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natural growth withiu the period wlieu, at the present rate, we shall 

 have cleared the original forest off the ground. We are doing almost 

 nothing in the direction of cultivating forests j nay, we are not even 

 protecting from devastation the young trees which might replace the 

 forests if they had a fair chance for growth. 



It is not the farmer— who only clears the forest in order to sow his 

 crops, nor the lumberman — who fells the trees for the purpose of send- 

 ing the lumber to market, nor the railroad— which calls for our forest 

 trees for its ties, nor even the settler— who wants fuel to keep him warm, 

 who are the enemies of our forests. All these at least obtain from this 

 moderate destruction some return for themselves and society which is 

 great and visible, though nob always commensurate with the damage 

 they inflict by their careless and wasteful methods. Fire, however, and 

 browsing animals of all sorts inflict a damage on the growing forests 

 for which there is either no return at all or one so insignificant as not 

 to be worth mentioning. These two agencies, between them, keep mill- 

 ions of acres free from trees which w^ould soon be covered with dense 

 forests if they could be protected from such spoilers for a few years. 



It is estimated on good authority that within fifty years, at the present 

 rate of cutting, and with the present wasteful methods of management, 

 the great bulk of our valuable forests will be gone, with almost no pros- 

 pect of seeing them, replaced by a new growth possessing anything like 

 the value of the present one. To put it mildly, we are using up our 

 forests at a much more rapid rate than we are replacing them. We are 

 already beginning to experience some of the most serious evils of such 

 a policy in a growing scarcity of valuable timber and in the changing 

 character of our streams, soil and local climate. And these evils are 

 bound to increase with every year of continuance in this line of action. 



Such being the case, the question as to efficient remedies becomes all- 

 important. 



Before mentioning the various measures of relief to which I believe 

 that it would be wise to have recourse, and which I think will in their 

 main outlines have to be adopted before long, if we are to avoid the 

 losses which will inevitably accompany our present policy, I wish to 

 call attention to some imi^ortant distinctions in terms. I would empha- 

 size the fact that tree-planting is not forest-culture. The two are quite 

 distinct in their methods, in the persons who manage them, and to a 

 large extent in the purposes which they subserve. The term tree-plant- 

 ing I shall ixj)\)\y to the system of planting trees which a farmer may 

 carry on in connection with his agricultural operations from a variety of 

 motives, such as beautifying his farm and house yard, shading his cat- 

 tle in the fields, protecting them or his fields from the blasts of winter by 

 cultivating wind-breaks, planting them aloug the water-courses to keep 

 the soil from being carried awny by sudden freshets, etc. Forest-cult- 

 ure I shall apply to the regular system of cultivating extensive tracts 

 of country with a view to securing as large and valuable a stand of 



