Forestry. 93 



FORESTRY. 

 By Dr. N. E. Jones. 



(Read October I, 1889.) 



It has been truthfully stated — it has for thousands of years under- 

 gone practical demonstration, that forests determine the climatic 

 conditions of any given country. And for this reason forests form 

 an indispensable basis for agriculture, manufacture and commercial 

 industry. They also bear a near relation to the health, wealth and 

 prosperity of a nation. 



These facts being so universally admitted, it may seem strange 

 that a government which has from its inception been so interested 

 in the welfare of its subjects, and which has assisted and encour- 

 aged in various ways so many sources of wealth and industry, 

 should have overlooked the forests from which the nation is draw- 

 ing larger amounts of wealth than from all other natural sources 

 combined. 



The Government has ever been devoted to the interests of agri- 

 culture and manufacturing ; and by premiums, by exemptions, by 

 protections, by model farms, by grants, by bounties, by patent- 

 rights, by technical schools, and by the introduction of superior 

 animals and improved machinery, has fostered well these indus- 

 tries. The Government has not been at fault either, in donating 

 large sums in the construction of canals and railroads, and for the 

 improvement of rivers and harbors. It has even taken an interest 

 in the clam and oyster, and stocked the rivers and lakes with young 

 fish, that the devastation of these natural sources of wealth may 

 be compensated thereby and perpetuated as a national trust; 

 while the springs and brooks and streams — the climatic causes 

 of disease — the necessary conditions for national wealth and national 

 health — in a word, the importance of forests for the Nation, for the 

 land, for agriculture, for the perpetuation of rivers, has received 

 no official recognition. 



But for all this, the subject is of national interest, and calls for 

 its share of official attention. Few are so blind that they can not 

 see, that the fires and thieves, and increasing consumption, if con- 



