s
3
'Che Conservative * 1
men who fought at Bunker Hill and
Lexington , at Gettysburg and Richmond
mend , will be equal to the destruction
of the new tyranny remains to be seen.
But , surely , if political liberty wns
worth fighting for , industrial liberty is
worth voting for.
THOMAS SCANLON ,
Liverpool , England.
GOVERNMENT FORESTRY.
Report of Dr. For now on the Work of the
Forestry Division of the Government.
The Now York Evening Post makes
the following summary of the report :
"The report was prepared by Prof.
B. E. Fernow , formerly chief of the
Division of Forestry , of the department
of agriculture and was designed to an
swer an inquiry incorporated in the act
of congress making appropriations for
the department of agriculture for the
last fiscal year , which called for "a
special and detailed report . . .
upon the forestry investigations and
work of the department . . . show
ing the results obtained and the prac
tical utility of the investigations. "
German Methods.
"Dr. Fernow employed to a consider
able degree the German methods of for
estry. This occasioned not a little con
troversy.
"The idea of the "foreign" element in
this branch of science tinged a recent
utterance of President Hadley , in an
address before the Yale Alumni Associ
ation of Cleveland. 'Of all the needs
at present , ' said he , 'the thing we feel
the need of most is the intelligent teach
ing of forestry , which stands out prom
inent. We need it for the sake of
the rainfall of the country , for
the health of the country , for the future
life of the country. I hope I shall see
established at Yale in the not far dis
tant future a school of forestry , which
shall not be a school of a kind of botany
as are some of the schools at present in
the country ; not modeled on German
fashions , as is the case with the re
mainder ; but as a school adapted to the
needs of America , teaching in the studio
and in the laboratory the principles of
botany and surveying , the law of eco
nomics necessary to the understanding
of the subject , and giving the man a
chance to go out into the fields and do
practical field work , and work into po
sitions with the United States govern
ment ; work into positions of private in
fluence also , which are bound in the im
mediate future to increase very greatly
in importance. Such a school of forestry
I believe we have at hand and before
us. '
"All these things have attracted at
tention here , as calculated to give some
what of a backset to the interests of
forestry as a science , in its relations to
the government. The government is
still the largest forest owner in the
nt'lH
Jnited States , and the one most inter
ested in so conserving the forest re-
ources as to make them a part of. the
> ermanent capital of the country , to be
insbanded and guarded for the benefit
of posterity just as much as any of the
> olitical institutions on which Ameri
can patriots set store for the sake of
; heir children and their children's child-
en , as distinguished from a mere
mechanism for producing immediate
returns to their own purses.
Forestry An Art.
"The distinctions involved are very
well set forth in Dr. Fernow's latest re
port on his work in the Adirondack
forest. He argues that forestry is not
only an art the formal expression by
man of certain scientific laws but a
) reducing business , in which the market
question is the first one to be settled ,
This makes it plain that the manage
ment of a forest property cannot be
carried on without consideration of the
business conditions immediately sur
rounding the particular property , and ,
iencethat which may be proper to do in
ermany or in India may not be proper
to do in the United States , and that
which the state , with its life-long and
farther reaching interests and providen
tial functions , may do with its property ,
may be unwise for the private owner.
But , even though market conditions
differ so widely between Germany and
bhe United States , it must not be argued
that the United States cannot learn
much from Germany ; these persons ,
therefore , who assert that "American"
forestry must differ radically from
"German" forestry overlook the fact
that the fundamental principles which
underlie the art or business are the
same all over the world , like the general
economic principles which underlie all
trade and commerce. Moreover , as in
other arts , so in forestry , we naturally
study its manifestations in that country
where the art has been most highly de
veloped , and differentiate our local
methods from those pursued there , to
suit the differences between the condi
tions in the two countries. It is only
by familiarity with what has been done
in Germany , where the art of forestry
has undergone two centuries of develop
ment , that the teacher of forestry in
America can make an intelligent appli
cation of the basic laws of forestry to
the situation presenting itself here , just
as in architecture the history of the art
in Greece and Rome must be known to
the man who would be thoroughly
equipped for the best work in America
even though he might not erect a single
edifice here in actual imitation of the
classic models.
An Unjust Prejudice.
"The whole'attempt to throw discredi
by indirection upon the administration
of Dr. Fernow to whose energy and
earnestness is due , perhaps , more than
o any other one influence , the popular
respect shown for forestry in this coun-
ry today is the effect of a narrow
view of a large subject. If the Depart
ment of Agriculture is to have a stand-
ng in the scientific world , it must bo
achieved by what it does for science ,
not by what it does merely in paternal
aid of individual farmers hero and there.
The demonstrations to which it should
give its first attention in forestry are
those which will show , by timber-tests ,
statistical estimates , and the like , what
the forest resources of the country
really are , and the proper field for the
expenditure of ita chief energies is the
great forest area still owned by the gov
ernment. Its work in other directions
should be strictly incidental to this , and
measured by the willingness of the
great body of taxpayers to spend their
money for the benefit of individuals
who happen to own tracts of wooded
ountry. And until the government is
ready to reduce its forestry service to
; he level of its free seed gift enterprise ,
we should have an end of the twaddle
about "German" forestry as disting
uished from "American"
forestry , or
any other kind of forestry , for this Is
as absurd as if , under a stress of patriotic
fervor , we were to wipe quinine out of
the materia medica because foreign
physicians were the first to make use of
it , or refuse to let American children
get the best training in music because
the leading masters of the art have been
to school in Italy.
Because ten men
TEMPERANCE.
out of n hundred
can not use , unless they abuse stimu
lants , the prohibition party proposes to
make it impossible for the ninety other
men , out of a hundred , who can so use
stimulants as to make them a harmless
pleasure , to get stimulants.
The organ of the prohibitionists is
"The New Republic , " but it never
endeavors to en-
The Organ. , , , , 01
force the Slocum
law. It has not the courage to attempt
an anti-saloon crusade under the pro
visions of the Slocum law. If the Now
Republic is honest why not publish the
Slocum law and explain it ?
Are t h o tro
WHAT , ,
FOR. mendous and ever
increasing appro
priations for 'agricultural colleges
and experiment stations in the United
States to educate the plain people or
to furnish professional people with
fat salaries ?
Let us know how many farmers there
are in each state who have been educat
ed at those institutions ?
Let the world know where in each of
the states these continuous appropria
tions have helped farmers , made farmers
or advanced their interests in a specific
and practical manner ,