Forestry Abroad and at Home 375 



that revenue until that time. And then 

 when 1909 comes, and we are released 

 from the necessity under the treaty of 

 Paris from giving the same privileges 

 to Spain as to the United States, then 

 we can have complete free trade be- 

 tween the islands and America. It is 

 true, as Mr Ireland says, that the Phil- 

 ippines are less developed than any of 

 the colonies to which he refers. It is 

 true that, in a certain sense, the people 

 are less educated. It is true that they 

 are more like children. But it is not 

 true that they are not the best material 

 for self-government. It is true that 

 those islands, the gems of the Orient, 

 have been undeveloped in a way that it 

 is hard to understand unless you read 



the history of the islands, and then you 

 see that these people were brought up 

 to be children constantly, in order that 

 they might not know the wickedness of 

 the world, and that all development was 

 restrained. Now, may we not hope 

 that under American influence, which 

 shall tend to uplift the islands and at 

 the same time to invest good American 

 and other capital there for the purpose 

 of introducing railways and developing 

 the wealth of these islands that there is 

 in the soil, in the mines, in the forests — 

 may we not hope that in 40 years hence, 

 when Brother Ireland goes around the 

 world again to compare the various civ- 

 ilizations, that a new light will break in 

 on him when he looks at the islands ? 



FORESTRY ABROAD AND AT HOME * 



By Gifford Pinchot 



Chief of the Bureau of Forestry 



EXCEPT China, all civilized na- 

 tions care for the forest. Un- 

 til recently the United States 

 ranked nearly with China in this re- 

 spect, and our country still remains far 

 behind the progressive modern nations 

 in nearly all that relates to the protec- 

 tion, preservation, and conservative use 

 of the forest. Japan has a well devel- 

 oped forest service and a national forest 

 school. In Austria, Italy, and Norway 

 and Sweden government forestry is a 

 well-established portion of the national 

 life. Turkey, Greece, Spain, and Por- 

 tugal give attention to the forests. 

 Russia, dealing like ourselves with vast 

 areas of forests in thinly peopled re- 

 gions, but by methods wholly different 

 from our own, is drawing enormous rev- 

 enues from the systematic care and use 

 of the forests. In Germany the scien- 



tific treatment of forests has reached 

 perhaps its highest development. The 

 foresters of France have perfected a 

 most practical and effective general sys- 

 tem of forestry, and have created the 

 difficult art of controlling the floods of 

 mountain torrents by planting trees. 

 The Republic of Switzerland, by the 

 use of methods most instructive to citi- 

 zens of the United States, has developed 

 a type of government forest policy more 

 worthy of our attention and imitation 

 than any other in Europe. In Austra- 

 lia and New Zealand forestry has al- 

 ready made important advances. In 

 Canada the English have made real 

 progress in forestry. The government 

 sells the timber from its forests, but re- 

 tains possession of the lands and employs 

 fire guards. At the Cape of Good Hope 

 they have an excellent forest service ; 



*A chapter from a " Primer of Forestry," part II, by Mr Pinchot, recently published by 

 the Department of Agriculture. 



