Forest Planting; A Treatise on the Care of Timber-Lands and the Restoration of Denuded Woodlands on Plains and Mountains (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. ASSISTANCE FROM THE GOVERNMENT TO FOREST CULTURE?ESTABLISHMENT OF FOREST SCHOOLS FOR TRAINING FORESTERS. The American theory of State activity does not favor any system of a paternal nature. We therefore would not be inclined to encourage forest growing by awarding premiums or other pecuniary benefits to those who undertake the restocking of their denuded woodlands. However, there can be no doubt that it is the duty of the government to furnish the facilities by which the citizens may acquire the necessary knowledge for enabling them to secure all the advantages which arise from the scientific treatment of forests. This view on the subject has been taken by our Legislature and framed in Sect. 18 of the Forestry Act as follows: " The forest commission shall take such measures as " the department of public instruction, the regents of " the university and the forest commission may approve, "for awakening an interest in behalf of forestry in the "public schools, academies and colleges of the State, and "of imparting some degree of elementary instruction "upon this subject therein." If this provision Avere carried out, the Empire State would inaugurate a new era in political economy, and would lay the foundation upon which to build the science of systematic forest culture. Then we would be inspired with the hope of having called into productivity the 3,526,030 acres of wild lands lying within our State, and which do not contribute one tithe to its wealth. Experience teaches us that in whatever country profitable and systematic management of the forests has been successfully introduced, the first step to it was the establishment of schools of forestry. For men educated in such schools become not only fit for their vocation, but consider their position as...