INTRODUCTION. 
103 
The most characteristic and prevalent species of the middle region are 
the oaks. Several kinds of white oak, so much in demand, and so highly 
prized in ship-building and numerous domestic arts, are abundant in all 
parts of this division and especially in the mountains. There are also 
large tracts of white pine on both sides of the Blue Tiidge. The hicko- 
ries are found everywhere, and the black walnut is plentiful in the river 
bottoms and on the fertile slopes of the mountains, so common as to be 
used for fencing; and the wild cherry, mahogany (black birch), and sev- 
eral species of maple furnish abundant cabinet materials; and to these 
should be added the extensive forests of holly in the eastern region. 
Nearly every one of the 20 kinds of timber admitted to the New York 
shipyards as suitable for building vessels is found in this State in abun- 
dance ; and since the forests of the North Atlantic States are very nearly 
exhausted, and timber for ship building is brought to the coast from the 
upper Mississippi, and even foreign governments are exporting large sup- 
plies for their navy yards from the interior of the continent, it is evident 
that our forests have a value and are entitled to a consideration which they 
have never received among us. We have still some 40,000 square miles 
of forests of which the larger part is as yet unviolated by the woodman’s 
axe. And I think it safe to say that the intrinsic value of this heritage alone 
is such, that within ten years it will be seen, that it exceeds the present 
total valuation of the entire property of the State. And it is time for the 
people of the State and its legislators especially, to begin to realize and 
take account of the fact, that here is one of the most valuable, a6 it is 
also one of the most undeveloped and little considered of her natural re- 
sources. And its value is appreciating more rapidly than that of any 
other kind of property in the State ; and this from two causes, the opera- 
tion of which is incessant and rapid, and the results inevitable and soon 
to become actual, viz : the rapid exhaustion of the more accessible forests 
of the continent and the constantly accelerating consumption of their 
products, and the increase and cheapening of the means of transporta- 
tion to those parts of the world where the demand is greatest. 
The people of this latitude for several generations have been accus- 
tomed to regard and to treat the forests as a natural enemy, to be extir- 
pated, like their aboriginal denizens, human and feral, by all means and 
at any cost, and “ a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes 
upon the thick trees.” Too many of our people have yet to learn that 
“ all that has been changed,” and the time has come not only to cease 
from the wanton and thoughtless, but even from the ordinarily legitimate 
distraction of forests, in the way of “ clearing new grounds,” &c., and 
even to begin the work of undoing, — of repairing the mischief and waste 
