FORESTRY 3ld 



immune to the disease. The Englemann spruce beetle has 

 destroyed millions of feet of lumber in the Rocky Mountains, and 

 the Black Hills beetle has done great damage in South Dakota. 

 Hundreds of other insect enemies, some of them imported, are 

 doing very great damage, especially in our Eastern states. The 

 gypsy and brown-tail moths are examples of such pests. Live 

 stock, especially sheep, may do much harm in a forest by eating 

 young shoots and trampling on young trees. Storm, wind, and 

 lightning do damage also, as trees which have been uprooted soon 

 die and thus make an excellent place for fire to start. 



Forestry. — In some parts of central Europe, the value of the 

 forests was seen as early as 1300 a.d., and many towns consequently 

 bought up the surrounding forests. The city of Zurich has owned 

 forests in its vicinity for at least 600 years and has found them a 

 profitable investment. Europe has long led the way in showing 

 how to care for forests and how to make them pay. In this 

 country only recently has the importance of preserving and caring 

 for our forests been noted by our government. Now, however, 

 we have a Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture and 

 this and numerous state and university Schools of Forestry are 

 teaching the people of this country the best methods for the pres- 

 ervation of our forests. The Federal government has set aside a 

 number of tracts of mountain forest, principally in the Western 

 states and Alaska, which are under the control of the National 

 Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. In 1924 these had 

 an area of more than 157,500,000 acres, an area greater than New 

 England and New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. New York has established 

 for the same purposes the Adirondack and Catskill Mountain Forest 

 Preserves, with nearly 2,000,000 acres of timber land ; Pennsyl- 

 vania has preserves of more than 1,250,000 acres, and many other 

 states have followed their example. Wisconsin, Minnesota, and 

 Michigan each have more than 200,000 acres set aside, and the 

 total area for all the states is about 4,300,000 acres. 



Methods for Keeping and Protecting the Forests. — Forests 

 should be kept thinned. Too many trees are almost as bad as 

 too few. They struggle with one another for foothold and light, 

 which only a few can enjoy. The cutting of a forest should be 



