IV FOREST PLANTING. 



for if we really will preserve our natural or wild 

 forests — and this is undoubtedly a much better and 

 cheaper policy than to continue destroying them, 

 and to later raise, at an enormous cost and loss of 

 time, artificial forests — we have to care for our 

 woods just as fully as the artificial forests in the 

 European countries are treated ; for in the preserva- 

 tion of forests it makes no difference at all whether 

 they are originated by nature or by human art, be- 

 cause both are subject to the same dangers and 

 injuries. Unless the natural forests are managed 

 systematically, we cannot but expect that the repara- 

 tion of damages done to a forest either by accidents 

 or elementary forces, or by the natural course of tree 

 life, will take as many centuries as it would require 

 decades for this purpose, if we assist nature in its 

 regenerating endeavors through the means suggested 

 by scientific forestry. 



The condition in which our forests are now, is not 

 such as to warrant us in " pooh-poohing " the idea of 

 looking for instruction in this matter to the European 

 nations, and to only glance at their methods of treating 

 forests, because we have a different form of govern- 

 ment (see Report of the N. Y. Forest Commission, 

 1886, page 67), or because " the entire condition of 

 things here differs so materially from that in the old 

 world." (See Report of the Forest Commission, 1887, 

 page 17.) Certainly there is a great difference be- 

 tween our government and that of most of the Euro- 

 pean nations, and politico-economical matters are 

 often treated here differently from what they are 

 there ; but this does not affect the question of pre- 

 serving to the succeeding generations the natural 

 resources of a country necessary for the welfare of its 

 inhabitants. If we cannot invent better methods 

 of preserving forests than those we have practiced 



