WASHINGTON, AND MARION COUNTIES. 19 



Other countries have been so despoiled of their forests and 

 afflicted with the consequent evils, that their governments 

 have had to extend the strong arm of the law, take possession 

 of all the timber growth, and protect what has been left from 

 ultimate destruction. The)- have also encouraged its restora- 

 tion under wise provisions, until the people could be taught to 

 take care of it tor themselves. It seems that here the same 

 course will have to be taken, and the sooner the better for the 

 good of both the individual and the Commonwealth. This is 

 the only remedy. People educate themselves slowly, and the 

 fostering care and encouragement given by the State to edu- 

 cation is not, by any means, too generous. 



States pass bills creating sanitary commissions and boards 

 of health ; but neither State, commissioners, or boards prevent 

 the accumulations of sawdust in towns and country, which rots 

 and festers in the rain and sunshine, breeding disease and 

 death among the people. A State may provide agents and 

 money to place new species of fish in our streams, but it does 

 not restrain the saw-mill from throwing its waste into those 

 streams to the destruction of the fish. 



REPRODUCTION OF YOUNG TREES. 



In looking over this region, there appears to be no condition 

 which prevents, if left to themselves, a return of the former 

 distribution of forests. Every species which formerly grew 

 over the country exists somewhere over the territory, and 

 young trees are continually propagated by nature. We have 

 not been able to see that the exhaustion of soils by the old 

 forests or by grain-growing- has unfitted them for the thriving 

 of the same species over the same lands, where they flour- 

 ished heretofore. The seed of many species are destroyed in 

 a large measure, and in numerous localities entirely; but this 

 (act does not make their restoration impossible. 



I he yellow poplar, where the right conditions exist, comes 

 up in immense numbers and is of rapid growth. There are a 

 few places in Garrard county, situated on the Middle Hudson 

 Kiver beds, over which this valuable species has grown up 



