THE GOVERNMENT IN ITS RELATION TO THE 



FORESTS. 



By E. J. James, Ph. D., 



Professor of Pnhlic Finance and Adminisiraiion in ihe Universiiy of Fennsi/lvania. 



The forests of any large couutry bear a x)ecLiliar relation to national 

 prosperity. They not only constitute a large proportion of the natural 

 wealth of a nation, but they form the indispensable basis of a flourish- 

 ing agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial industry. They are, 

 moreover, one of the most imx)ortant elements in determining the cli- 

 matic conditions of any given region and, through these, the distribu- 

 tion of population, of industrial pursuits, and of disease and health. 



According to the census report of 1880 the value of the forest crop 

 of the United States for that year exceeded $700,000,000. To obtain an 

 adequate idea of the relative importance of this product it will only be 

 necessary to institute a brief comparison with other branches of indus- 

 try or wealth. The value of the forest products was equal to one-third 

 of that of all farm products whatsoever sold-, consumed, or on hand in 

 the year 1879. It exceeded by over $100,000,000 the total assessed 

 value of all the farming property in the six ^^ew England States, and 

 by a somewhat smaller figure that of the farms of Virginia, ]S"orth and 

 South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It would have 

 purchased, at its assessed valuation for the pur^^ose of taxation, the 

 entire property, iDersonal and real, of all the citizens of the States of 

 Vermont, Delaware, Florida, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, 

 and Oregon, and of all the Territories besides, and still have left a bal- 

 ance nearly equal to the same kind of property rated in the District of 

 Columbia. 



If to the value of the total output of all our veins of gold, silver, 

 coal, iron, copper, lead, and zinc were added the value of the stone 

 quarries and petroleum obtained, and this sum were increased by the 

 estimated value of all the steam-boats, sailing vessels, canal-boats, flat- 

 boats and barges plying in American waters and belonging to citizens 

 of the United States, it would still be less than the value of the forest 

 crop by a sum sufficient to purchase at cost of construction all the canals, 

 buy up at par all the stock of the telegraph companies, pay their bonded 

 debts, and construct and equip all the telephone lines in the Uni^d 



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