Nathaniel Hillyer Egleston

“ We shall know, as it was not possible to know before, their value as sources of lumber and fuel, and for various uses in the arts. We shall know, as we have not known before, the various agencies by which the forests are destroyed, and the rapidity with which their destruction is effected. We shall learn, as we have not learned before, that, wasteful as is the process of converting our forests into lumber, more of our precious woodlands are destroyed by fire than by the axe. ”

“ Sheltered from the winds and, to a considerable degree, from the cold, the snows themselves forming a protecting covering, the earth seldom freezes in the forest, and the warmth from the ground below gradually melts the snow and so feeds the springs and streams as to maintain in them an equable flow. As the warmer sun and wind of advancing spring-time begin to heat the surface of the ground, the screen of the trees prevents their influence from being so sensibly felt in the woods as in the open fields. ”

“ England will at once be adduced, perhaps, as a country not well wooded, and yet one which compares favorably with others in regard to the conditions of living and her competency to secure the welfare of all classes of her people. But England is specially favored in other respects. She has a moist and equable climate secured to her by her surrounding seas and high latitude, while the general shape of her surface and her geological constitution exempt her from the alternations of flood and drought which in so many other countries result from the absence of forests. ”

“ The adaptation of trees to one climate or another, their comparative value for one purpose or another, the obstacles to successful planting—these, and many other things, need to be known as they are not yet known. Some things we can learn from the experiments which have been made and the knowledge which has been gained in Europe. But so different are the trees there and here, and so different the conditions of soil and climate, that the problem set before us is virtually a new one, which must be worked out carefully and patiently on our own ground. ”

“ We shall learn that the axe and the flames together are consuming our forests so rapidly that we are threatened with great evils on this account in the not distant future. Trees are quickly felled and quickly burned; they are slow to grow. The lumberman's axe can destroy in an hour the oak or the pine which has gained its stature and its worth only by the annual increments of a century. ”

“ It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the European nations, having learned its value by its loss in greater or less measure, see the forest to be an important factor in all that constitutes national life and comfort, and have given it a place in their thoughts and in their practical arrangements which we have not in ours. ”

“ Forests which have been the growth of centuries have been swept off in a day. The lumberman cuts the few noblest trees, or takes only the choicest portions of them for the purposes of the arts, and burns the rest to ashes, thereby precluding another growth upon the spot. The miner does the same, cutting off the already sparse forests, and taking no pains to replace them. And so it is happening that our forest area, particularly in the more recently settled portions of the country, is rapidly diminishing. ”

“ When we consider the limited territory of Germany, as compared with our own country, one can not take even this cursory observation of its forest schools without having the conviction impressed upon him that forestry is there regarded as a subject of the first importance, and that it has interests and relations which are very much if not altogether overlooked by us. ”

“ THE prudent and thrifty tradesman once a year takes an account of stock, and thereby assures himself as to what goods he has in possession, as well as what gain or loss may have accrued to him as the result of the year's transactions. So the nation, or, if we please to use the figure of personality, "Uncle Sam," deems it wise occasionally to take an account of stock; only this is done but once in ten years, and is called "taking the census." ”

“ With our boundless area of cheap lands, covered originally with forests to such an extent that the trees have been regarded as an obstruction to agriculture, and so to be swept away often by fire rather than to await the slower process of the axe, we have thought little of the forest as anything of permanent value. Added to this the practically unlimited area of our coal-fields has served to prevent any apprehension of loss from the destruction of the forests. ”

“ Meanwhile, let tree-planting be encouraged. Let it be shown, as it has been again and again, that much of our poor and what is commonly regarded as waste land can be made to yield a handsome profit by being devoted to the growth of trees; and that our rough hills and mountain-sides can thus be made of direct pecuniary value, while at the same time they are rendered objects of beauty and the means of protecting our springs, maintaining the flow of our streams, and promoting health and prosperity. With this awakened interest in the forests, sylviculture will come to be one of our arts. ”

“ It is not surprising that people living amid such exposures of life and property, and seeing so manifestly as they do that these are attributable to the absence of trees, should bestir themselves in seeking the appropriate remedy, that they should organize, as they have done, forestry associations, appoint arbor-days, and engage the aid of the State itself in offering bounties for tree-planting, and in exempting forest plantations for a time from taxation. ”

“ We should not have time to become acquainted with the facts ascertained by one census, and to see their bearing upon our life and present occupations, before another census would be at our door with its claims upon our attention, because possibly necessitating some important change in our plans or pursuits.
With the growth of the country, the census constantly becomes a greater and more complicated matter. ”

“ So it is also well known that the woodmen engaged in felling trees in the forest, which they usually do in the winter, find no inconvenience from cold winds, as these penetrate the wood but a short distance, even when the trees are stripped of their leaves. And as the woods shelter those within them from the winds, so do they protect the adjacent fields from the blasts which would otherwise sweep over them, and, by their cold, their mechanical force, and their desiccating influence, prove very injurious to crops. ”

“ Looking at the map of the Upper Peninsula, the eye sees instantly that the pine-forests remain only in a comparatively small district bordering on the northern portion of Wisconsin and not easily accessible, while from that part of the State lying along the Menominee River and Green Bay, as well as along the upper shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Superior—in short, wherever they could be reached with facility—both the pine and hard-wood have been cleared away. ”

“ That there is ever to come a time when we may suffer from a scarcity of wood for fuel or for the arts, hardly seems to have entered many minds.
Very different is the settled feeling in other countries in respect to the value of the forests. When in some portions of Europe the peasant has to travel miles on foot to bring home, as the result of a whole day's labor, an armful of wood to burn, and can afford to bake bread but once in six months because fuel is so scarce and dear; and when England, with only four or five per cent. ”

“ So, our hillsides and mountain-slopes, where the forests are most usually found, are the world's great roofs or water-sheds, from which, if they are thatched with trees, the water flows off slowly and in the most desirable manner into the streams and upon the lands of the regions below, but, if stripped of this protecting covering, then with sudden and disastrous flood which no art of man can withstand. ”

“ When the rains fall upon the open, unwooded country, unless it is of a quite level character, they flow off at once into the beds of the neighboring streams, and pour their united flood into the larger rivers, swelling their volume rapidly to such an extent that their waters can not be confined within their banks, but break out and overspread the adjacent lands, carrying destruction oftentimes to the growing crops, covering fertile fields with masses of gravel and rubbish of various sorts, interfering with manufacturing interests, and often destroying life itself. ”

“ Is there any crime against Nature which draws down a more terrible curse than that of stripping Mother Earth of her sylvan covering? The hand of man has produced this desert, and, I verily believe, every other desert upon the surface of this earth. ”

“ Germany has given much attention to her forests ever since the days of Charlemagne, who is said to have afforested the Ardennes and established the forest of Osnabrück. The sovereigns of Germany have treated the woodlands not merely as preserves for game and places for royal enjoyment in its pursuit, but have encouraged their cultivation for the production of fuel and timber, as well as for their value in other respects. ”

“ An Agronomic Institute has been established lately at the Conservatory of Arts and Trades at Paris, having for its object the advancement of agriculture. It has fifteen professors, several of whom will be instructors of forestry in some of its branches. In addition to the instruction in forestry thus given, the French forestry administration is accustomed to send out agents to instruct classes in forestry at several of the agricultural schools. There are also inferior forest schools for the education of subaltern foresters at Grenoble and Villers-Cotterets. ”

“ It is only natural that our people, occupying a region covered to a great extent with a dense and varied growth of trees, in regard to which no apprehension of deficiency has been suggested until within a comparatively short time, should have entertained little thought of the forest as a thing to be specially cared for and cultivated. ”

“ The revelations of the census will show with new clearness that, in view of the rapid destruction of our forests and the evils threatened in consequence, there is no time to be lost in taking measures to avert those evils so far as possible. What measures in particular should be adopted it is aside from our present purpose to show. It is enough to say in general that we should do all that we can individually, and by legislative enactment where necessary, to prevent the further needless destruction of our remaining forests. ”

“ A competent observer tells us that of late years "strenuous and successful endeavors have been made to introduce into the management of the forests the latest improvements adopted in Germany and France, and to regulate the national forest economy in accordance with the most advanced forest science of the day." The system of instruction established embraces a Forest Institute at Stockholm, which, in the language of the royal ordinance for its management, "has for its end to educate able forest managers by free instruction" ”

“ Richard Hess, formerly Professor of Forestry and now director of the Forestry Department of the University of Giessen, in a recent work of his, may be taken as a fair exhibition of the reasoning of those who favor the union of the forest schools with the universities. He claims that the universities can always command for their various chairs men of the highest ability, and this, in the first place, because the position of such a professor is the most independent one, the instructors in the forest schools being dependent upon the director ”

“ It was organized to meet the fact that over more than one third of the great State of Minnesota the winds rush with a howling fury and with a bitter cold that neither beast nor fruit-tree can resist or withstand, and for miles not a single forest-tree rears its head in protest. ”

“ The district forest schools are established at suitable points in the public forests. They are under the oversight of the Forest Bureau, and each under the visitation of the forest inspector in whose district of service the school is situated. Each forest school is presided over by a president, who is at the same time the teacher of the school, with a forest overseer as his assistant. The course of instruction embraces one full year, at the end of which the pupils have a public examination. ”

“ From thirty-five to forty students attend, of whom about one fifth are foreigners. The requirements for admission are as follows: Citizens of the state, who wish to enter the state forestry service, after attending a full course at the gymnasium, are admitted, and must pass through a course of four years, of which the first two are devoted to those fundamental and auxiliary studies which do not relate directly to forest-science, but which serve as a preparation for the remaining two years' studies, or the forest-course proper. Foreigners may attend the first two years or not, as they prefer. ”

“ The Austrian Empire is second only to Germany in the abundance and character of its forest schools and in the general interest taken in the subject of forestry. At the head of the Austrian schools stands the Imperial High School of Agriculture and Forestry at Vienna. This was founded by a royal decree of 1872, upon the basis of a reorganized forest school originally established at Mariabrunn, near Vienna, at the entrance of the beautiful Wienerwald. ”

“ More and more there is demanded, in those who are called to important positions in the forestry service, the most thorough academical education, and one now has very little chance of gaining a high position in the management of the government forests who has not had a complete university education. ”

“ An age of seventeen years is required for admission. At the close of the second year the state students must pass an examination in natural philosophy and mathematics; but if they fail they are allowed one more trial. This examination entitles them to enter upon the last two years of special forest studies, in which they are taught agriculture, forest jurisprudence, and the higher mathematics, when they are again examined, and, if passed, are qualified for a place in the state service. ”

“ It has been found that life may not be worth living, though on the richest soil, if that be all. A writer of acknowledged authority, in a lecture before the Illinois Industrial University, speaking of the importance of trees as a shelter of crops from injurious winds, says, "I think it may be safely estimated that an average of one twelfth part of all our crops of grain and large fruits is destroyed by violent winds, which such a system of protection, or its equivalent in groves, would so far check as to prevent the destruction." ”

“ These floods are succeeded by periods of drought. The flow of water in the streams shrinks away, often leaving their beds almost dry. As a consequence, crops and herds suffer, the mill-wheels are stopped or turn but slowly and feebly, the transportation of merchandise is impeded, and the various industries of life suffer. The forests prevent such a deplorable condition of things. The spongy soil formed by their fallen leaves, accumulated for years, retains the rain which falls upon it as in a great reservoir, and obliges it to flow off gradually instead of with a sudden flood. ”