The British House of Commons in the session of 1883 passed a resolution prohibiting the importation into Great Britain of cattle from countries in which the foot-and-mouth disease exists. This was expected to stop altogether the trade in live cattle from the United States; but the British Government were unwilling to alter the regulations to gratify the protectionist desires, which were the motive of the resolution. The United States Treasury Cattle Commissioners were directed to inquire into the facts relating to the supposed existence of the complaint in the United States. In their report, made in the beginning of August, they declared the country to be entirely free of the disease. They found no trace of it in the cattle-depots at Kansas City, Council Bluffs, and Omaha, nor in the stock-yards along the line of transportation and on the Atlantic seaboard, nor in the dairy districts of the East. An epidemic of the foot-and-mouth disease, which spread from Canada into Northern New York and New England in the autumn of 1871, was brought from England by two cows imported into Montreal. The seclusion of the herds during the winter confined its action, and it soon disappeared. A cargo of Channel Island cattle suffering from the malady were landed at New York in 1881. These were quarantined by the State authorities. The steamship France, which brought them, after an imperfect disinfection, returned with a cargo of American beeves, which were condemned on their arrival in England as suffering from the foot-and-mouth disease. A similar case occurred in March, 1883, when a herd of Channel Island cattle, landed at Baltimore from the steamer Nessmore, were found to be affected with the disease, and were secluded so that the infection did not spread to the home herds; but the fat cattle which were shipped to England by the same vessel were found to be suffering from the disease on their arrival. The use of the head-ropes of diseased animals on others is believed to be a means of communicating the infection.

The foot-and-mouth disease has existed in various parts of Great Britain since 1880, in which year it is supposed to have been brought into England by a French cow. Ireland was free from it for many years; but recently it has committed great ravages in that country. A Westmoreland bull is believed to have contracted it from contact with a cargo of infected cattle at Liverpool, and contaminated the Irish herds. In 1883 occurred an outbreak in Scotland, into which country it was introduced by cattle brought from Ireland; but by vigorous measures on the part of the local authorities the disease was speedily stamped out. In 1839 the disease was imported into England by some other agency than by living animals, because importations of animals had been prohibited for several years. The measures taken to combat the malady in Great Britain, though not sufficient to exterminate it, greatly miti

gated its ravages. In 1881 there were 4,833 outbreaks and 183,000 animals affected; in 1882, 1,970 outbreaks and 37,950 animals affected. In July, 1883, the disease began to spread in the English counties, and it became a serious epidemic.

FORESTRY, the science and art of managing and developing trees in masses. It does not relate to single trees by themselves, but only as they are combined and constitute what we call a forest. It studies not only the general laws of tree-growth, which are the same everywhere, but also the peculiar nature or habit of each species, and the adaptations of different species to various soils, climates, and exposures. It considers the conditions which will best promote the growth of trees, whether for fuel, for timber, or for other purposes. It ascertains what trees grow best by themselves, and what thrive best in company with others. It falls within the province of forestry, therefore, to investigate whatever promotes or hinders the growth of trees, the causes of disease among them, the insects that prey upon them, and everything that may be an impediment to the development of the forest.

But forestry, as now understood, has a wider range than this even. It recognizes the connection of trees in masses with rain-fall and moisture, and with the distribution of the same and their consequent influence upon the atmosphere and upon the flow of streams. It therefore regards the forests as having an intimate connection with the interests of agriculture and commerce, as well as with climate, and consequently with health.

The subject of forestry has only recently begun to receive attention in this country, although it has long been known and recognized abroad. The first settlers of the country found it well wooded. From the St. John to Florida the whole sea-coast was fringed with trees, and as fast and as far as the settlers penetrated inland they found the trees abundant. Indeed, after the very earliest settlement, as the tide of immigration from the old country set in with increasing strength, the difficulty was to find open space enough for agricultural purposes, and a principal occupation of the settler, for a considerable time, was necessarily that of removing the trees. As there was then little use for the trees except for house-building and for fuel, they were felled and burned in huge piles upon the field, the stumps being left until a partial decay admitted of their removal. This process of settlement prevailed, for the most part, until within the memory of those now living, when the westward-moving column of migration emerged from the woods, through which it had almost literally hewn its way, and came out upon the prairies, which were almost destitute of trees, but most inviting to the tiller of the ground, partly on that very account.

That early and protracted struggle with the forests was not calculated to engender in the

people of this country a love of trees or a strong sense of their value. On the contrary, it cheapened them in their esteem, and made them ready to sacrifice them for slight reasons. We have parted with them freely, and for small considerations. Trespass upon woodland has not been regarded like trespass upon other lands, nor visited with similar punishment. We have suffered the fires, originating in carelessness, or set, as they have been sometimes, in wantonness, to waste the forests to the extent of millions of acres annually, and have made hardly any effort to prevent such destruction.

And when, by the growth of population and the development of the country, the forests became increasingly valuable for their lumber, we have produced this in a most careless and wasteful manner. The lumber-men have culled the largest and best trees, those that could be most easily and cheaply converted into lumber, and have used only the best portions of these even, leaving the larger limbs and often parts of the trunks themselves, with all the remaining trees of inferior size or less accessible, to decay or to be burned. As the result, we have hardly anywhere, unless it be in the Pacific region of the extreme Northwest, and in some portions of the Southern States, a remnant of the grand forests which once almost covered the land, while we have practically destroyed that magnificent belt of pines which stretched from Maine to the Mississippi. Noah Webster, writing at the close of last century, on the supposed change in the temperature of winter, after examining many authorities, ancient and modern, advances the opinion that "the weather in modern winters is more inconstant than when the earth was covered with wood, at the first settlement of Europeans in the country; that the warm weather of autumn extends further into the winter months, and the cold weather of winter and spring encroaches upon the summer; that the wind being more variable, snow is less permanent, and perhaps the same remark may be applicable to the ice of the rivers." He attributes these changes to the exposure of the ground in consequence of clearings, and the greater depth to which the earth freezes in winters.

Dr. Rush, at about the same period, expresses the opinion that the springs were colder and the autumns milder than formerly, the rivers breaking up earlier in spring and freezing later.

Thomas Jefferson, distinguished for his habit of observation, says that the snows were neither so late nor so frequent as formerly, and intimates that the summers were longer, the autumns later, and the winters shorter and lighter than in former years. These changes, which were observed to follow the clearing of lands, were not gradual and slow, but quick and sudden, in proportion to the extent of cultivation.

Volney, the French traveler, who visited our country toward the close of last century, notes the fact that changes had been observed in the climate in proportion as the lands had been cleared. Kalm, also, who traveled in America in 1849, notices a supposed similar change of climate.

But the opinions of a few individuals, however worthy of consideration, were not calculated to make any marked impression upon the country, or to lead to any practical result.

In Europe the importance of the forests has long been recognized. As they were held for the most part as the property of kings and nobles, or of great ecclesiastical and municipal corporations, the mass of the people had only certain rights in them, or servitudes as they were called, such as that of gathering firewood, or leaves for bedding, or of pasturing cattle and swine in them at certain seasons. These rights were liable to constant abuse. The peasantry would cut trees for fuel without permission, or they would cut them for the purpose of enlarging the pasturage. In these and other ways the forests were preyed upon and destroyed. But they were often destroyed as the result of the frequent wars. They would be cut down or burned. as the means of driving out an enemy concealed in them, or as a means of annoyance or reprisal. Sometimes kings and nobles, and even states, when in need of money, would sell their forests or portions of them.

It should be borne in mind, however, that in old English law and in the usage of olden times the word "forest" had a different signification from what it has with us. A forest was a hunting-ground. It might have trees, or it might not. If it had, it was only inei dentally, as affording shelter and rest for the game. Manwood, in his "Forest Laws," published about three hundred years ago, makes the essential characteristic of a forest that it is set apart for the conservation of game, and that if it have no game it can not be called a forest. It must also belong to a sovereign. A forest is a royal hunting-ground, and if the king makes a grant of a forest to a subject, it thereupon ceases to be a forest and becomes what is known as a "chase." Blackstone defines a forest thus: "Forests are waste grounds belonging to the king, replenished with all manner of chase or venery, which are under the king's protection for the sake of his recreation and delight."

Blount says that when William the Conqueror created what has ever since been known as the New Forest, for his recreation, as he was very fond of hunting, it "was raised by the destruction of twenty-two parish churches, and many villages and chapels and manors, for the space of thirty miles together." Only a small part of this extensive tract was covered with trees so as to be a forest in our modern understanding of the word.

At length it was seen that there must be a

diminished supply of fuel if dependence was to be placed upon the yearly growth of wood, and if not, then the utter extinction of the forests was threatened. It was found also that the removal of the forests from the slopes of the mountains gave rise to torrents, which carried rocks and stones into the fields and plains, and so covered them as to make them, in many cases, no longer capable of cultivation, and to oblige the inhabitants to remove. Floods and droughts were also found to be increasing.

Measures were then taken for the protection of forests, and in some of the European countries the authority and care of the government have been exercised in their behalf for several hundred years. It is more than two hundred years since the great Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, called the attention of that monarch to the dangers threatening France on account of the destruction of her forests. From the royal ordinance then issued, embodying severe laws against trespassers, dates the system of forest management and protection, which, with some changes, has continued in operation in France to the present time.

The system of forest protection in Germany dates further back, but has been much developed and improved within the past hundred years. Indeed, we may say that forestry has taken the position of a science and an art only within the present century. Inquiries and experiments, reaching through many years, have been made by most competent observers; laws of vegetable growth have been diligently investigated; the effects of climate, soil, and situation in other respects upon the growth of trees have been traced, and the effects in turn of trees upon the soil and climate, upon rain-fall and moisture. The mechanical effect of forests as barriers against harmful winds and as a protection to crops has been inquired into. These and many other things connected with tree-life and tree-growth have been made the subject of patient and scientific study.

It required but little examination to make manifest the connection of forests with rain-fall and water-supply as well as with floods and droughts. It had been noticed that, as the forests diminished, the volume of many streams, such as the Volga, the Po, the Rhine, and the Seine, were lessened, while also floods and droughts had become more frequent and torrents more destructive. Investigation showed that the leaves falling, from year to year, in the forests, and sheltered from the winds so that they are not dispersed, accumulate to a considerable depth, and, slowly decaying, form a covering of light, spongy soil, or humus, which is capable of absorbing the rains and snows. This spongy soil, in woods long undisturbed, is sometimes two or three feet in thickness. It is easy to see that such a mass would be able to hold a vast amount of water, and that the rains, instead of flowing off at once into the streams, would be detained for a time, trickling away gradually, as from a sponge, into the water-courses,

or, sinking slowly into the ground and following the seams and channels in the rocks, would come out as springs and rivulets in the distant meadows. So the streams and rivers do not rise and fall with every shower, but maintain an equable flow most serviceable to man. The removal of the forests produces a great change in the water-flow. The first effect is to dry up the accumulated leafy soil by the influence of both sun and wind, which are now let in upon it. Thus, as the leaves dry, they are wafted away by the winds or washed away by the rains. The spongy soil being thus removed, the rains or snows have nothing to detain them, but flow at once down the hill-sides into the water-courses, filling them often beyond their capacity, overflowing their banks, and carrying destruction in their course.

For the same reason that the rains pour so quickly into the streams and cause sudden and destructive floods, in those seasons when the rains are not abundant, as in summer, there being no longer a great spongy surface upon the hill-sides, the streams are diminished, and many of them disappear for a time. The fields become parched, the cattle faint, the mills stand idle, and great loss and suffering are the result.

It is to be observed that the removal of the forests affects the water-supply of streams in another way. When ground which has previously been shaded by trees is opened to the sun and wind by their removal, the evaporation of moisture from the earth is greatly increased. Hence, much of the water which would otherwise sink into the ground and supply distant springs, or find its way into the streams, is now carried into the air as vapor. The streams, therefore, have a less average depth than they would have if the forests were not removed. The Rhine, the Elbe, and the Oder, it was stated at a Forestry Congress held in Vienna in 1873, are all shallower now than in the past. It was asserted that the Elbe at Altenbrücke, in Hanover, in 1787, was 48 feet in depth at low water. In 1812 it had decreased to 46 feet 6 inches; and in 1837 a further reduction to 38 feet was indicated, making a diminution of 10 feet in half a century. The Elbe rises in Bohemia, where, until recently, the forests were under no control, and so were destroyed in the most reckless manner. The Rhine, also, has much less water than formerly. Its sources are in Switzerland, where, more than in any other country of Europe, the forests have been considered common property, and their destruction has been most unrestrained. A similar lessening of such streams as the Connecticut, the Ohio, and the Hudson is noticeable in this country. These and many other streams no longer afford such facilities for commerce as formerly. Traffic upon them has to be carried on in smaller vessels than such as were formerly employed. The lesser streams, which were used extensively for manufacturing purposes, have also become so dimin

ished in volume that, in many cases, the mills have been obliged to lessen their production or continue it only by the introduction of steampower.

It has been a matter of dispute whether forests actually increase the amount of rain-fall in their vicinity. The preponderance of opinion favors the conclusion that they do, though the difficulty of making the necessary observations to settle the question is so great as to forbid at present a very positive opinion. So far as forests are on elevated ground-and they are so situated to a great extent-it would seem a reasonable conclusion that more moisture from passing clouds would be condensed by them and precipitated in the form of rain than would be converted into rain upon the open and lower ground. The simple law of attraction would tend to bring the clouds into contact with them, and their elevation would also cause them to intercept more or less the clouds driven toward them by the winds. Thus we might expect a greater deposition of moisture than on the lower and cleared ground; and in accordance with this, those who have paid but little attention to the operations of nature must have noticed how the clouds seem to cling around the mountains when elsewhere the sky is comparatively clear. Mr. Colvin, in charge of the Adirondack Survey, testifies that he has often found the trees there dripping with moisture condensed from passing clouds, when there was no such condensation outside of the forest limit. Careful and repeated observations also show an increasing amount of rainfall as one goes from the level of Lake Champlain into the region of the Adirondacks. This increase is proportioned to the elevation attained, and may be attributed in part to the forests and in part to elevation, as we know the temperature of the atmosphere decreases with elevation, and therefore the precipitation from the clouds is more copious on hills and mountains than on lower ground. But the precipitation is not to be attributed to elevation alone, for, in cases where cleared ground and forests have been on the same level, it has been found that more rain fell upon the forest than upon the open land.

But whatever may be thought as to the effect of forests in increasing the amount of rain-fall, there can be no doubt that they are great equalizers of temperature and moisture, and so have an important influence upon climate and upon the healthfulness as well as the agricultural capacity of the region where they are. No one can have visited a forest in the warm season without noticing its grateful coolness, and the moist condition of the air as compared with that of the open country. So, in the cooler season of the year, the atmosphere in the forest is warmer than that outside its limits. Lumber-men and wood-choppers find no difficulty in pursuing their work in the coldest weather. Travelers also experience great relief at once in very cold weather, whenever

they can get within the shelter of the forest. The ground never freezes in the woods as it does elsewhere. This is owing very much to the protecting cover of the fallen leaves, and to the snow. But the forests are also free from the winds. The most violent winds do not penetrate them, except for a very short distance. A tempest may be raging without, but stillness will reign in the depth of the woods. The trunks and branches of the trees form an effectual barrier against all but the most violent tornadoes, and even these seldom penetrate or damage dense and well-managed forests. The shelter is often equivalent to a favorable change of latitude of several degrees, so that certain plants and grains can be cultivated which could not be grown successfully without such protection. Thus forestry takes rank as one of the most important subjects of consideration. There is not one of the European states that does not now give prominence in its system of administration to its forests.

Where the forests are not owned by the state, the interest of the latter in such as are owned by individuals or corporations is held to be so great that the state maintains the right of supervision. While the proprietors are allowed usually to manage their forest property as they please, yet the state will not permit them to manage it in a way that may be prejudicial to the general welfare. No one, for example, is allowed to cut and remove an extensive tract of forest at once, if thereby the adjacent property of others would be injured, or if the danger of floods and torrents would be increased. The state here asserts its right of eminent domain and, if necessary, takes possession of the property. In general, however, there is now such a well-established and enlightened sense of the value of forests on the part of most owners of woodland in Europe, and such confidence in the wisdom and policy of the management of forests adopted by the governments, that they are usually disposed to adopt the same and to place their property under the control of officers appointed by the state.

The Bureau of Forests in France, and the Bureau of Forest Administration in Germany, are among the most important offices of government. They form a part of the Finance Department; for, while the forests are highly regarded for their climatic influences and their conservative effects, and on this account are carefully managed, they are at the same time so managed as to be made important sources of revenue. This is especially the case in Germany, where the economic value of the forests in their direct products is the chief consideration, as in France, owing to different geographical conditions, the relation of the forests to climate and soil-protection becomes the chief interest. In Germany the forests are so managed as to produce the largest and best growth of the most valuable kinds of trees upon a given space, while at the same time they are so arranged in position and form as

to exert the most conservative influence upon climate and upon the agricultural and other interests of the state. The Germans have studied the whole subject of tree-growth in all its relations, with the utmost care, and the result is that they are able to grow three times as much timber on an acre of ground as our natural forests produce, and at the same time of better quality. The management of a forest by them is like that of one of our market-gardens compared with an ordinary farm-field. The ground is well chosen, if a new forest is to be created, or, if it is already occupied with forest-trees, it is put into the best condition to produce the largest crop. Drains are made if necessary. If the ground is not well stocked with trees, the vacant spaces are filled. If the trees are of inferior character, they are replaced as soon as possible by better ones. If improper or uncongenial trees are growing together, measures are taken, by removal and planting, to produce a proper association, so that they shall grow in harmony and without interference with one another. The sickly are replaced by such as are strong. The deformed have their habit corrected by proper pruning, or are made to give place to others. Thinnings are made at the proper time so as to admit the requisite amount of light and air to promote the most rapid and healthy growth, and to secure the proper seeding of the ground for a future crop; and finally, the trees are cut down and converted into fuel or lumber when they have attained the condition to be most valuable for these uses. Dead trees are not allowed to cumber the ground, and living trees are not permitted to remain after they have attained their growth and have ripened their wood.

Then, in reducing the forest to use, similar care is exercised. In felling the trees, caution is taken not to injure the young trees which are designed to continue the forest. Roads and canals are made to facilitate the conveyance of the timber or fuel. All the operations are performed by the agents of the government or under their constant supervision.

Germany not only produces all the lumber and fuel she needs for her own use, .but is able to export a considerable quantity. And this is done from the annual yield of her forests, without trenching at all upon the substance of the forests as such. Indeed, we are told that the tendency is to increase the amount of land devoted to forests.

The management of forests in France is similar to that in Germany, which may be regarded as the system adopted substantially in all the European states. It is modified somewhat by the greater need in France of studying climatic effects.

Everywhere, in the European system, the forest tracts are carefully surveyed and mapped. Then a period of rotation is fixed-that is, the time when the trees are expected to reach their full growth and give place to their suc

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cessors. This differs according to the kinds of trees grown. With the larch and birch it ranges from fifty to sixty years, and in cold regions twice that. With the locust and maritime pines, it is from sixty to seventy years; with the Scotch pine, it is from eighty to ninety; with the beech, from eighty to one hundred and forty; with the ash, from ninety to one hundred; with the chestnut, from ninety to one hundred and twenty; with the spruce, from ninety to one hundred and forty; with the fir, from one hundred to one hundred and forty, the average being about one hundred and twenty years; with the elm, from one hundred to one hundred and twenty years; and with the oak, from one hundred and twenty to two hundred. To prevent cutting off large tracts at once, and so making openings through which violent winds might gain admission, the forests are divided into blocks, only one of which is cut at a time. Of course, a first principle of any such system of forestry is the exclusion of all cattle from the forests, except where the trees are of such size as to be in no danger either from their teeth or their hoofs.

We know nothing practically of such forest management in this country. The growth of forests is only accidental and hap-hazard, and our use of them has been most wasteful and uneconomical. Cattle have been allowed free range in them, and the young trees have been eaten or broken down to such an extent that, except with the primitive growth, our forests have contained only a comparatively small number of trees, and these, on account of the wide spaces often left between them and for want of proper care, have become trees of inferior character.

To secure a class of persons competent to manage forests as they are managed in Europe, it is necessary that they should be trained for the work. Accordingly, there have been established in nearly every European country what are known as schools of forestry. With us they would be called colleges. There are nine of them in the German Empire alone, having a course of instruction varying from two years to two and a half in length. The complete and scientific character of the European forestry system will appear from a schedule of the scheme of instruction. We give, therefore, that of one of these schools, which may be fairly taken as an example of all. In this the course is two and a half years in extent. The system of instruction is divided into fundamental sciences, principal sciences, and secondary sciences. In the first are embraced general and theoretic chemistry, special inorganic and organic chemistry, applied physics and meteorology, mineralogy and geology, botany in general and forest botany in particular; microscopy, general zoölogy, with zoological excursions; geodesy, interest and rent account, wood-measuring, surveying and leveling, plan-drawing, and public economy and