ioo Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



But trees can not be produced at will; they require time. And, if 

 history is worth reading, if political economy is worthy of study, 

 if past experience is not a fraud, the Government should not delay 

 in marking out a policy, deserving of the nation, in regard to the 

 forest and forest supplies of the United States. It can not begin 

 too soon to anticipate the necessities of the people and generations 

 that are to come after. 



Independent of the lumber supply, experience agrees with 

 science, that forests should bear a certain ratio to other lands in 

 order to make a country productive as well as healthful. Even if 

 all the lands are good for agricultural purposes, it would be the 

 greatest folly to clear off all the woodland; as such policy would 

 not fail to result in diminished crops, impaired sanitary conditions 

 and common ruin. 



This may not be believed by some, for we are all alike disposed 

 to take the infidelity side of questions involving Providence or 

 nature's irrevocable laws. Even a Brooklyn divine recently made 

 the statement, " that lands watered by the ingenuity of man are jive 

 times more productive than those watered by heavenly showers ; and 

 that in twenty-five years there will not be between the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Coasts one hundred miles of land not claimed either by the 

 plow or pick, and the great waste given up to the rattlesnake, bat 

 and prairie dog will by irrigation be made to support whole nations 

 of industrious population." While the Chief of the Geographical 

 vSurvey states of the arid land in the Dakotas, Moncana, Washing- 

 ton Territory, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California, New 

 Mexico, Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and 

 Nebraska, about one hundred million acres can be irrigated and 

 made productive. What is to be done with the remaining five 

 hundred and fifty million acres? 



When we recount the miseries and misfortunes of the eight hun- 

 dred million people that meagerly subsist on the products of irri- 

 gated, treeless lands, it is to be hoped no part of this country may 

 ever become a Spain, a China, an India, or an Egypt. 



Every State and every country should have a fair proportion of 

 the total area in timber — it is better than to have it all clothed with 

 flocks or covered with corn — in it is the necessity for civilization 

 and basis for a happy and powerful people. 



Our own State of Ohio, which has the finest agricultural climate 

 in the world, will soon be obliged to do something to offset the 



