35 



undeserving of tlieir name if they fail to give instruction on a subject 

 so vitally connected with agriculture aud the general interests of the 

 country as is forestry. 



At such a school as this could be trained the men who could manage 

 extensive tracts of Ibrest lands in the ownership either ot private in- 

 dividuals or of the State. But all these measures, important and valu- 

 able as they are, would not be sufficient by any means to insure satis- 

 factory results at the present juncture. In order to make them of any 

 l)ermanent value they must be accomi^anied by a radical and far-reach- 

 ing policy of governmental encouragement and management. 



The States and the nation should encourage the planting and cultiva- 

 tion of large forests. Mere tree planting will never meet the require- 

 ments of the case. Large tracts of contiguous forest laud must be 

 maintained, if we are to get the industrial and climatic advantages 

 which flow from a well-wooded country. The time has come when it 

 may be irrofitable for private citizens as a mere means of acquiring 

 wealth to plant and cultivate forests ; profitable, I mean, if they have 

 the knowledge in regard to local conditions which it should be the 

 duty of the State to furnish through such forestry schools. To manage 

 such forests so as to make them profitable requires a high degree of ad- 

 ministrative talent and trained technical skill such as is rarely acquired 

 by any great number of men except in connection with a regularly 

 equipped school. If the trained men are at hand, and can be obtained, 

 and the evidence is forthcoming that the cultivation of forests is likely 

 to prove profitable, we may expect to find many corporations or individ- 

 ual men going into the business from purely pecuniary considerations, 

 and thus we should enlist private interest in the cause of public welfare, 

 as we do in other branches of industry. 



But though I believe, judging from the experience of foreign coun- 

 tries and from the probabilities of the case, that we should thus get 

 many men interested in extending aud maintaining our forests, I do not 

 think that this wall be sufficient. We shall never have a thoroughly or 

 even an approximately adequate remedy for the evils which beset us in 

 this matter until the States and the nation undertake the planting 

 and cultivation of forests on a large scale. 



In the first place it is evident that in the case of the large percentage 

 of forests which, on account of meteorological considerations, must be 

 - maintained under unfavorable conditions, such as those remote from 

 large streams and railroads, which would facilitate transportation, there 

 can be no sufficient inducement for private capital to seek such an in- 

 vestment. If the enterprise will not pay good returns w^e can not expect 

 private parties to take it up, and much of the reforesting or new afforest- 

 ing which is most necessary for climatic reasons is of this character. 

 It is, moreover, unsafe to have forests of this kind in private hands, 

 since there is no foretelling at what moment private interest might lead 



