320 



tion to water-shed as distinguished from a forest on an area 

 from which there is no normal water flow; and the adoption 

 of the policy so formulated by the Board of Agriculture and 

 its approval by the Governor. 



Third, the negotiation by the Hawaiian Mahogany Lumber 

 Company, an Hawaiian corporation, of a contract Avith the 

 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, under which 

 the former has undertaken to deliver to the latter something 

 over 500,000 Ohia railroad ties per annum for the next five 

 years. 



Fourth, the demonstration, on a large scale, that Rubber 

 grows well in Hawaii and can be made a profitable industry 

 here; with the incidental effect that a large area v\nll be 

 planted up in rubber trees, which, from a forest protection 

 of the land standpoint, are as good as any other variety of 

 trees. 



All of these four matters are of vital interest, not only to 

 the citizens of the Territory of Hawaii at large, but especially 

 to the sugar planters, as I will seek to hereinafter show. 



Taking up the above subjects in the order named : 



PINCHOT O'N FOiREST FAILUREL 



FIRST. THE LUMBER SHORTAGE AND HARD- 

 \A/OOiD FAMINE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Gifford Pinchot, chief of the United States Forest Service, 

 in an article published in The Outlook for O'ctober 12, 1907, 

 makes the following statement : 



After enumerating the statistics showing the amount of 

 standing timber now in the United States; the present annual 

 consumption and the present annual growth, he states : 



* * * "The result shows a probable duration of our sup- 

 plies of timber of not more than thirty-three years. 



"Estimates of this kind are almost inevitably misleading. 

 For example, it is certain that the rate of consumption of 

 timber will increase enormously in the future, as it has m the 

 past, so long as supplies remain to draw upon. Exact knowl- 

 edge of many other factors is needed before closely accurate 

 results can be obtained. The figures cited are, however, suf- 

 ficiently reliable to make it certain that the United States has 

 already crossed the verge of a timber famine so severe that 'its 

 blighting effects will be felt in every household in the land. 



"The rise in the price of lumber which marked the opening 

 of the present century is the beginning of a vastly greater 

 and more rapid rise which is to come. 



"We must necessarily begin to suffer from the scarcity of 

 timber long before our supplies are completely exhausted. 



"It is well to remember that there is no foreign source from 



