FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR B. E. FERNOW, 



Director of the New York School of Forestry, Cornell University, assisted by Dr. John C. Gifford of the same 



institution. 



It takes thirty years to grow a tree and thirty minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



POINTS OF VIEW. 



At the annual meeting- of the Laurel 

 Hill Association, of Stockbridge, Mass., 

 on Sept. ii, Dr. Fernow made the address, 

 parts of which may be of interest to a 

 large audience. The interest of the asso- 

 ciation lies in the preservation of the 

 matchless beauty of the Berkshire hills 

 and the aesthetic aspects of tree growth 

 rather than the economic appeals to them. 

 Dr. Fernow said in part : 



The interest and spice of life lay in the 

 great variety of its aspects, in the diversity 

 of the points of view from which all 

 things may be considered, and the conse- 

 quent difference of opinion and action 

 which this diversitv of view provokes. 

 Each one of us has only a limited vision 

 and horizon, has only a circumscribed 

 range from which to view the world, has 

 only a small experience by which to formu- 

 late opinions ; and we all see different 

 sides of the same object, and. from our 

 different experiences, have a more or less 

 different way of looking at them. Hence 

 the unending possibilities of discussion, 

 hence the gradualness in evolving new 

 ideas, hence also the difficulty of impress- 

 ing others with the propriety of our opin- 

 ions and the truthfulness of our knowledge 

 and experience. There are only a few 

 who have a wider range of view, a more 

 extended experience, a more vivid imagi- 

 nation and quick perception, which en- 

 able them to appreciate readily the various 

 points of view that any subject of interest 

 may offer. The majority of us are apt to 

 believe that what we see is all that is to 

 •be seen, and to act accordingly. And even 

 those who have keen eyes and wits must 

 of necessity, either as a result of their 

 position, their vision, or of their personal 

 interests, make one point of view the most 

 prominent one, and while admitting the 

 propriety of others, give to them secondary 

 consideration. 



There is nothing new in these thoughts, 

 which must come naturally to anyone who 

 thinks on the wonderfully varied develop- 

 ment of human life. I offer them only as 

 an apology and explanation for whatever 

 views I may express at variance with those 

 which I suspect you hold, as members of 

 this association. 



Standing on this elevation and casting 

 my eyes over the peaceful hills, dales, 

 igroves, and meadows, interspersed with 

 the solitary, graceful elms and the rugged, 



392 



spreading oaks, the sere colors of autumn 

 glorifying the accomplishments of summer, 

 I do not wonder that you, who own this 

 point of view, have eyes only for its beauty 

 and have associated yourselves to preserve 

 it. I am temp.ted myself for the day to 

 make beauty not only "its own excuse for 

 being," but the main object of meadows 

 and trees everywhere. Yet you know, as 

 well as I do, that elsewhere the necessi- 

 ties of life force us to take a different 

 point of view, to recognize the fact that 

 beauty must be sacrificed to usefulness, 

 that the meadow must be turned over to 

 grow cereals, that the trees must be cut 

 to yield their wood to the use of man. 

 And it is from this point of view, with 

 special reference to tree growth, that I 

 propose to speak, without desiring in any 

 way to disparage any other points of view ; 

 without denying that the aesthetic sense in 

 man should have its due recognition and 

 satisfaction, although a reasonable consid- 

 eration of all interests would sometimes 

 subordinate beauty to use, and the reverse. 

 For twenty years and more I have made 

 it my _ business to point out and try to 

 reconcile the different points of view from 

 which tree growth may be viewed, while 

 securing specially recognition of the point 

 of view which the forester holds. 



Trees are things of usefulness as well 

 as of beauty; and judging from the ex- 

 tensive use of wood and the variety of its 

 applications to the needs of man from 

 the cradle to the coffin, not only is the 

 wood material which trees furnish when 

 cut, their most important contribution to 

 our well-being, but so important is this 

 material to our civilization that we may 

 well say a wood famine would be almost 

 as disastrous as a food famine. There is 

 no one other material that we could so ill 

 afford to lose as wood. Many of those 

 aesthetic friends of ours, who are raving 

 against the lumberman, the purveyor of 

 this wood material, and who would stop 

 his operations — at least wherever they 

 are, whatever he may do elsewhere — these 

 should study the statistics of our wood 

 consumption to learn how foolish their 

 point of view appears to the well-informed 

 economist. They need to study relativity 

 of importance and to realize that before 

 the aesthetic sense can be gratified, the phy- 

 sical necessities must be supplied. They 

 need to perceive that their beautiful oak- 

 paneled rooms, their cherry and maple 



