40 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7:2— Feb., 1911 



practiced, it is said, by every civilized nation except Turkey and 

 China. It has been called the yard-stick by which we can meas- 

 ure a nation's civilization. Most nations of Europe and Asia 

 are rich in forestry experience. Those that have spent most 

 have reaped the largest returns. 



Our interest in trees today should rest on true values, not 

 alone on sentiment. Trees are not all equally valuable. There 

 are about five hundred species in the United States ; the great 

 mass of wood comes from a few. In many places there are 

 not trees enough, but in some places there are too many, for most 

 land must produce grain. Willis L. Moore, of the United States 

 Weather Bureau, says : "Forests must be preserved for them- 

 selves alone or not at all" ; and contrary to the popular belief, he 

 argues that they have nothing to do with floods. 



The material value of trees in the past is seen in the example 

 of Wisconsin, where lumbering was preeminently the industry 

 which built up the cities and towns and which in 1890 still claimed 

 one-sixth of the taxable property. Fifty years ago this state 

 possessed the most valuable pine forests in the country. Today 

 these forests are practically gone. The worst destruction occur- 

 red about fifty years ago. The land was stripped of its trees 

 as rapidly as possible, the lumberman saving perhaps forty per 

 cent of the lumber. The rest was left as "slash". Forest fires 

 supplemented destructive lumbering. Of all the foes of the for- 

 est, none are so terrible as man. Millions of dollars worth of 

 lumber was burned and with it whole settlements were destroyed 

 and hundreds of lives were lost in the flames. 



Even in 1909 lumbering in the United States was ranked as 

 the fourth greatest industry. Prices rose rapidly, even though 

 substitutes were being found for wood. Today more is being 

 used than ever before, three times as much as is produced. At 

 the present rate, our supply will be exhausted in thirty years. 

 The decrease in the amount of timber through destructive lum- 

 bering and forest fires can be checked ; other losses, such as 

 those from sheep grazing, and from natural causes, as fungus 

 and insect enemies, can be reduced. But this is not enough. There 

 must be a constructive policy looking toward the end of regaining 

 the forests. 



We would do well in this connection to learn from the ex- 

 perience of Germany. This nation has passed through the same 

 stages as we have. But the Germans have applied scientific meth- 

 ods with great success in securing through a long series of years 

 an increasing output of timber and increasing profits- The policy 



