Forestry. i o i 



destruction that is still going on with her little groves. When Ohio 

 came into the Union with forty-one thousand square miles of terri- 

 tory, she presented the grandest unbroken forest ever beheld on this 

 continent. A forest interspersed with hills and valleys, springs, 

 brooks and rivers ; with a soil most inviting to the aspirations of 

 the agriculturist. The natural conditions of things were such that 

 the possessors of this inheritance longed for the soil, and looked 

 upon trees with less favor than they did upon those who disputed 

 their titles with the tomahawk. Indians could be made to move 

 away ; but the trees were all disposed to stand their ground and 

 take the consequences. Both were considered obstructions to civ- 

 ilization, and both in the contest got the worst of it. 



The superabundance of trees was incompatible with the interests 

 of husbandry, and the settlers were obliged to clear the land to till 

 the soil. Forests can flourish independent of agriculture ; but 

 agriculture can not prosper without forests. This was not so visible, 

 however, to the early inhabitants who lived in perpetual shade. 

 War was declared — every owner and occupant of the soil combined 

 with his neighbors in a warfare of destruction ; and millions of 

 noble trees were killed by cutting a circle around the trunk, and 

 then left to decay. Sections of timber served in this way were 

 called "deadnings." These deadnings were to be seen all over 

 the country as fast and as far as settlements were made or contem- 

 plated. And now — less than one hundred years — more than sev- 

 enty-five per cent, of this great forest has disappeared, and only 

 small clumps in agricultural sections can be found in any part of 

 the State. The announcement that the members of the Ohio State 

 Forestry Association found a forest at Rushville with an area of 

 eleven hundred acres, has been received with surprise. 



The older trees that occupied their places in these remaining 

 clumps, have nearly all fallen by the hand of the axman, and the 

 younger growths are being appropriated for various purposes 

 greatly in advance of any possible reproduction of the remaining 

 stock ; and the time is not far distant, if things go on as they have 

 been, when the salubrious climate, with summer showers and pro- 

 ductive soil, will be changed to one of uncertainty. We are now 

 on the very border of that limit; still the'thousands of portable saw- 

 mills are destroying all the remaining trees that will make boards, 

 railroad ties or building lumber. And Ohio will discover when too 

 late, that private interest is insufficient to protect forest lands, and 



