Reform in Forestry Methods 231 



soon took up forestry as the latest fad. These 

 people had no knowledge of their subject except 

 what they might chance to remember from a super- 

 ficial perusal of the writings of the botanists. But 

 they presumed to speak in the name of forestry, 

 and filled the newspapers and magazines with their 

 productions, while a host of well-meaning preachers 

 and popular lecturers seconded their efforts from 

 the platform, with equal zeal and equal lack of in- 

 formation. The changes were rung ad nauseam 

 on the fearful effects of forest destruction in the 

 Mediterranean countries, while the lumberman was 

 painted in the blackest colors as one who seeks a 

 fiendish pleasure in destroying the primeval woods. 

 The necessary consequence of this flood of misin- 

 formation was soon apparent. Forestry soon came 

 to be looked upon as a fantastical idea of enthusi- 

 asts, a pretty subject to write verses about, a thing 

 that had nothing to do with the practical, every-day 

 affairs of life. Lumbermen and woodland owners, 

 the very people who should have felt the greatest 

 interest in the movement, because their pockets 

 were most directly concerned, held aloof from it, and 

 were kept from active opposition only by the con- 

 tempt they felt for the whole agitation. This un- 

 fortunate result works its mischief to the present 

 day, for even now there are large numbers of intel- 

 ligent people who fail to understand the nature of 

 forestry, even in the limited sense of the botanists, 

 and certainly so in the true and comprehensive 

 sense which for years a few energetic workers in 



