Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-18
OF FORESTRY AGAIN.

Carl Schultz said to the Forestry Con-
gress that the willful and useless destruc-
ton of our forests is the spendthrift vast
ing of the heritage of future generations.
There are those who are willing to admit
this, but reply that 'posterity must take its
chances" Such live for the present only.
But the man who has any love Of country
in his soul does care for posterity, and is
solieitous that future generations shall not
have cause to curse his memory.
1t viii forever stand to the credit of the
State of Colorado that she was the first to
recognize, and remains the only State Of
the American Union that recognizes in
her organic law the duty of the present to
the future in this important matter. In
her Constitution, adopted in 1876, Colo
RADIO provided that the Legislature should
enact laws for the preservation Of forests,
and to punish offenders for their unlawful
destruction. The same instrument pro-
yides that the Legislature shall encourage
timber culture, and in assessing land values
that the State shall not take into account
the labors of the owner in growing hedges
and trees, and shall not for such growth
increase the value Of the land for the pur-
poses Of taxation. Since then other States
have passed laws to encourage timber cult
ure, and, indeed, some Of the States had
laws on their statute books prior to that,
but Colorado was the first to incorporate
the value of forest preservation to the
State into her fundamental law, and to
make it the duty of the Legislature to leg
islate in that direction.
In his important report TO Congress
upon forestry in 1877, Mr.. Houghton DEM
onstrated the Importance of forest preser.
walton to the maintenance of streams, the
prevention of foods and the equability of
the climate. As far back as 1875, the
Commissioner of the General Land Office
called attention to the wasteful destruction
of timber in California, and then advised
Congress that unless it was checked, the
integrity of our streams could not be
maintained, and that both mining, agri-
culture and the climate of this State
would suffer. The Greek Emp-rors ages
ago forbade the cutting of timber near
populous sections without official consent,
and required that for every tree felled an
other be planted To this day the Turks
enforce such a law in the Constantinople
district, and require a certain forest re-
serve to be religiously preserved. But
once has the law been suspended. In 1929
to eject the Janizaries who took refuge in
the forests, the Government consented
that the timber should be fired The re-
suit was that million Of people whose
water supply had for ages been preserved |
by the forest, suffered bitterly, and the old |
conditions were not restored until the
Government, at immense cost, rehabil-
itated the reserve by tree planting.
In his celebrated work, The Earth as
Modified by Human Action" George P
Marsh established by incontestible proofs
that the desolation in Eastern countries,
and the decline of agriculture, were due |
to the destruction of forests. A most re-
markable instance is that of the Khanate
of Bucharia, which was at one time ter
restial paradise. but by the destruction of
the timber became an arid waste, as desc
late as it was at one time prosperous and
populous. The whole subject of forestry
is one of the most interesting the reader
can take up for examination, and the lit
srature of it is so rich and profoundly at
.ractive that whoever undertakes its ex-
animation, will find in it pleasure and will
acquire from it vast fund of useful in
formation.