
29 
natural growth within the period when, at the present rate, we shall 
have cleared the original forest off the ground. We are doing almost 
nothing in the direction of cultivating forests; nay, we are not even: 
protecting from devastation the young trees which might replace the 
forests if they had a fair chance for growth. 
It is not the farmer—who only clears the forest in order to sow his 
crops, nor the lumberman—who fells the trees for the purpose of send- 
ing the lumber to market, nor the railroad—which calls for our forest 
trees for its ties, nor even the settler—who wants fuel to keep him warm, 
who are the enemies of our forests. All these at least obtain from this 
moderate destruction some return for themselves and society which is 
ereat and visible, though not always commensurate with the damage 
they inflict by their careless and wasteful methods. Fire, however, and 
browsing animals of all sorts inflict a damage on the growing forests 
for which there is either no return at all or one So insignificant as not 
to be worth mentioning. These two agencies, between them, keep mill- 
ions of acres free from trees which would soon be covered with dense 
forests if they could be protected from such spoilers for a few years. 
Itis estimated on good authority that within fifty years, at the present 
rate of cutting, and with the present wasteful methods of management, 
the great bulk of our valuable forests will be gone, with almost no pros- 
pect of seeing them replaced by a new growth possessing anything like 
the value of the present one. To put it mildly, we are using up our 
forests at a much more rapid rate than we are replacing them. Weare 
already beginning to experience some of the most serious evils of such 
a policy in.a growing scarcity of valuable timber and in the changing 
character of our streams, soil and local climate. And these evils are 
bound to increase with every year of continuance in this line of action. 
Such being the case, the question as to efficient remedies becomes all- 
important. 
Before mentioning the various measures of relief to which I believe 
that it would be wise to have recourse, and which I think will in their 
main outlines have to be adopted before long, if we are to avoid the 
losses which will inevitably accompany our present policy, I wish to 
call attention to some important distinctions in terms. I would empha- 
size the fact that tree-planting is not forest-culture. The two are quite 
distinct in their methods, in the persons who manage them, and to a 
large extent in the purposes which they subserve. The term tree-plant- 
ing I shall apply to the system.of planting trees which a farmer may 
carry on in connection with his agricultural operations from a variety of 
motives, such as beautifying his farm and house yard, shading his ecat- 
tle in the fields, protecting them or his fields from the blasts of winter by 
cultivating wind-breaks, planting them along the water-courses to keep 
the soil from being carried away by sudden freshets, ete. Forest-cult- 
ure I shall apply to the regular system of cultivating extensive tracts 
of country with a view to securing as large and valuable a stand of 

