Nevus and Notes 361 



Prof. Richard T. Ely, Professor of Political Economy at the 

 University of Wisconsin, has in preparation a volume on Con- 

 servation, which he anticipates by a paper submitted to the 

 Februar}^ meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, 

 entitled Conservation and Economic Theory, and which is 

 printed in Bulletin No. 109 of the Institute and also appears in 

 reprint. Prof. Ely was one of the first among the economists 

 who occupied himself with this subject, before the name had 

 become familiar and while it was still mainly forest conserva- 

 tion. He recognizes the fact that the foundation for the con- 

 servation movement was laid by the pioneers in the forestry move- 

 ment. In discussing some economic principles of conservation, 

 he makes the statement, "the higher the price of land, the bet- 

 ter the farming in the absolute sense," and denies that the high 

 products from the land is the cause of intensive farming. In 

 forestry, this would probably not hold : the higher price of the 

 product makes forestry principles practicable. Another inter- 

 esting statement is that "the conservation of human resources 

 limits the conservation of natural resources," having reference 

 to a reduction in labor cost as conducive to improvement in farm- 

 ing, accentuating that in the final analysis conservation problems 

 depend in their solution upon individual social philosophy. "We 

 need a keener social consciousness and a new state-sense if we 

 are ever to solve the problems of conservation, and the solution 

 can be put in force only by conservation commissions." 



To arrest the ravages of the White pine blister rust, which has 

 now gained a foothold in six eastern States and is suspected in 

 the Ohio Valley, the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 through the Federal Horticultural Board, has sent to all eastern 

 nurserymen an urgent request not to ship White pines, currants 

 and gooseberries west of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, 

 Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. At a conservative estimate, the 

 value of the Government and private holdings in these forests 

 is $240,000,000. 



At the same time, the Department has issued a warning to the 

 States within the range of the Western White pines, of the danger 

 of allowing nursery stock of these three kinds, from eastern 

 nurseries, to enter their territory. 



