PRESERVATION^' OF FORESTS. 



79 



State of New York is oue to which public attention has 

 been called of late^ and while the importance of preserv- 

 ing the forests over this entire region of country can 

 scarcely be questioned, it is at the same time only one of 

 many similar areas that should become public domain 

 and the forests covering them remain inviolate for all 

 time. There is scarcely a brook or river, from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific Ocean, that does not flow from some forest- 

 covered hill or mountain, and this in itself is enough to 

 warrant the withdrawing of all such land from market, 

 whether owned by the different States or the General 

 Government. There are large areas covered by forests 

 throughout the entire Alleghany .range of mountain, 

 from Pennsylvania to Georgia, also in the Blue Eidge and 

 the Cumberland Mountains, all of which should be pre- 

 served as public domain, instead of being disposed of by 

 the different States in which they are located for a few 

 cents an acre, as has been done in thousands of instances. 



Similar areas of wood-lands, but less in extent, may be 

 met with in the same latitude, until we reach the Pacific 

 slope. But the best and most valuable timber in all of 

 these forests is being removed at a rapid rate, and if it 

 is to be preserved, no time should be wasted by the dif- 

 ferent States in which they are situated, or the General 

 Government, in taking possession of them. 



Laws may have to be enacted looking toward the con- 

 trol and general management of these forests, and schools 

 of forestry established, where young men may obtain the 

 information required to fit them for the position of 

 foresters, but these are trifling matters in comparison 

 with the more important one of securing and establish- 

 ing State and National forests. 



MAKAGEMEKT OF FORESTS. 



I have no doubt that many persons Avill object to this 

 proposition of passing over large areas of forests to the 



