[XV] 



edge of the theory and practise of the art. It will be time enough 

 to estabhsh such schools, it is said, when we have evidence that 

 there are people who desire to avail themselves of the advantages 

 they offer, and that will not be till there is a demand for the ser- 

 vices of those who have done so. This is true, so far as it goes, 

 but the next consideration is, how to create the demand. There was 

 no demand a few years ago for telegraph operators, and when I 

 was a boy there was no demand for railroad employes, for there 

 were no railroads. How was the demand created ? By showing the 

 importance of the results. Think of the time and labor expended 

 by Morse and his associates before they could get permission to 

 demonstrate the value of the electric telegraph by a line from Wash- 

 ington to Baltimore. No general interest was felt in the scheme till 

 its advantages were thus made manifest, because there was no real- 

 izing conviction of its truth. And to-day we are in a similar posi- 

 tion in reference to the question of forestry. The impending danger 

 of the diminishing supply of timber is acknowledged by all who are 

 familiar with the subject, but there is no realizing sense of it in the 

 popular mind, and there is a want of confidence in the practicability 

 of any of the proposed measures of relief. The first and most im- 

 portant thing to do, therefore, is to stimulate popular interest by 

 showing what can be done. To create a popular demand of any 

 kind, it is essential first to demonstrate the value of its object. 

 The men who are familiar with forest culture, know, as well as 

 Morse knew the capability of the telegraph, that the wealth of the 

 nation may be enormously increased by the proper development of 

 the native woods already standing, but they can point to no evi- 

 dence of the truth of their assertion, and the fact that it has not 

 been done is regarded as proof of its impossibility. There is no 

 such thing in the country as an Olustrative example of what may 

 be accomplished by timber culture, and very few of our citizens who 

 visit Europe can appreciate the works which have there been 

 achieved. They go abroad to study works of art, with the idea that 

 we have nothing to learn m regard to natural productions, and the 

 comparatively small number who grasp the conception of the grand 

 possibilities of development which our forests offer to the exercise 

 of such artificial culture as may there be seen, can do no more on 

 their return than express their convictions and urge the importance of 

 acting upon them. This they have done for many years past, but 

 they have not succeeded in arousing such a popular conviction of 

 the necessity as should enforce the action of their representatives to 

 the point of making needful provision. The enormous and costly 

 scale on which the work of planting new forests must be undertaken, 

 in order to be effective, seems to throw a damper upon every effort 

 to bring it to pass. 



If every ovmer of a wood lot could be convinced that its value 

 might be enormously increased by a process which, so far from de- 

 manding an outlay, would add to his annual income, it would not 

 be long before farmers would consider it as derogatory to their rep- 

 utation to leave the forests in the wild condition they now are, as 

 they would to have a field of corn presenting a similar appearance 

 of slovenliness. To produce such conviction the truth must be dem- 

 onstrated in actual practice, and the cost of such demonstration 



