THE UNITED STATES FOREST RESERVES. 467 



plete regulations for the administration of each can be determined 

 upon. 



State and Private Ownership of Forest Lands.— The prop- 

 osition to dispose of the public lands of the Government by giv- 

 ing them to the States in which they are situated has often been 

 under discussion, and in this connection it has been suggested that if 

 the Government will give the forested lands to the States they will 

 be better taken care of than by the General Government. This may 

 be true, but as long as the forestry question is an interstate problem 

 there will be great difficulty in adjusting conditions within a State so 

 as to do full justice to the interests of the adjoining States. This 

 applies more largely to fire protection and the water for irrigation 

 than to timber supplies. If the General Government, however, 

 should not establish a permanent and successful forest policy, I be- 

 lieve that it would be much better to give the forested lands to the 

 States than to continue the system of waste and destruction that has 

 existed in the past. There is no doubt that under State adminstra- 

 tion something would be done, but the chances are that it would 

 come too late to be of avail in the permanent protection of the 

 forests. 



Private ownership of forest lands within or adjoining the forest 

 reserves can not but be detrimental to the interests of the forests and 

 to the people to whom they are tributary. Both individuals and cor- 

 porations purchase the forested lands for the purpose of profit, and 

 when this is secured, either by the cutting of the timber or by sale 

 to other parties, their interest ceases. It is very rarely, except in the 

 case of very large holdings, that any attempt at protection against 

 destruction by fire is made, but any one who has traversed the forests 

 of the West in the vicinity of settlements has seen the results of the 

 cutting of the timber. If it happens that firewood is marketable, 

 the land is swept clean of every tree upon it, and great piles of 

 brush are left scattered over the ground, ready to carry the first fire 

 that may reach them to the adjoining forest, and destroy every 

 vestige of vegetation that may have escaped the axe in the area cut 

 over. 



Conclusions. — The question of the forest reserves has both a 

 practical and a sentimental interest. Its practical bearings are felt 

 by the people of the States in which the reserves are situated, and by 

 those interests in adjoining States which are dependent upon the 

 reserves for their timber supply and, in the arid and semiarid States, 

 for water for irrigation, without which it would be impossible for the 

 population of large areas to exist. The sentimental interest is 

 largely among the people who, without any direct values at stake, 

 feel that the element of the population that would waste the forest 



