310 



CONSERVATION 



World Conservation 



In a column article in the Chicago Tribune 

 for April 12, ^Ir. John Callan O'Laughlin 

 ■says : 



"Important as have been the international 

 conferences for the promotion of arbitration 

 in international disputes and the amelioration 

 of the hardships of war, they will not ap- 

 proximate in the results for the benefit of 

 humanity at large that which is to be held at 

 The Hague in Alay of next year. 



"All of the great nations have formally 

 accepted the invitation of the President to 

 attend a conference for the conservation of 

 natural resources. 



"People of every country are interested in 

 the supply of food and of the material for 

 manufacture in every other country, not only 

 because these are interchangeable through 

 the processes of trade but because a knowl- 

 edge of the total supply is necessary to intel- 

 ligent treatment of each nation's share of 

 the supply. It will be the purpose of the con- 

 ference to arrange for the cooperation of the 

 entire world, each for its own good and all 

 for the good of all, toward the safeguard- 

 ing and betterment of their means of sup- 

 port. 



"Giflford Pinchot, Chief Forester of the 

 Government, has returned to Washington 

 after an extensive tour through the West, 

 where he had an opportunity to explain 

 President Taft's views and to ascertain the 

 public sentiment in connection with the gen- 

 eral conservation movement. 



"Mr. Pinchot is satisfied that the people are 

 behind the administration in its purpose to 

 prevent the waste and monopolization of 

 natural resources. Machinery to this end 

 has been partially disabled through the action 

 of Congress in directing in the sundry civil 

 arct that no commissions shall be maintained 

 without express authority of law. " 



Mr. O'Laughlin next explained that the 

 President was compelled to dissolve the Fed- 

 eral Conservation Commission, but that the 

 situation has been temporarily bridged by 

 the organization of a joint committee on 

 conservation. He adds that President Taft 

 Is expected to recommend in his annual mes- 

 sage an appropriation for a Government 

 agency similar to the old Conservation 

 Commission. 



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Stopping Waste 



The Omaha Bee says, editorially: 

 "Until within comparatively recent times 

 the people of the United States have been 

 living and acting under the hallucination 

 that the natural resources of this country 

 were boundless and have drawn upon them 

 with a prodigality born of that idea. Fortu- 

 nately the awakening has come before im- 



poverishment and we are realizing that the 

 fertility of the soil must be preserved and 

 that slipshod and wasteful methods of farm- 

 ing cannot be depended upon indefinitely to 

 support our population. 



"The opinion once common that our tim- 

 ber resources were sufficient in perpetuity 

 has given place to a certainty that the forests 

 must be protected and restored else in the 

 near future the country would be without 

 lumber, to say nothing of the damage from 

 denudation of the forest areas. Probably 

 in no one direction has the national habit 

 of waste been so predominant as in the use 

 of timber. In the earlier days of the lum- 

 bering industry only the best was taken and 

 the remainder burned simply to get it out 

 of the wav. Railroads, once among the worst 

 offenders, are taking the lead in reforesta- 

 tion and are also employing scientists to 

 treat artificially varieties of timber previous- 

 ly considered valueless in order to make them 

 serviceable and also to increase the life of 

 ties and other timbers which they use. A 

 recent discovery promises a process which it 

 is maintained will render valuable the hith- 

 erto worthless gumwood of the South and 

 make the short-leaved pine of that section 

 equal to the more valuable species. 



"The former waste of the coal mines is 

 being utilized, the packing houses and petro- 

 leum refiners have brought to their aid the 

 scientist and there is now little waste prod- 

 uct in these industries. All lines of manu- 

 facturing are aiming at elimination of waste 

 and sooner or later the idea will permeate 

 the American home, which is without doubt 

 the most wasteful of all. This great country 

 of ours can soon become many times richer 

 simply by stopping needless waste." 



«i «? fe' 



Government Buys Steam Dredge 



The Secretary of the Interior has autho- 

 rized the Reclamation Service to execute a 

 contract with the Bucyrus Company of Mil- 

 waukee, Wis., for the purchase of a steam 

 dredge for use in enlarging the main canal 

 of the Sunnyside irrigation project, Washing- 

 ton. The machine will be a three and one- 

 half cubic foot steam-driven elevator dredge 

 with buckets of the continuous type, and the 

 contract amounts to $28,010. 



^ «? tt' 



Progress at Belle Fourche 



The settlers on the Belle Fourche irriga- 

 tion project, South Dakota, are busy prepar- 

 ing their land for irrigation. The hay lands 

 are already receiving water as the ground is 

 exceedingly dry. It is expected that the new 

 land office at Belle Fourche will be open for 



