FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 63 



their fundamental principle the speedy disposition of such lands as 

 were in the hands of the State; and this too, without taking into consid- 

 eration the consequences that would arise where the value of the tract 

 consisted in what stood upon and could be removed from the land. In 

 very many cases these lands, purchased from the State or national gov- 

 ernment on extremely liberal terms, actually became a source of ex- 

 pense and a by-word of reproach under a system of taxation in vogue at 

 that period. It is my belief that had a system of forestation, having in 

 view the preservation of large forest tracts, prevailed in the early his- 

 tory of our State, we would not be shipping oak from Arkansas, pine 

 from Mississippi and Louisiana, and redwood from Oregon and Wash- 

 ington. 



A few days since I was in one of our cities that a few years ago was 

 one of the centers of the lumber industry. This city is situated at the 

 mouth of one of the large streams that has its source in and runs 

 through a country at one time covered with 'a primeval forest of pine 

 that few sections could equal and none excel. There I saw evidence of 

 what had been done in the deserted mills and sawdust piles. I listened to 

 the stories that men employed in the good old times told, and contrasted 

 the present situation with that of the past. The arguments in favor of 

 a well-defined policy for our State appealed to me more forcibly than 

 ever before. The average citizen fails to recognize the relative impor- 

 tance of the lumber industry as compared with other industries. No 

 more striking illustration can be given than the assertion, which can 

 be substantiated by the records of the census, that the annual value of 

 our timber products exceeds that of all the gold, silver, iron, lead, coal, 

 copper and petroleum annually produced. 



There is a prevailing idea, that, owing to the increased use of iron, 

 steel and cement in building and manufacturing, there is a falling off in 

 the uses of wood; but such is not the case as can readily be determined 

 when our attention is called to the various uses to which it is applied. 

 It enters into the manufacture of paper, and for this use alone the de- 

 mand for wood has trebled in the last decade. The railroads of the 

 United States are 200,000 miles in length and for every rod of this dis- 

 tance no less than five ties must be placed. For this purpose no other 

 material has yet been found so valuable as wood. For every one hun- 

 dred tons of mineral mined a ton of wood must be used for bracing and 

 supporting the mine, to say nothing of what must be used to operate the 

 mine in other ways. Examples of this character can be multiplied but 

 it is not necessary to do so to excite your interest and call your atten- 

 tion to the uses of forest products. The ultimate result of this phase 

 of the subject is apparent to all that unless steps are taken to provide 

 for a future supply, the manufacturing industries must suffer and the 

 prestige of the United States along that line be lost. 



What shall be done to maintain our future supply of forest products 

 will soon be a serious problem which will demand our most careful 

 study. The forest and water supplies, declares President Roosevelt, 

 are perhaps the most vital internal problems of the United States. As 

 a beginning the Interior Department has withdrawn seventy millions of 

 acres of the public domain and are establishing, forestry reserves there- 

 in. The Forestry Bureau stand ready to assist and aid municipalities 

 and private parties in formulating practical plans for the scientific cut- 

 ting of forest tracts or the replanting of cut-over lands. The State of 



