The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-26
The Forestry Problem.

The annual report of the chief fire
warden Of the state is. in the main. an
argument for the adoption or systemat-
ic foresting. There is, Of course, the
statement. of what has been accom-
pliShed in the line OF work for which
his office was created, and which is.
aside from its present utility in pre-
serving the timber on state lands and,
incidentally. that upon lands private
ly owned from destruction by fires, but
a feeble step towards forestry policy.
Even for this work the provisions are
grotesQuely inadequate when the ex-
tent of forest and the means of pro-
lection are compared. That anything
has been accomplished is more due to
the interest Gen. Andrews has in the
larger field of forestry than to the pro-
visions of the law. We are yet long
way off from any methodical forestry
legislation. such as prevails in the
European countries. Nothing could be
more absurd than are the cross pur-
poses at which legislation plays We
enact laws for the preserva ton of for
ests and we enact other laws placing
premium OF 81 for each one
thousand feet Of forest cut down. We
pay an acre premium for planting trees
and another premium for cutting them
down. We give men quarter sections
for planting a few of the acres in trees
and we offer a. bonus of So a
thousand feet to other men to denude
the land Of trees. We raise tax bar
rier against the lumber product of other
countries and bemoan the devastation
Of our forests cut down to supply the
demand intensified by the exclusion
policy. And yet we boast of our in
telligence, and are embarking on pol
Icy designed to extend our superior
methods Of governing over other ter
ritory and alien peoples.
Any discussion of forestry, under
such conditions, is, therefore, largely
academic. There is no public sentiment
favoring it and can be none as long as
governments, state and national. are
pursuing such contradictory policies
Even were this not SO, were both gov
ernments unit in iestry mainte-
nance and propagation, there would be
the inherited antasonism of the pioneer
to trees to overcome. The children of
the men who have hewed their way
through the forests from the Atlantic
To the Mississippi, clearing away the
woods to make room for the grain, are
TOO near that arduOuS and heroic strug-
gle to espOuse with warmth the policy
of preserving trees and restoring de-
nuded forests.
1t may be true that forests are es-
sential to the preservation of fertility
In the soil, but the vast fertile prairies
that stretch from the Mississippi to the
regions robbed of moisture by the
mountain elevations and made arid, do
not sustain the assertion. 1t may be-
true that future generations will be
practically without lumber if forests
are destroyed at the present rate, but
1t is also true that other and more
durable material is even now being ex-
tenslvely used in place of wood 1t may
be true that the fuel question will grow
more and more serious with the dis
appearance of forests, but coal has
largely displaced wood even now, while
electricity is capable of supplying and
some day will supply heat at prices
that Will be- more economical than
wood. 1t is not yet certain that means
cannot be devised for economizing the
redundant supply of sun heat of the
summer for use in the winter The pro-
duetion of liquefied air is not a less
serious problem, and that is solved.
Then we Americans are such a happy
go-lucky people, so content with TODAY
and so Indifferent to tomorrow, that
the question of forestry preservation
and increase is one that will not get
that general attention or command that
general interest essential to the adop-
ton of anV nOlicv in q rop,hl;o