8 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



remediable ; when ill effects become apparent, the 

 inconveniences may be removed with but little 

 harm to the community, and none to mankind at 

 large or to the future. But whether fertile lands 

 are turned into deserts, forests into waste places, 

 brooks into torrents, rivers changed from means of 

 power and intercourse into means of destruction 

 and desolation — these are questions which concern 

 the material existence itself of society ; and since 

 such changes become often irreversible, the damage 

 irremediable, and at the same time the extent of 

 available resources becomes smaller in proportion 

 to population, their consideration is finally much 

 more important than those other questions of the 

 day. Increase of population and increased require- 

 ments of civilization call for a continual increase of 

 our total economic forces, and increased " intensity " 

 in the management of our resources ; and this re- 

 quires such continued care and administration, that 

 it is not safe to leave it entirely to the incentive of 

 private competition, which always means wasteful 

 use. 



It is true that as individuals the knowledge of 

 the near exhaustion of the anthracite coal-fields 

 does not induce any of us to deny ourselves a sin- 

 gle scuttle of coal, so as to make the coal-field last 

 for one more generation, unless this knowledge is 

 reflected in increased price. But we can conceive 

 that, as members of society, we may for that very 

 purpose refuse to allow each other or the miner to 



