4 



am especially indebted to Hon. George P. Marsh, the Ameri- 

 can Minister to Rome, Captain Campbell Walker, Conserva- 

 tor of State Forests in New Zealand, J. C. Brown, LL. D., long 

 Colonial Botanist at Cape of Good Hope, and J. McGregor, 

 Forester of the Duke of Athole, for information given in per- 

 sonal interviews as well as for that derived from their pub- 

 lished works. 



The literature of forestry, already large, is now rapidly 

 increasing by the cooperation of professors in forest schools, 

 and government officials specially commissioned to investi- 

 gate different branches of the subject, and many other writers. 

 A German catalogue gives the titles of 1,815 volumes on 

 forestry issued prior to 1842, and the titles of 650 works pub- 

 lished in the six years prior to 1876. On an average, over 

 one hundred new books on forestry appear annually in the 

 German language. One of the Spanish Commissioners to the 

 Centennial Exposition, Seiior Morera, published a list of 

 1,126 volumes on forestry in the Spanish language alone. 



Little attention has been given in this country to sylvicul- 

 ture. Nature has been wonderfully bountiful in the magnifi- 

 cent forests which once adorned this land, but our people 

 have been recklessly prodigal in wasting this rich inheritance. 

 As if they were the enemies of man, forests have been con- 

 sumed without a thought of renewing them, and fire has been 

 made to help the axe in destroying what it required ages to 

 produce. 



The progress of a nation may be measured to a large extent 

 by its consumption of wood. Extensively as brick, stone, and 

 iron may be substituted for wood in building, and coal used for 

 fuel, the timber demand for purposes of utility and ornament 

 will everywhere increase as civilization advances. The rail- 

 ways are enormous consumers of wood. Says Professor C. S. 

 Sargent : Supposing the life of a sleeper is seven years, the 

 85,000 miles of track in the United States consume annually 

 34,000,000 sleepers, or thirty years' growth on 68,000 acres 

 of the best natural woodlands. At least 125,000 miles of fencing 

 are required to enclose the railroads of the country, costing 

 not less than 143,000,000, with large expenditures for annual 



