39 2 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



pine. It is one of the most beautiful and useful of trees. It grows with wet feet in 

 the bogs of the north, in the dry sands, and even on the hard dry soil of our western 

 plains. In places it is short and crooked, in others a tall, beautiful tree. No. 22 

 shows a Scotch pine woods in Bavaria. Around every tree there are two black 

 marks. These woods are literally in mourning. This is raupenleim. It did no 

 good, but when the modest-looking nun-moth came in such immense numbers, 

 threatening to destroy in a few days one of Germany's greatest resources, which had 

 been a century in growing, the forester had to do something; so he painted a black 

 streak on every tree in Bavaria. The nun-moth finally disappeared as quickly and 

 mysteriously as it came. 



I spent many pleasant days in this forest. The ground was carpeted with a soft 

 mat of moss. There was not a weed or bush. The golden trunks of the pines were 

 as straight as spars, and above there was a solid canopy of rich, fresh green silvery 

 foliage. Every now and then a few deer would show themselves, in fact come so 

 near that I could take their picture. The farmers nearby were busy in the fields, 

 and would stop now and then to drive them away from the tender grass back into 

 the forest to which they belonged. 



In spite of the beauty and great usefulness of the conifers, the European leans 

 toward the hardwood. He is the lover of beech and oak. They are essential to the 

 gemiithlichkeit of the old world. Their mast feeds the pigs, their wood warms the 

 body, their beauty warms the soul, their litter fertilizes the soil, and out of their 

 wood comes the staves which make the barrels and casks in which his precious wine 

 and beer are kept. Such a forest is No. 23. It is located at Compiegne near Paris. 

 It yields a high revenue, is beautiful beyond description, has been the hunting place 

 of kings for ages, and, as with Vallambrosa, St. Hubert, St. Blasien and a host of 

 other European forests, has associated with it an everlasting history. In Europe a 

 forest is something more than a mere bunch of merchantable wood. 



It is impossible to rate the value of a forest in dollars and cents. How true are 

 the following words of D. E. Hutchins, forest conservator, located at Cape Town ! 

 He came back to England, visited Germany, and then wrote at follows : 



" The prudent foreigner, looking across his wooded mountains, will tell you that 

 England is rich and can well afford to pay in the future for her present forest 

 improvidence. There is more than this in the forest question, and to my mind it is 

 quite the saddest aspect of it. 



"Great Britain now pays about ^20,750,000 annually for imported wood and for- 

 est produce that could be produced equally well in the British Isles. Broadly speak- 

 ing, this wood is paid for by manufactured goods produced by the labor of the 



