li-t JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



much as the grazing idea that has been instilled into the heads of our 

 men. It is natural for the average ranger to be more interested in the 

 grazing business than to the division of his entire district into working 

 circles with definite plans of management and rotations, such as our 

 forestry regiments found in France. But it is surprising to read in 

 planting reports and to have advanced to you by men who have had 

 forestry educations the argument that planting should not be done on 

 certain areas because they are now bringing in more revenue and doing 

 more good in the production of beef than they could possibly do by 

 their change from a light aspen stand, valuable for grazing, to the char- 

 acteristic lodgepole type having small forage value and not producing 

 any revenue for 150 to 200 years and possibly inaccessible for logging. 

 These men have forgotten the reasons for the creation of the National 

 Forests — timber production and water conservation. They do not have 

 the vision of the French foresters who planted a century ago the trees 

 that helped so much to defeat the enemy today. Areas which from the 

 present logging viewpoint are inaccessible and represent minus values 

 will be the storehouses of the future. 



But I am not attempting to show that the present grazing policy is 

 injurious to the best silvicultural development of our Forests. In the 

 Rocky Mountain District of the Forest Service it can safely be said 

 that sufficient investigation has not been made to prove or disprove this 

 point, although in justice to the branch of Research it may be stated 

 that several projects of this character proposed by this office have been 

 eliminated from the general program of investigations. The solution 

 of some of these problems should now be effected by the closer co- 

 operation of the branches of Grazing and Silviculture, as planned in 

 the recently announced policy of the Forester. 



But this grazing policy has a bearing upon a larger movement into 

 which we are just now coming. It is a known fact in our history that 

 after each of our big wars in this country there has been a movement 

 to the soil. Men who prior to the war had indoor positions will have 

 become so accustomed to life in the open that their former jobs will be 

 intolerable ; the war will also have created in many boys, some of whom 

 prior to the time they were drafted never had been more than fifty miles 

 from their homes, the spirit of "wunderlust." To meet this spirit, we 

 have a grateful Congress or scheming politicians providing ways and 

 means for the soldiers to acquire homesteads under easy terms. Al- 

 ready the Department of Interior has announced proposed plans for 

 making available more homes for the soldiers. But most of the public 

 domain now open consists of desert land, cut-over land, or swamps. 



