224 North American Forests and Forestry 



question of import duties upon lumber. Nothing 

 is heard more frequently than the contention that 

 lumber ought to be admitted free, in order that the 

 forests of the country might be protected from 

 destruction by the lumbermen. With the general 

 question of the wisdom of protective duties we 

 have nothing to do in this book. But every 

 forester will protest against the means of " pro- 

 tecting" the forests by destroying the lumber 

 industry. That free admission of lumber would 

 work a total or practical destruction of the lumber 

 business is evidently assumed by those urging 

 this argument, for otherwise the expected pres- 

 ervation of the forests could not result. We may 

 therefore accept their conclusion that free trade in 

 lumber would keep the axe away from the remain- 

 ing merchantable timber. It must be plain to atten- 

 tive readers that people who prefer this argument 

 have not grasped the very first principle of forestry, 

 which is the utilization of the forests while preserv- 

 ing their existence. Not to destroy the lumber in- 

 dustry, but to insure its continuation during the 

 whole future life of the nation is the aim of forestry 

 reform. To let forests lie idle, a useless wilderness, 

 would not even preserve them, for fire, windfall, 

 insects, and fungi would gradually destroy them. 

 The conditions under which the primeval forests 

 were created, flourished, and preserved themselves 

 have gone forever. The forests of the future, if 

 they are to exist at all, in the midst of dense 

 population and a civilization in a great measure 



