OUR FOREST RESERVATIONS. 121 



a practical and technical knowledge of forestry, and, in most cases, 

 even of woodcraft, their work has been necessarily limited. From 

 lack of training and experience they have been unable to create and 

 put into execution a practical system of forest management for the 

 lands under their control. Although unable to cope with the prob- 

 lems of management, they have been able in many instances to afford 

 the reservations a fair degree of protection from fire and grazing. 



As the forests of the reservations must eventually be utilized for 

 their timber and other forest products, in order to make direct contri- 

 butions to the national wealth, the work of management must go 

 beyond that of simply protecting them from fire and grazing, even 

 if this were afforded to the fullest degree possible. 



They should be so managed that wherever the mature timber 

 has material value it can be harvested and sold. The utilization of the 

 forest products, however, must not interfere with the perpetuation of 

 the forest. The cutting must be so conducted that the forest be 

 maintained in the best possible condition as to reproduction and growth 

 consistent with economy. In order to do this it is necessary that the 

 reservations be under the control of practical and trained foresters. 



It is extremely gratifying to know that within the past few months 

 the direct management of the national reservations, so far as it relates 

 to questions of practical and economic forestry, has been transferred 

 to the Division of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture, 

 where they will receive attention from trained foresters. Working 

 plans will be made for all the reservations, and the prospects are ex- 

 tremely flattering that on these 46,800,000 acres of reserved forest 

 lands there will develop a system of American forestry that will 

 have far-reaching influence on our future prosperity. 



At first thought it may appear that it is not necessary to make 

 forest reservations for the purpose of conserving the timber and lesser 

 forest products in a country so splendidly wooded as the United States. 

 When we consider, however, that, from the most reliable sources of 

 information that we have, the amount of timber consumed exceeds the 

 amount normally produced by the forests, we must know that the 

 excess of consumption is at the expense of the main wood capital. 

 In many instances this decrease is not so much on account of decrease 

 in area as on account of decrease in productive capacity of the forests 

 themselves. 



Having such a splendid and large original supply to draw upon, 

 we consume much more wood per capita than any other nation. At 

 our present rate of consumption the most reliable authority that we 

 have places the present supply as sufficient for our requirements for 

 about fifty years, without taking into consideration the annual incre- 

 ment of the forests during this period. 



