480 The National Geographic Magazine 



gena to the Rio de la Plata, the country 

 now known as Latin America was seized 

 by men whose purpose was to find gold, 

 or in other ways to acquire wealth 

 quickly and easily. Simon Bolivar, 

 about 1820, was perhaps the first man 

 who really saw the matter in its broader 

 light. The history of the federation 

 which he established has been in gen- 

 eral the history of the entire region. It 

 was an effort to plant a new civilization 

 among a people imperfectly prepared 

 for it. ■ 



To those who settled on the coast of 

 what is now the United States the terms 

 freedom and self-government had a defi- 

 nite meaning. The motives which led 

 them to seek homes in the new world 

 were widely different from those which 

 impelled the gold-seekers and the con- 

 quistadores who landed further south. 

 Any similarity in the later political 

 structures was impossible. 



Signs of development in the southern 

 countries can be traced for somewhat 

 more than fifty years. During the last 

 twenty years the signs have become ever 

 increasingly marked. Mexico, Chile, 

 Peru, Brazil, and Argentina are no 

 longer to be classed among the turbu- 

 lent. 



An ambition for progress and polit- 

 ical stability is noticeable in nearly all, 

 if not in all, of the remaining peoples. 

 The people of Cuba, of Guatemala, 

 Costa Rica, and Nicaragua resent the 

 charge or the insinuation that they 

 are hotbeds of revolution. They pride 

 themselves on every added year of do- 

 mestic peace. Colombia aspires to re- 

 peat the experience of Mexico. Cipriano 

 Castro, today almost unique, is a sur- 

 vival of the despot who ruled the peon a 

 century ago, and even in his case the 

 type is essentially modified. 



It is perhaps too much to expect that 

 this peace of months will expand itself 

 into a peace of years ; but the situation 

 is noteworthy, and we believe it to be 

 deeply significant. 



FORESTRY IN CALIFORNIA 



CALIFORNIA has over 28,000,000 

 acres, or over one-fifth of its 

 total area, under forest cover. Much 

 of this land is finely timbered, and, 

 with forest management, will be increas- 

 ingly valuable for the wood which it 

 can supply. But in California the for- 

 ests have another use, which, as is well 

 understood in that state, is even more 

 important than the production of tim- 

 ber — to conserve the water supply. 

 The wonderful agricultural develop- 

 ment which irrigation has made possi- 

 ble is perhaps the largest fact in Cali- 

 fornia's recent economical history. Be- 

 cause of the need of water and the fear 

 of floods, public sentiment in favor of 

 forest protection in California has al- 

 ways been well in advance of that in 

 other states, as was conspicuously illus- 

 trated after President Cleveland, in 

 1897, proclaimed the 13 Federal re- 

 serves, created at the close of his ad- 

 ministration. Everywhere else in the 

 West the opposition aroused was so 

 strong that the proclamation was soon 

 afterward temporarily suspended ; but 

 a special exception was made in the case 

 of California, where public opinion was 

 from the first strongly in favor of the 

 reserves. 



Something less than one-third of the 

 entire wooded area of the state is now 

 embraced in the Federal forest reserves. 

 That the remaining 20,000,000 acres of 

 its forests may be made to serve the 

 public interest in the fullest possible 

 measure, the state has solicited and se- 

 cured the cooperation of the Forest 

 Service in working out a proper forest 

 policy for it. 



But the subject of paramount impor- 

 tance is the prevention and control of 

 fires. A good opportunity for experi- 

 ment along this line was afforded the 

 service by cooperation with the private 

 owner of an 80,000-acre tract, who had 

 previously introduced a crude fire-pro- 

 tection system. A comprehensive plan 



