Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/127

Rh upon the soil of these two classes of products is very different. Agricultural crops being removed when mature, practically in their entirety, impoverish the soil, while forest crops, being removed only in part and then at long intervals of time, have an opposite effect, as they for the most part enrich the soil.

For many reasons it is highly important that even in agricultural regions a varying proportion of the land should remain in forest, not only for the direct value of the products which it affords and its value in enriching the soil, but for its beneficial influence upon the adjacent cultivated fields which it is not necessary for me to recount here.

If it be desirable that a certain proportion of our agricultural lands be kept as woodland, it is important that they be made to produce desirable products in the largest degree consistent with economy. This can only be brought about by a rational system of management, where skill and foresight is exercised to as great a degree as in the successful production of agricultural crops.

Although much might be said regarding the importance of well managed woodland in agricultural regions, it is to the vast area of non-agricultural land in this country that the application of practical forestry will be of incalculable value. It is highly important that our non-agricultural lands be made to contribute toward our national