1906.] FOREST SERVICE FOR FARMERS. 217 



tain slopes and sweeping down in destructive floods. And so 

 this work which the Forest Service is doing for the farmer is 

 appreciated in the West as of tremendous importance to its 

 people. That work is important for New England too, for 

 every farmer in the West means a larger demand for the manu- 

 factures of the East. New England is essentially a manufac- 

 turing district. It must have a market for its manufactures, 

 and is, therefore, directly interested in this matter of irrigation 

 in the West. 



Again, the West is largely a grazing section. A map was 

 prepared recently in the Forest Service showing the extent of 

 the Western range. This range, you know, is for the most 

 part public land. That map, which showed in green the por- 

 tions utilized for grazing, looked as though pretty nearly all 

 the West from east of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 

 was green, as though it was all grazing land. Now a very 

 large part of this vast livestock industry depends on the forest 

 reserves for summer pasture. In its efforts to make the re- 

 serves yield as much forage for the grazing industry as is pos- 

 sible without injury to the forests themselves, the Forest Ser- 

 vice is working for the agricultural interests of the country, 

 applying here again the principle that every kind of land should 

 be put to its most profitable use. 



Before I leave this subject I want to say a word about the 

 use of our forests for pasture here at home. If you are pas- 

 turing your woodlots you are almost certainly decreasing to 

 a very considerable extent their productive capacity. Cattle 

 will graze upon the young seedlings and the young shoots as 

 they come up. They will break them down, and they will 

 trample the ground and make it hard so that the seeds when 

 they fall will not take root easily in it. Oftentimes you may 

 notice, as you drive through the country, woodlot pastures in 

 which there are only old trees. It is, therefore, perfectly evi- 

 dent when you think of it that when once those trees are cut 

 or dead the forest will be like a stream which has been turned 

 aside near its fountain head. It passes by and nothing is left. 

 So I say to the farmer, decide what your land is most valuable 

 for. Trees and grass do not get on well together. They are 

 mutually antagonistic. Grass is not good for the forest, and 

 trees are not good for grass. To a very moderate extent you 

 may perhaps pasture in your woodlot, but you must be' con- 



