FORESTRY BUREAU. 



1G5 



which the experience and the mature consideration of other countries 

 have led them to adopt. 



FORESTRY BECOME SCIENTIFIC. 



As certainly as the conclusions of science and patient observation 

 are to be trusted the system of forest conservation and management 

 which has been adopted by most of the European Governments is the 

 one which, in its substance and essential elements, must be accepted 

 and pursued by us. And the sooner we recognize this fact and act 

 upon it the better. There is no American method of forestry in dis- 

 tinction from a European or an Asiatic system. The great laws of na- 

 ture are the same in all parts of the world. The laws of vegetable phy- 

 siology are every where the same. Varying combinations of soil and 

 climate may require some corresponding variations of treatment in the 

 cultivation of trees and in the management of forests. But the gen- 

 eral system must be the same, governed by the same general and un- 

 changeable laws. 



We know, therefore, the main course to be pursued. We enter upon 

 it in no uncertainty as to its wisdom or the results to be gained. Others 

 have been experimenting for us through a long course of years, and it 

 is our privilege to have the benefit of their experience at the outset of 

 our work. Forestry is no longer a matter of experiment, though it offers 

 all the while an ample field for experiments. It is now an established 

 science, and carries with it the certainty of science in securing results. 

 We can grow a forest as well as we can a field of corn, and with the 

 same certainty as to the product. The same adaptation of science 

 which has raised the work of the husbandman from the haphazard 

 condition of ignorance to the dignity of an intelligent jjrocess and to 

 the value of an employment having an assured success, when applied 

 to the management of trees in masses, renders it not only one of the 

 most interesting but one of the noblest and most valuable pursuits in 

 which men can engage. 



OBJECT OF FORESTRY NOT TO RESTRICT USE OF THE TREES. 



The object of forestry is not, as many perhaps suppose, the mere 

 preservation of timber-trees, whether from the ravages of fire or the 

 axe. It is not to withhold them from being converted into lumber for 

 the many uses of civilized life, or from supplying the equally pressing 

 demands for fuel for domestic and manufacturing purposes. On the 

 contrary, an intelligent system of forestry, while it seeks to protect the 

 forests from needless consumption or harm, undertakes so to cultivate 

 and manage them as to secure the largest possible supply of lumber, fuel, 

 and other products, while at the same time preserving the forest capital 

 as a whole in its integrity and undiminished in value. It undertakes 

 to secure these direct material advantages in the greatest degree, while 

 securiug at the same time climatic and other results of the utmost import- 

 ance. There lias been a great misunderstanding on this subject. Many 

 have been led to suppose that those putting forward the claims of forestry 

 were advocating a policy which would infringe the rights of property 

 by limiting or restricting the freedom of the individual as to the cutting 

 and disposal of his forests. When the preservation of the great Adi- 

 rondack forests has been advocated, the impression has been made upon 

 many persons that a great source of valuable lumber was to be with- 

 held from the public, the trees to be left to grow and at last decay 



