

THE GOVERNMENT IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
FORESTS. ) 
By E. J. JAMES, PH. D., 
Professor of Public Finance and Administration in the University of Pennsylvania. 
The forests of any large country bear a peculiar relation to national 
prosperity. They not only constitute a large proportion of the natural 
wealth of a nation, but they form the indispensable basis of a flourish- 
ing agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial industry. They are, 
moreover, one of the most important elements in determining the cli- 
matic conditions of any given region and, through these, the distribu- 
tion of population, of industrial pursuits, and of disease and health. 
According to the census report of 1880 the value of the forest crop 
of the United States for that year exceeded $700,000,000. To obtain an 
adequate idea of the relative importance of this product it will only be 
necessary to institute a brief comparison with other branches of indus- 
try or wealth. The value of the forest products was equal to one-third 
of that of all farm products whatsoever sold, consumed, or on hand in 
the year 1879. It exceeded by over $100,000,000 the total assessed 
vaiue of all the farming property in the six New England_ States, and 
by a somewhat smaller figure that of the farms of Virginia, North and 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It would have 
purchased, at its assessed valuation for the purpose of taxation, the 
entire property, personal and real, of all the citizens of the States of 
Vermont, Delaware, Florida, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, 
and Oregon, and of all the Territories besides, and still have left a bal- 
ance nearly equal to the same kind of property rated in the District of 
Columbia. 
If to the value of the total output of all our veins of gold, silver, 
- coal, iron, copper, lead, and zinc were added the value of the stone 
quarries and petroleum obtained, and this sum were increased by the 
estimated value of all the steam-boats, sailing vessels, canal-boats, flat- 
boats and barges plying in American waters and belonging to citizens 
of the United States, it would still be less than the value of the forest 
crop by a sum sufficient to purchase at cost of construction all the canals, 
buy up at par all the stock of the telegraph companies, pay their bonded 
debts, and construct and equip all the telephone lines in the United 
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