WHAT FORESTRY HAS DONE/ 



INTRODUCTION. 



Many people in this country think that forestry had never been 

 tried until the Government began to practice it upon the National 

 Forests. Yet forestry is practiced by every civilized country in the 

 world, except China and Turkey. It gets results which can be got in 

 no other way, and which are necessary to the general welfare. For- 

 estry is not a new thing. It was discussed two thousand years ago, 

 and it has been studied and applied with increasing thoroughness 

 ever since. 



The principles of forestry are everywhere the same. They rest on 

 natural laws, which are at work everywhere and all the time. It is 

 simply a question of how best to apply these laws to fit local needs 

 and conditions. No matter how widely countries may differ in size, 

 climate, population, industry, or government, provided only they have 

 forests, all of them must come to forestry some time as a matter of 

 necessity. 



The more advanced and progressive countries arrive first and go 

 farthest in forestry, as they do in other things. Indeed, we might 

 almost take forestry as a yardstick with which to measure the 

 height of a civilization. On the one hand, the nations which follow 

 forestry most widely and systematically would be found to be the 

 most enlightened nations. On the other hand, when we applied our 

 yardstick to such countries as are without forestry, we could say with 

 a good deal of assurance, by this test alone, " Here is a backward 

 nation." 



A singular and suggestive exception is England, which, though 

 provided with mountain and heath lands capable of producing a 

 large part of the wood for home consumption, has, with strange indif- 



« The author is indebted for his facts to a number of authorities, among 

 which are especially acknowledged : Dr. Max Endres, Handbuch der Forst Pol- 

 itik; W. Schlich, Ph. D., Manual of Forestry, vol. 1; compilations of Dr. B. E. 

 Fernow. 



[Cir. 140] 



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