304' JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



cement sidewalk — might be admitted to the picture. He beheves that 

 the family life Avill unfold more serenely in these environments and 

 that the contribution of the permanent forest community to the 

 "Spiritual Capital" of the nation will be as useful and more lasting 

 than the temporary one. At any rate the temporary one has doubtless 

 made its full contribution and it is time for the permanent one to 

 come on the stage. The writer is convinced that from the human 

 standpoint the nation sorely needs permanent forest production. It 

 needs the ethical influence of forestry properly conducted with care 

 for perpetuation of these resources to offset the influence of those 

 industries which can exist only by destruction of the resource that 

 maintains them. The thinking man who engages in the oil industry 

 knows that his efforts are day by day helping to bring that industry 

 to its close, sooner or later. Such an industry might well be conducted 

 on a more selfish basis than forestry or farming, where the practical 

 idealist can find full scope through the knowledge that his own ends 

 can be served at the same time he is helping to create a better heritage 

 to leave to the future of his nation. In fact, in the long run national 

 existence itself depends on the maintenance of the renewable resources. 

 Moreover, it must be remembered that as one- resource after another 

 i.s exhausted the burden which the renewable resources must bear 

 will increase. It may not be possible to show that America has yet 

 felt the burden of exhaustion, but we are distinctly beginning to 

 feel the "saturation point," as it may be termed, meaning thereby 

 the point where it is no longer possible for the average man to put 

 his hand easily on some resource that will yield large returns. It is 

 a well-known fact that in parts of this country labor has begun to 

 feel all the pinch of narrowed opportunity that the labor of older 

 countries feels. 



There are few higher patriotic duties, then^ than the maintenance 

 in producing condition of our renewable resources. Certainly our 

 forest resources are only second in importance to our agricultural 

 soils in this country. It will assist in no small degree in rendering 

 opportunity to our increasing population. Most of the desirable 

 results mentioned above are unattainable except through an appro- 

 priate annual sustained yield, an idea not so "thin" as Cary would 

 have us believe and not at all impracticable in vast numbers of forest 

 tracts. It is in most cases impracticable only where forestry is imprac- 

 ticable. This idea will not be further exploited here. For complete 



