Excerpt from The Profession of Forestry: Including an Address The history of lumbering in the United States has not differed essentially from that of the same industry in other countries. In the early days, the chief obstacle of the settler was the forest, while the growing need both of cleared land and of timber kept pace with the advance of colonization. The multiplication of demands for3 forest products developed feverish activity in the conversion of trees into money, while the methods employed in the harvesting of timber were the natural outcome of existing conditions. Forestry, with its per petual but conservative returns, offered no financial inducement to the lumberman until the first crop of timber began to fail. With the forest stretched before him, large enough to feed his saw-mill for his lifetime, he had no need to consider the potential value of cut-over lands, often allowing them to revert in default of taxes to the state. His methods of lumbering were significant of his attitude. Skillful and effective in the cutting and transport of logs and the manufacture of lumber, he showed utter obliviousness to the productive capacity of the lum bered areas. Abuse of the lumberman is unmerited and unreasonable. His utilization of natural resources has been accomplished by mistakes similar to those incurred in the development of other industries in this country. The necessity for modification' of his methods involves no emotional considerations. The question is one simply of the best business policy. The attitude of the lumberman towards the source of his industry has so far been generally similar to that of the miner towards the gold mine. He has considered the value of the forest to lie only in the merchantable timber it contains, just as the mine is worthless when the end of the vein is reached. He has cut and burned with complete dis regard of the welfare of immature trees, with the result that he has deprived the future of a supply of timber many times the value of the material he has actually utilized. There has been incalculable waste, which in some cases could have been avoided through slight expense, in others simply by the exercise of reasonable care, and which has hastened enormously the approaching exhaustion of the lumber supply. N 0 one realizes more keenly than does the lumberman that the time for forestry has fully arrived. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.