98 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



government that is able to sustain itself, must have something for 

 idle hands to do. The increasing supply of labor in this country 

 has already alarmed many thinking people — how all can find 

 employment, which means bread. So much so, that it has been 

 suggested that the Government construct a ship canal from the 

 Atlantic to the Mississippi River, as a mere safety valve — to do it 

 for the labor or bread that would be in it. But here is something 

 better — a necessity. A necessity that can relieve the groaning 

 treasury of its remaining surplus, and give employment to a vastly 

 greater number of persons. For the labors of forestry are as 

 immense as they are indispensable ; and can end only with the end 

 of the race. A forest of six hundred million acres, thoroughly 

 organized and officered under the Secretary of Agriculture, would 

 sink the post-office department and its patronage into insignificance, 

 and would be the brightest star in the political solar system to those 

 who are applicants for place. But this is not all — it would reclaim the 

 arid lands, make others more fertile, the climate more healthy, the 

 rainfall more regular and abundant; and in due time would become 

 the incalculable wealth of the nation. 



The immensity of the consumption of forest supplies can not be 

 measured accurately ; but Ave can form some idea of its vastness 

 when it is known that the one hundred and eighty-seven thousand 

 miles of railroads and one hundred and thirty-seven thousand miles 

 of telegraph lines in this country consume each year the annual 

 growth of a forest equal to one hundred and fifty million acres. 



Nothing short of a large area of well-managed forest will prove 

 adequate to future demands. The Government of the United 

 States has the nucleus in her natural forests for this undertaking 

 now: has the land for more now; has the money now. And 

 capable men to do the work will not be found wanting. 



In 1855, J. J. Stevens. Governor of Washington Territory, in his 

 final report of surveys for a railroad across the Rocky Mountains, 

 called the attention of the Government to the arid lands west of the 

 Missouri River, between parallels 40 and 49 north latitude. He 

 compared it in extent, climate, rainfall and other features to the 

 Steppes, which occupies about one-fifth of the Russian Empire in 

 Europe, and quotes the " commentaries of the productive forces of 

 Russia," to sustain his statements. And we here select from these 

 quotations to show there has been advancement even in Russia on 

 the question of forestry. The sentences I wish to call your attention 



