PAPERS OX BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 111 



change. America is too young a nation to be preparing 

 a pauper class in any such numbers as these. 



Even the South is beginning to realize that she has cut 

 back her fingernails too close to the quick. Once the 

 Southeast used to supply practically all the world's naval 

 stores of tar, pitch, rosin, turpentine, etc., and she still 

 claims to supply 85 per cent of it. But slowly and surely 

 France is overtaking us with products from her artificial 

 pine-forests under government supervision. TVe no 

 longer have a monopoly on these products, and it seems 

 probable that we must gradually say goodbye to a large 

 percentage of it. Again the cause is found in the reck- 

 less handling of the patient pines that have suffered them- 

 selves to be vandalized by unscientific exploiters. From 

 this same cause in other sections of the South other spe- 

 cies are being so rapidly depleted that Florida citrus- 

 growers are sending S. 0. S. calls in every direction for 

 crating for their fruits. 



In the telling of the whole tale, volumes could be writ- 

 ten by our Forest Department, but our time limits here 

 are wisely narrow, and we can do little more than mention 

 some of the main features. But before such a body as 

 this it is worth any citizen's time if even but one more re- 

 cruit is made in ten minutes for the policy of intelligent 

 conservation of this valuable resource. 



In the remaining minute or so it will be worth our while 

 to hear the program of the U. S. Forestry Department, 

 now drawn up in the form of a law under discussion in 

 Congress under the name of the McNary Bill. This pro- 

 vides : 



1. The initiation of a definite Forestry Policy, in 

 which both the Nation and the States will bear an equal 

 share of the responsibility both of oversight and finan- 

 cial support. 



2. By bringing the nation to realize that it must no 

 longer treat our forests as an inexhaustible resource, but 

 that lumber must become a crop to be cultivated as wheat 

 and corn are cultivated. This means additional educa- 

 tional facilities for teaching the new science of forest cul- 

 ture. 



