194 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
controlling the undoubted but almost infinitely slow disintegration 
of the elements, with the view of utilizing their stored-up energy. 
However interesting a detailed discussion of these possible sources 
of energy might be, time prevents my dwelling on them. Suffice it to 
say that the Hon. R. J. Strutt has shown that in this country at least 
it would be impracticable to attempt to utilize terrestrial heat from 
boreholes; others have deduced that from the tides, the winds, and 
waterpower small supplies of energy are no doubt obtainable, but that, 
in comparison with that derived from the combustion of coal, they are 
negligible; nothing is to be hoped for from the direct utilization of 
solar heat in this temperate and uncertain climate; and it would be 
folly to consider seriously a possible supply of energy in a conceivable 
acceleration of the liberation of energy by atomic change. It looks 
utterly improbable, too, that we shall ever be able to utilize the energy 
due to the revolution of the earth on her axis, or to her proper motion 
round the sun. 
Attention should undoubtedly be paid to forestry, and to the utiliza- 
tion of our stores of peat. On the Continent the forests are largely 
the property of the State; it is unreasonable, especially in these latter 
days of uncertain tenure of property, to expect any private owner of 
land to invest money in schemes which would at best only benefit his 
descendants, but which, under our present trend of legislation, do not 
promise even that remote return. Our neighbors and rivals, Germany 
and France, spend annually £2,200,000 on the conservation and utili- 
zation of their forests; the net return is £6,000,000. There is no doubt 
that we could imitate them with advantage. Moreover, an increase 
in our forests would bring with it an increase in our waterpower; for 
without forest land rain rapidly reaches the sea, instead of distributing 
itself, so as to keep the supply of water regular, and so more easily 
utilized. 
Various schemes have been proposed for utilizing our deposits of 
peat. I believe that in Germany the peat industry is moderately prof- 
itable; but our humid climate does not lend itself to natural evapora- 
tion of most of the large amount of water contained in peat, without 
which processes of distillation prove barely remunerative. 
We must therefore rely chiefly on our coal reserve for our supply 
of energy, and for the means of supporting our population, and it is 
to the more economical use of coal that we must look, in order that our 
life as a nation may be prolonged. We can economize in many ways: 
By the substitution of turbine engines for reciprocating engines, there- 
by reducing the coal required per horsepower from 4 to 5 pounds to 
14 or 2 pounds; by the further replacement of turbines by gas engines, 
raising the economy to 30 per cent of the total energy available in the 
coal, that is, lowering the coal consumption per horsepower to 1 or 14 
