The value of studying the historical development of an economic subject
or of a technical art which, like forestry, relies to a large extent
upon empiricism, lies in the fact that it brings before us, in proper
perspective, accumulated experience, and enables us to analyze cause and
effect, whereby we may learn to appreciate the reasons for present
conditions and the possibilities for rational advancement.
If there be one philosophy more readily derivable than another from the
study of the history of forestry it is that history repeats itself. The
same policies and the same methods which we hear propounded to-day have
at some other time been propounded and tried elsewhere: we can study the
results, broadening our judgment and thereby avoid the mistakes of
others.
Nowhere is the record of experience and the historic method of study of
more value than in an empiric art like forestry, in which it takes
decades, a lifetime, nay a century to see the final effects of
operations.
Such study, if properly pursued, tends to free the mind from many
foolish prejudices and particularly from an unreasonable partiality for
our own country and its customs and methods merely because they are our
own, substituting the proper patriotism, which applies the best
knowledge, wherever found, to our own necessities.
Forestry is an art born of necessity, as opposed to arts of convenience
and of pleasure. Only when a reduction in the natural supplies of forest
products under the demands of civilization, necessitates a husbanding of
supplies or necessitates the application of art or skill or knowledge in
securing a reproduction, or when unfavorable conditions of soil or
climate induced by forest destruction make themselves felt does the art
of forestry make its appearance. Hence its beginnings occur in different
places at different times and its development proceeds at different
paces.
In the one country, owing to economic development, the need of an
intensive forest management and of strict forest policies may have
arrived, while in another, rough exploitation and wasteful practices are
still natural and practically unavoidable. And such differences, as we
shall see, may even exist in the different parts of the same country.
The origin and growth of the art, then, is dependent on economic and
cultural conditions, on various economic development and on elements of
environment. The development of the art can only be understood and
appreciated through the knowledge of such environment, of such other
developments as of agriculture, of industries, of means of
transportation, of civilization generally.
Hence we find, for instance, that England, located so as to be
accessible by sea from all points of the compass and with oceanic
shipping well developed, can apparently dispense with serious
consideration of the forest supply question.
Again, we find that more than a century ago fear of a timber famine
agitated not only the dense populations of many European countries, but
even the scanty population of the United States, in spite of the natural
forest wealth which is still supplying us; and not without good reason,
for at that time wood was the only fuel and rivers the only means of
transportation; hence local scarcity was to be feared and was not
unfrequently experienced when accessible forest areas had been
exploited. Railroad and canal development and the use of coal for fuel
changed this condition on both continents. Now, with improved means of
transportation by land and by sea, the questions of wood supply and of
forestry development, which at one time were of very local concern, have
become world questions, and he who proposes to discuss intelligently
forest conditions and forestry movement in one country must understand
what is going on in other countries.
As will appear from the study of the following pages, with the exception
of some parts of central Europe or of some sporadic attempts elsewhere
to regulate forest use, the development of the forestry idea belongs
essentially to the 19th century, and more especially to the second half,
when the rapid development of railroads had narrowed the world, and the
remarkable development of industries and material civilization called
for increased draft on forest resources.
Yet we are still largely ignorant as to the extent of available forest
area, not only in this country but elsewhere: we do not know whether it
be sufficient in extent and yield to furnish a continuous supply for
the needs of our civilization, or, if not, for how long a time it will
suffice. We can only make very broad statements as to questions of wood
supply, and very broad inferences from them as argument for the need of
a closer study of forest conditions and of the practice of forestry:
1. Practically, the northern temperate zone alone produces the kinds of
wood which enter most largely into our economy, namely the soft conifers
and the medium hard woods; most of the woods of the tropics are very
hard, fit primarily for ornamental use and hence less necessary.
Possibly a change in the methods of the use of wood may also change the
relative economic values, but at present the vast forests of the
tropical countries are of relatively little importance in the discussion
of wood supply for the world.
2. The productive forest area, of the temperate zone, in which the
industrial nations are located, has continuously decreased. We shall not
be far from wrong in stating this area liberally, to be at present
around 2,500 million acres,[1] namely in Europe, 800 million acres; in
Asia, 800 million acres; in North America, 900 million acres. How much
of this acreage contains available virgin timber, how much is merely
potential forest, how much growing crop, it is impossible to state.
[1] The total forest area of the world is supposed to be 3,800
million acres.
3. The civilized wood consuming population of this territory is about
500 million, hence the per capita acreage is still 5 acres. Taking the
European countries which now have to import all or part of their
consumption (excess over exports), we find that their population is
estimated at 180 million and that they use 30 cubic feet of wood per
capita, of which 12 cubic feet is log timber; or altogether they use
2,200 million cubic feet of this latter description, of which they
import in round numbers 1,000 million at a cost of about 250 million
dollars; their forest acreage of 100 million acres being insufficient to
produce, even under careful management as in Germany, more than
two-thirds of their needs. And the wood consumption in all these nations
is growing at the rate of 1½ to 2 per cent. annually.
4. The deficiency is at present supplied by the export countries,
Russia, Sweden, Norway, Austria-Hungary, Canada and United States, and
these countries themselves also increasing their consumption, are
beginning to feel the drain on their forest resources, which are for the
most part merely roughly exploited.
5. If we assume a log timber requirement by the 500 million people of
6000 million cubic feet and could secure what France annually produces,
namely a little less than 9 cubic feet of such timber per acre, the area
supposed to be under forest would amply suffice. But a large part of it
is in fact withdrawn from _useful_ production and of the balance not
more than 250 million acres at best are as yet under management for
continuous production. Hence attention to forestry is an urgent
necessity for every industrial nation.
* * * * *
The history of the forest in all forest countries shows the same periods
of development.
First hardly recognized as of value or even as personal property, the
forest appears an undesirable encumbrance of the soil, and the attitude
of the settler is of necessity inimical to the forest: the need for farm
and pasture leads to forest destruction.
The next stage is that of restriction in forest use and protection
against cattle and fire, the stage of conservative lumbering. Then come
positive efforts to secure re-growth by fostering natural regeneration
or by artificial planting: the practice of silviculture begins. Finally
a management for continuity--organizing existing forest areas for
sustained yield--forest economy is introduced.
That the time and progress of these stages of development and the
methods of their inauguration vary in different parts of the world is
readily understood from the intimate relation which, as has been pointed
out, this economic subject bears to all other economic as well as
political developments.
At the present time we find all the European nations practicing
forestry, although with a very varying degree of intensity. The greatest
and most universal development of the art is for good reasons to be
found in Germany and its nearest neighbors. Early attention to forest
conservancy was here induced by density of population, which enforces
intensity in the use of soil, and by the comparative difficulty of
securing wood supplies cheaply enough from outside. On the other hand,
such countries as the Mediterranean peninsulas by their advantageous
situation with reference to importations, with their mild climate and
less intensive industrial development, have felt this need less.
Again, the still poorly settled and originally heavily timbered
countries of the Scandinavian peninsula and the vast empire of Russia
are still heavy exploiters of forest products and are only just
beginning to feel the drain on their forest resources; while the United
States, with as much forest wealth as Russia, but with a much more
intensive industrial development, has managed to reach the stage of need
for a conservative forest policy in a shorter time.
From each of the European countries we learn something helpful towards
inaugurating such policies, and while, owing to a different historical
background and to different political and social conditions, none of
their administrative methods and measures may appeal to us, the
principles underlying them as well as those underlying their
silvicultural methods remain the same; they are applicable everywhere,
and can best be recognized and studied in the history of their
development.