37 



extent followed the advice of the orthodox English economists and got- 

 ten rid of the forest lands which from time immemorial have belonged 

 to the state, are now trying to get back large tracts of them into the 

 possession of the state. The attempt to control private owners in the 

 use of their forests has broken down in Europe nearly as completely as 

 it would do here. There is a reason in our society why the state should 

 undertake this branch of business which does not exist to the same 

 extent in Europe. We have no old families with vast landed es- 

 tates handed down unimpaired from father to son which ofier a good 

 basis for forest management. The only person, natural or artificial, in 

 our society fit to do this is the state. I would not 'be understood as 

 arguing for state monopoly of forests. On the contrary, I think the 

 state should encourage i)rivate individuals to engage in forest cul- 

 ture on a large scale, but I think that it will never succeed in getting 

 them to do so to such an extent as to do away with the necessity of 

 planting and maintaining forests on its own account, which it will need 

 to do, partly because many of the forests most required will offer slight 

 inducements or no inducements at all to private capitalists, and partly 

 for the sake of conducting model forests in connection with its schools 

 of forestry. The best if not the only way to secure the development of 

 private forests, even to the extent which is possible under the best 

 conditions, is to have the state take the initiative in jjlauting and caring 

 for forests. The function of state forestry is not merely to secure the 

 existence of certain public forests, but also, and perhaps quite as much, 

 to encourage private forests by showing the proper methods of culti- 

 vation and utilization of forest products. Men do not like to put 

 their money into an entirely new branch of business. They like to know 

 that somebody has entered the field, if only as a pioneer, and has 

 achieved satisfactory results. 



It may be said that we have already experience enough to show 

 that forestry may become a profitable branch of business of private 

 parties. The trouble is that our experience on that subject is exceed- 

 ingly small, that it moves very few to enter the business, and our for- 

 ests disappear much more rapidly than such favorable experience ac- 

 cumulates. 



It is superfluous to say that the State and the United States Govern- 

 ments should establish and enforce laws which would put an end to the 

 criminal destruction of our forests by fire and browsing animals. 

 The whole subject, then, may be summed up as follows: 

 We are wasting our forests — by the ax, by fire, by pasturage, by 

 neglect. They are rapidly falling below the amount required by indus- 

 trial needs, by our water supply, by our jivers, by our climate, by our 

 navigation and agriculture. It is high time to call a halt. The devas- 

 tation of the ax will probably go on in the forests owned by private par- 

 ties. Other forms of devastation can and should be stopped by rigor- 

 ous measures on the part of the Government. 



