The denudation of mountain districts is followed by increased torrent or flood action and diminished regular flow in springs and streams, often by the entire desiccation of these. There is a department in the Polytechnic devoted to forestry, from which is supplied a large body of thoroughly educated foresters, who find ready employment under the federal and cantonal forest departments.[75] The course of study is of the most advanced character, and requires three years for its completion. There are, besides, many local and primary forest schools, having spring and autumn terms of three to four weeks each, and they are assisted by federal subsidy. By a federal law of 1885, there was added to the forest department of the Polytechnic, a school for forest experiment connected with meteorological stations, thereby supplementing this already excellent school with the means of accurate, scientific, and regular meteorological observations, in their close and important alliance with matters of forest culture. It is under the supervision of these educated foresters and trained wood-rangers that, on the mountain-side, apparently but a forbidding rock, by constant, careful, and scientific attention, are found oak-, beech-, birch-, and pine-trees in large quantities and of good dimensions. Each tree is carefully looked after and preserved, and trained so that they shall not interfere with each other; each has its fair share of space and light. In this work nature and man’s labor and thought give to the forest an abundance of moisture, and between the frequent storms and showers, abundant floods of sunlight and warmth. It is this intelligent care and attention that enables a tree to take root and grow to its normal size on what is apparently little more than towering and weird piles of sheer rocks. The vast treeless West and the reckless wasteful deforesting of American woodlands will soon render forest culture and protection a necessity in the United States. Never was a country so lavishly supplied with forest flora of all the qualities in all gradations. No country ever used its wood materials so lavishly; squandering a wealth of timbers before its true value was known. It is time to husband the remnant with more intelligence and to stop its wasteful destruction. Why should sylviculture not present an inviting field for business enterprise, or be quite as fascinating to watch the development of a collection of trees as that of a herd or flock? Our landholders, who are accustomed to garner crops in a hundred days from planting, have a natural shrinking from a seed which may not mature a crop in a hundred years. But it can be shown that growing wood on waste-lands enhances the value of the remainder of the farm by more than the planting and care have cost; and that the first instalment of a forest-crop is not so remote as is generally believed. The best varieties of wood can be grown as easily as the