124 FORESTRY IN GERMANY. 



LACK OF FOREST PRESERVATION IN AMERICA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 



Since there is as yet very imperfect legislation on the subject of forest 

 preservation in America the owners may clear off or cut away large tracts of 

 wood land at random until in districts formerly well timbered there has come 

 to be a scarcity of wood for fuel and building purposes. The attention of 

 our farmers is not sufficiently called to this subject, and they fail to realize 

 thoroughly the great importance of preserving the existing wood land or the 

 growing necessity in many States of increasing the amount of land under 

 forest. Our Government in the past has given no encouragement to persons 

 to study the science of forest economy, and consequently the whole subject 

 is left in the hands of the careless and ignorant. Not to speak here of those 

 cases in which fruit trees are injured and the wheat in winter killed because 

 the destruction of the forests has prepared the way for biting frosts, the 

 general result of the lack of forest economy in our country may be stated to 

 be a constant lessening of the proportion of the area under forest, while most 

 European countries are continually increasing the same. 



It is of interest to note how rapidly the forests were swept away during the 

 eighteenth century in France. 



The area under forest in that country was : 



In 1750, 37,055,000 acres, or of the whole 27 per cent. 



In 1788, 19,768,000 acres, or of the whole 14.8 per cent. 



In 1791, 14,961,905 acres, or of the whole 10.9 per cent. 



In 1881, 20,749,311 acres, or of the whole 15. i per cent. 



It should be noted in the foregoing statement that forests are much more 

 easily destroyed than replaced, for in the three years, from 1 788 to 1 79 1 , almost 

 as large an area in France was deforested as has been reforested in the last 

 ninety years, although much attention has been paid to the subject during this 

 time. 



These simple facts ought to excite some thought with reference to taking 

 timely steps toward the adoption of some system for the preservation of our 

 American forests, which are now so rapidly disappearing. 



THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON THE CLIMATE, SOIL, RAINFALL, ETC. 



It was very early recognized that the cutting away of the forests exercised 

 a damaging influence on the physical condition of a country, which was often 

 fatal to the prosperity of a large number of its inhabitants. Plato, in " Crito," 

 gives an account of the "sickening of the country" because of deforestation. 

 As a general rule the anxiety in earlier times was caused by a fear or the 

 scarcity of firewood and building material, but in the mountainous districts, 

 as well as where sand dunes and waste places abound, a very large influence 

 on the fertility and productibility of the land was attributed to the forests. 



The oldest writing on this theme is from the Spaniard, Fernando Colon 

 (died 1540), who, in his "Life of Admiral Almirante," says: "The Admiral 

 ascribed the many refreshing showers to which he was exposed, as long as he 

 sailed along the coast of Jamaica, to the extent and density of the forests which 



