The New York herald., 1873-10-24
Forest Laws In America.

A few days ago, after some comments on
the subsisting connection between forest con-
servancy and the rainfall of country, we
promised to indicate some remedy for the pres
ent wholesale deforesting SO rapidly progress
ing in the United States. ae
When the early pioneers of the West plunged
into its dark and densely-wooded wilds it was
natural enough that they should have made
war on that which excluded their homes from
the sunlight and the soil from cultivation.
They soon found that where too thickly con-
gregated the tree belts We're obnoxious to
health and their decaying foliage productive
of the worst types of malarial disease. And
an open country was felt almost as strongly as
the desire of the Arctic traveller, sick of ''the
cold light Of the planets" to see the long lost
daylight But experience has fully taught
them that both in sanitary and climatic
point of view the agency of forest trees is
indispensable. It is now known that the up
lifted and breathing foliage absorbs vast guam
titles of noxious gases, arising from animal
respiration, fuel consumption, the decay OF
organic matter and the exhalations of the very
worst and most prolific sources Of disease
It has been found that forest belt
green canopy intercepting the miasmatic cur
rents and chemically decomposing and recon-
bining them-has served as ON efectual safe
guard from the pestilence, SO that such belt,
could it be planted to the windward of a town
or city, would greatly assist in reducing its
death rate. p
Not to dwell, however, on the demonstrated
necessity of preserving and augmenting our
existing tree supply, on either sanitary,
climatic or agricultural grounds, it is evident
that the time has arrived for legislation, based
on more recent scientific data, furnished by
the clmatologist, to intervene in behalf of
forest culture and forest conservancy.
In paper read o short time ago by Pro-
fessor Hough, Of Albany when before the
Science Congress at Portland, strong argu-
ment was presented in favor of such interven-
ton and also in support of the asserted
climatic influence Of wooded belts. The eco
nomic value Of timber and our absolute de-
pendence upon it for innumerable uses in
manufactures and the arts had, he showed,
proved consideration of such weight in
Europe that the reservations amounted to o
very large proportion of the national demesne
In France alone the forest administration
covers 8, ,465, 600 acres and has been extended to
the arid and once rainless tracts Of French Al
geria, where the effect of the planting has
been to give several rainy days in the crop
ripening months. The specific lines in which
legislation might cooperate in this country
for the preservation of timber growing are
somewhat different from those followed in
Europe. But it is easy to see how the Con-
gressional and State lawmakers may work
out the problem suggested. A systematic and
official inquiry from the various government
scientific bureaus. which furnish any data Of
the climatology, sanitary or meteorological
conditions Of the country, embodied in a
popular form, and disseminated widely among
the people, would instruct both them and
their rulers in the necessity Of forest laws and
in the kind Of legislation most judicious. 1t
might be found wise to withhold given belts
of timbered government land from sale, and,
as Professor Hough suggests, to encourage
tree planting by exempting in certain sections
all newly timbered lands from taxation. The
further encouragement by restrictive and re-
munerative enactments would be feasible, and
any practical farmer or farmers association
could indicate just what provisions would be
most effective But, after all, the grand point
for legislation to aim at, in the first place, is
the elucidation Of the problem Of forest clima-
tology through its own official investigation;
and when this has been done by the diffusion
Of the knowledge gained in the most popu-
lar and comprehensive form, the people
themselves may Of their own accord enlist,
with an enlightened activity. IN beautifying