138 FOREST PLANTING. 



CHAPTEE XVIir. 



THE TEANSFORMATION OF THE WILD OK NATURAL WOODS 



INTO CULTIVATED FORESTS — ^WHAT THE AMERICAN 



FORESTER SHOULD DO NEXT. 



While the calling of the European forester chiefly con- 

 sists of establishing and caring for artificial forests — 

 originated either by seeding or planting — the destination 

 of the American forester points to the transformation of 

 our still abundant, but very much abused natural or wild 

 woods into cultivated forests. In a properly managed forest 

 there are from three to four times more useful trees than 

 in a natural wood. The duty of the American forester, 

 therefore, is to apply his ingenuity and experience to 

 make a certain area of woods, without disturbing their 

 permanency and their economic influence, producing from 

 three to four times more than it does now. 



It is true that exact knowledge of scientific forestry, 

 as applied in Europe, may help him to understand how 

 most easily to effect this transformation; but as the main 

 principles, upon which scientific forestry is based, are no 

 strangers to our intelligent agriculturists and arboricul- 

 turists, there is no doubt that we can readily find per- 

 sons fully qualified for a beginning, and that they will 

 be followed by others who will endeavor to acquire the 

 full knowledge of the theory and practice of this science, 

 completing what their predecessors may have left unfin- 

 ished, or correcting such defects in the treatment of 

 woods Rs close observation and experience has shown them 

 to be erroneous. Up to the present time, there has been 

 no demand for skilled foresters in this country. Nay, the 

 framers of our Forestry Act of May 15, 1885, prohibit in 

 §8 with the words " the forest preserve shall be forever 



