230 North American Forests and Forestry 



generally patriotic interest in the subject, has given 

 the movement a very peculiar course. On the one 

 hand, the circumstance was a fortunate one, for it 

 enlisted in favor of reform a body of men, of highly 

 trained intelligence, who had no personal and pecu- 

 niary interests at stake and therefore could not fall 

 under the suspicion of having private ends to serve 

 whenever they urged upon the public the adoption 

 of any particular policy. But there were serious 

 drawbacks to this advantage. The public, who 

 heard the subject discussed principally by botanists 

 and writers on allied subjects, soon conceived the 

 notion that forestry is primarily a question concern- 

 ing scientists only, and not of general importance. 

 This notion is not yet eradicated from the popular 

 mind, any more than its sister error, that forestry is 

 identical with tree planting, and that its practice is 

 therefore promoted by getting people interested in 

 setting out shade trees along roadsides or in the 

 school grounds. Yet the botanists and horticul- 

 turists at least knew what they were about, so far as 

 they went. True, they neglected almost entirely 

 the business side of the problem, and devoted them- 

 selves exclusively to the question of preserving 

 forests on account of the climatic and physiograph- 

 ical dangers accompanying^ their removal. But 

 within this limited field they were serious and intel- 

 ligent, and great praise is due to their efforts in 

 promoting a more general understanding of these 

 matters. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said 

 of the horde of purveyors of light literature who 



