THE GRBHNING LANDSCAPB COMPANY, MONROE, MICHIGAN 49 



Conservation of our Forests and 

 Reforestation of Denuded Lands 



ONE of the economic problems that arise in the de- 

 velopment of a nation is the maintenance of its 

 timber tracts. First, there is the period of pioneering, 

 when much of the primeval forest is wastefully destroyed 

 by axe and fire to make room for fields of corn and wheat 

 necessary for the existence of the pioneer and his family. 

 About the same time the commercial lumberman makes 

 his appearance, and under the sway of his ruthless axe 

 the grand monarchs of the forest that have taken centuries 

 to develop are felled, and soon the whole country is 

 stripped of its timber growth. This is called industrial 

 development and we have become so accustomed to the 

 abuse of words that some of us believe it is. 



REASONS FOR 

 BETTER METHODS 



Our forest resources were 

 so great that many people sup- 

 posed them to Ije inexhaustible. 

 Nature, in her patient way, had 

 grown an enormous crop of timber, and in our impatience 

 to harvest this crop we were more wasteful than prudent. 

 Not only did we fail to provide for the renovation of the 

 forests which we destroyed, but the branches and other 

 timber-waste were left to dry and become tinder for the 

 final devastation by fire , until that portion of our national 

 domain became a vast tract of blackened ruins. It is only during 

 the last administration that the idea of conservation has been 

 organized into a governmental policy, and, as is usual in such 

 cases, after the first spasm of reform, the policy has been enforced 

 in a very vacillating way. Even as I write, the forces of con- 

 servation and the forces of destruction are engaged in a sort of 

 Kilkenny cat convention in St. Paul, and we know not yet whether 

 we shall begin to conserve or continue to destroy. 



At present we have no well-defined national policy of con- 

 servation, and cannot have, until the Question is absolutely divorced 

 from politics — until our forests cease to be regarded as the 

 legitimate loot of the powers that Idc. The actual work of re- 

 forestation is largely left to individual initiative and we are in- 

 debted for what little has been accomplished to a few wealthy 

 enthusiasts led by the intrepid Pinchot. 



Plate 38 



SECTION OF THE FORESTRY DEPARTMENT AT THE 

 GREENING NURSERIES 



The growing of seedlings of various kinds of forest trees is a very important 

 department of the Greening Nurseries. MilHons of young trees are grown yearly 

 for forestral purposes. Many varieties are represented — Pine, Spruce, Cedar, Fir, 

 Larch, Maple, Ash, Catalpa, Locust, etc. 



NATIONAL 



JURISDICTION 



The old Ijattle of states' rights must 

 be re-fought, and in this new contest 

 we must align ourselves with the sub- 

 lime Lincoln, who gave the clearest 

 definition ever made of state and federal rights : " What concerns 

 only the state must be controlled by the state ; what concerns the 

 whole nation must be controlled by the nation at large." The 

 preservation of our forests concerns the whole nation, and it is 

 and must remain a Cjuestion of national jurisdiction. But this 

 reform, like all other great reforms, must come from the people 

 themselves. Kings did not voluntarily surrender their pow er, and 

 those who profit by our lassitude and lethargy will whisper low 

 lest we be awakened from the stupor of indifference. Nor must 

 we depend on the politicians ; for, though they seem to lead, they 

 follow most abjectly. 



