38 



CONSERVATION 



this the complete indictment against us as a 

 Nation, for our misuse of the forest. We 

 invite, by over-taxation, the destructive hand- 

 ling of forest lands. We should plant, to 

 protect farms from wind and to make stripped 

 or treeless lands productive, an area larger 

 than Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia 

 combined. But so far lands successfully 

 planted to trees make a total area smaller 

 than Rhode Island. 



It seems to me one of the most destructive 

 elements of our forests comes from forest 

 lires, and if the Governors can in any way, 

 upon this point of view, educate the indivdual 

 who owns the forest, this meeting will not 

 have failed. 



I was visiting the Appalachian country a 

 short time ago and was upon the great Bilt- 

 more estate, and one of the party asked Dr. 

 Schenck, the man in charge, if he had five 

 million dollars, the interest on which was to 

 be used by him for the preservation of for- 

 ests, what he would do with it. His answer 

 was, without hesitation, "I would use every 

 dollar of it for a fire patrol." Asked again if 

 he had twenty million dollars what he would 

 do with that, he said, "I would increase my 

 fire patrol just four times." 



Since 1870, forest fires have each year de- 

 stroyed an average of fifty lives and fifty 

 million dollars' worth of timber. Not less 

 than fifty million acres of forest is burned 

 over yearly, and, as I heard one very promi- 

 nent man in West Virginia testify before the 

 committee but a few days ago, the forest fires 

 of West Virginia alone this year have cost the 

 State in the loss of timber five million dollars, 

 and when we begin to figure on that great 

 loss, we find that the fire patrol would have 

 cost the State of West Virginia one hundred 

 thousand dollars a year, and that that sum 

 would be ample to protect it against forest 

 fires. Think of it, gentlemen ! The loss in 

 one year is sufficient to patrol the State of 

 West Virginia for fifty long years ! 



One-fourth of the standing timber is left, 

 or otherwise lost, in logging. The boxing of 

 the long leaf pine for turpentine has destroyed 

 one-fifth of the forests worked. The loss in 

 the mill is from one-third to two-thirds of the 

 timber sawed. The loss in the mill product, 

 through seasoning and fitting for use, is from 

 one-seventh to one-fourth. The damage done 

 by destructive forest insects is enormous and 

 largely preventable. Only 320 feet of timber 

 are used to each 1,000 feet, which stood in 

 the forest. 



Nor is the indictment yet complete. By the 

 needless destruction of our forests we impair 

 the value of our streams for navigation, irri- 

 gation, water supply, and power. We spend 

 millions of dollars in river and harbor im- 

 provement to repair damage which, at the 

 cost of mere thrift and foresight, could have 

 been avoided. We deal with the effects and 

 we ignore the cause. We discuss the exact 

 scientific relation between the forest and the 

 stream, when each year the total quantity of 

 silt carried by our rivers as the result of 



forest denudation and noor soil management, 

 would cover one foot deep a surface of more 

 than nine hundred square miles. In our 

 blindness, we have failed to take advantage 

 of the lessons which the history of other 

 nations contains. Most other countries have 

 learned through bitter experience that forests 

 which are not conserved will be used up, and 

 they are taking care of what they have. We 

 are among the last to learn it. 



So much for the indictment. Every clause 

 in it is absolutely true. What would you 

 think of the business capacity and the fore- 

 sight of an individual against whom such an 

 indictment might be justly read? So much 

 for where we stand. Now let us consider 

 what must be done, and where might we stand 

 if it were done. 



These are the things which we must do ; 

 they involve no intricate machinery of law or 

 practice ; they are simply incontrovertible 

 conclusions based upon the conditions which 

 now e.xist and which must be remedied : First 

 in importance is the conserving of forests in 

 private hands. Private forest owners, which 

 means three million men, and individual for- 

 est users, which means everyone, must prac- 

 tice reasonable economy in the woods, in 

 logging, in milling, and in the use of timber. 

 Above all, they must protect their forests 

 from fire. This they can do at an annual 

 cost equal to one-fifth of the damage forest 

 fires do each year, not counting injury to 

 young growth. And it is this young growth 

 which, if preserved, would grow a constant 

 supply of timber for those who come after us. 



I do not ask of the private owner and user 

 that he apply any economy which is not en- 

 tirely practicable, and which does not mean 

 present as well as permanent profit. I ask 

 only that he protect his forest from fire, that 

 he log it conservatively, and that he plant 

 uplands suited only to forest, which have been 

 so denuded of trees that they now fail even 

 to pay the taxes levied upon them. To jus- 

 tify private owners in applying these meas- 

 ures, two main conditions are necessary, both 

 of which exist today : the one, a knowledge 

 of the central fact that these measures are 

 needed and that they will pay; the other, the 

 availability of knowledge as to how these 

 measures may best be applied. If anything 

 that I could say to the Governors today seems 

 more important than another, it would be to 

 return home to your States and educate the 

 people. 



One of the urgent tasks before the States 

 is the immediate passage of tax laws which 

 will enable the private owner to protect and 

 keep productive under forest those lands 

 suitable only for forest growth. In our dis- 

 cussion as a committee of the whole there 

 was a question raised by some one present as 

 to this recommendation, claiming that it was 

 or would be at least the means of great 

 monopolies securing more land and holding it 

 where the timber would not be taxed. 



I have studied this question in foreign 

 lands, in Germany and Switzerland in partic- 



