

 trees by their owners, and, after having been used for a 

 few years as pasture, became barren by the sun, which 

 burnt the grasses up, and by the rains, which washed the 

 fertile surface soil down the hills. There is no doubt that 

 were these three and a half millions of acres planted with 

 forest trees, the country would receive a great benefit, and 

 by a proper management, the lands would yield a satis- 

 factory revenue. 



However, this does not furnish the State with sufficient 

 reasons for exercising its right of resumption by eminent 

 domain; but there is a good opportunity for the Croesuses 

 of our country to combine business with beneficence to- 

 ward the people. For whoever is able to spend 100,000 

 dollars without being compelled to look eagerly for any 

 revenue from this money during the next generation, can 

 make no better investment and bequest to his heirs, than 

 to buy up large tracts of the wild lands in our State, and 

 plant forest trees thereupon. By a sound systematic 

 management, the purchaser may safely expect that in the 

 course of time the net proceeds of his investment will at 

 least equal the amount he would receive, if the invested 

 money was entrusted to a savings bank. In the "old 

 world " large tracts of forest lands are principally select- 

 ed as family entailments, both on account of the safety of 



