202 North American Forests and Forestry 



sense of obligation not to injure others ; an absence 

 of a feeling of responsibility for one's own acts. 

 A man who allows a fire kindled on his own land 

 to destroy the property of another certainly does 

 as great a wrong to his neighbor as if he broke 

 open his money-drawer and stole its contents. Or 

 again, one who by his negligence causes forest fires 

 which he knows, or ought to know, are one of the 

 gravest sources of injury to the nation, is as little a 

 patriot as one who would refuse to stand by his 

 country's flag in times of foreign aggression. 



It might be said that great reforms in this coun- 

 try require a generation to become perfectly estab- 

 lished. For the people who are too old to change 

 their intellectual habits must be replaced by a 

 younger element who from childhood have been 

 trained in the right direction. This is true of 

 forest fires and the forest problem in general, as 

 well as of any other great national question. It 

 is essential, therefore, that right moral principles 

 regarding this matter and a correct mental attitude 

 in reference to the forest be instilled in our youth. 

 Much well-intentioned nonsense has been spoken 

 and written about the duty of our schools in con- 

 nection with the forestry problem. Some enthusi- 

 asts have even advocated that the children in the 

 common schools be taught to plant and care for 

 trees, as a means of helping to solve the question. 

 It is certainly desirable that every farmer's boy 

 should learn the elements of arboriculture, but why 

 should the lesson be taught in the public school. 



