Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/126

116 spirited citizens to establish a national reservation in Minnesota, at the head of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, however, the latter effort is at present checked by the lumber interests of the region, although these interests would profit in the long run by the establishment of the reservation.

Forest reservations are not entirely national affairs. StaeState [sic] reservations are already an established fact in a few States and the indications are that they will be formed in many others during the next decade. The State forests in the Adirondack Mountains in the State of New York are splendid examples of such reservations. These lands were purchased at State expense that they might remain forever in forest, a great heritage for both pleasure and profit for all time.

Similar reservations have been established during the past few years in Pennsylvania, and others are likely to be set aside in Michigan before the close of the present year.

Going hand in hand with the making of the State and National reservations, there has been a rapid development in public sentiment as to the importance of practical forestry and its application to the management of the wooded areas of the country, both public and private.

This change in public sentiment is well illustrated in the volume and character of the investigations in forestry by the Government, when compared with what they were a few years ago. In the Division of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture alone, the appropriations have increased more than six-fold in three years, thus making it possible to extend the study of important problems in American forestry to many of the varied sections of the country. It is well illustrated in the rapidly increasing facilities for instruction in technical forestry in our recently established forest schools and the courses in forestry offered in many of our colleges and universities. It is shown in the fact that owners of private woodlands are in some instances employing trained foresters to superintend their lumbering operations, so that their methods of cutting will not interfere with the perpetuation of the forest. It is shown in the yearly increasing appropriations for forestry investigations by the legislatures of the several States, but most of all it is shown in the rapidly increasing number of applications coming to the trained foresters of the Government from the owners of private woodlands for assistance and advice in the management of their forests and in establishing plantations of forest trees.

I desire to make clear that this changing sentiment regarding our forests is most fortunate for our future welfare. American prosperity has been largely due to the productiveness of American soil, i. e., to her agricultural and forest products, the value of the latter approximating $1,000,000,000 per year at the present time. The effect