Wisconsin State Agricultural Society . 77 
mate by the extended cultivation of her lands. M. Tiserand’s review 
of the proposal of the French government to cut away her forests, 
presents the view more in accord with our wants and the law of our 
progress. “ The development of a country in wealth and population 
is incompatible with the existence of forests, and it may be laid 
down as a law, that its prosperity is in inverse proportion to the 
extent of its forests; therefore, to restrict the clearing off of forests 
under certain well understood conditions, is to oppose progress, an 
opposition quite unavailing." Wood is distinguished from all other 
fuel by the property of rapid re-production, and also the fact that 
it passes through various stages of beauty and utility to man before 
it is converted into fuel, and its use as fuel links many of us by 
sweet memories to the hearth-stones of our ancestors. Thus our 
interests, our sentiments, and our honor prompt the re-production 
of forests. The pertinent fact remains that forests and their products 
are not only useful, but indispensable, and their preservation will be 
controlled by the economic surroundings. And it might be added, 
the moral obligation of this generation, to make good the waste we 
have committed, in cutting manorial oaks from an entailed estate, 
brings conviction to every honest mind that we cannot live for our¬ 
selves alone, wickedly and profligately spending the rich gifts of our 
soil and climate, and that we should take measures to re-produce 
forests upon our farms to supply the wants of those who come after 
us, if we would not write as the standard of our civilzation “ after 
us the deluge.’' 
Illinois is prompted by her worthiest men to enter upon this sys¬ 
tem of re-growth of forests as entirely practical, owing to her 
extensive coal deposits furnishing cheap fuel. I propose utilizing 
the peat of this state, that our forests may re-appear, as they only 
can by furnishing cheap fuel, a pre-requisite to their re-growth. 
Again, this duty of our people to reproduce forests, may be per¬ 
formed under the stimulent of the ruling motive, profit. To supply 
wood for fuel and other indispensible uses, requires three cords per 
person per annum of the entire population. The population of the 
state to-day is 1,176,000, requiring 3,528,000 cords per annum. 
Protected forests of healthy, hard wood increases during a period 
of twenty-five years, annually, an average of one cord per acre. 
This would require 3,528,000 acres to be maintained in growth for 
twenty-five years, to provide wood for fuel and for other indispensi- 
