FOREST CONSERVATION AND AGRICULTURE 



45 



VIRGIN REDWOOD IN CALIFORNIA— THK KIND OF TREES THAT 

 DO NOT GROW IN EUROPE. THESE ARE STRIKINGLY IM- 

 PRESSIVE SAMPLES OF THE TREE AT ITS BEST, 



we should, it is absolutely essential that 

 private owners realize the disastrous 

 effects of deforestation, and on the 

 other hand be made to appreciate the 

 benefits which may result from cutting 

 their timber on a reasonably conserva- 

 tive basis. 



Even today many public men, I am 

 sorry to say, have no clear conception 

 of what forestry comprises. There 

 may be members of this Commission 

 who think that forestry, only means pre- 

 serving trees, or planting waste land. 

 This is too narrow a conception. They 

 should also think of forestry as a busi- 

 ness. As a matter of fact, the United 

 States Forest Service today is selling 

 timber on an organized basis, because 



it feels that to conserve over-mature 

 trees would mean a loss to the public 

 treasury, and would not be practicing 

 forestry. It realizes that grazing, in 

 many cases, damages forests, but it 

 feels, on account of the importance of 

 the grazing industry in the West, that 

 it is prefereable to have regulated graz- 

 ing, because it is a necessary part of 

 western industrial development. It is 

 opening agricultural land, even if it lies 

 within a national forest, because it sees 

 that development in the West depends 

 upon putting the western land to its 

 highest use. It is protecting forests 

 from fire most successfully, and in this 

 one work alone the Forest Service to- 

 day fully repays Congress, and the peo- 



