SYMPOSIUM OX CONSERVATION' 49 



ahead of us, and it is our lot to be classed with such humble com- 

 pany as Maryland, Connecticut, and New ^Mexico. Forest planting 

 might for us appear to be a much more fertile symposium topic. 

 And indeed this is a topic about which much might be said. Al- 

 though our State has a vast amount of land that naturally was 

 treeless, there is scarcely a foot of this prairie area which is un- 

 suited for the growth of trees. As a rule, it has been much more 

 profitable to devote our marvellously rich soil to other uses, but 

 there is reason for supposing that the time has arrived when we 

 may well consider the desirability of tree planting to a much 

 greater degree than has hitherto obtained. However attractive 

 this subject might prove to be, it is not the one that has been 

 assigned to me, and I must proceed forthwith to consider Forest 

 Conservation. 



Far from being one of the poorest states in which to exploit 

 conservation theories concerning our forests, Illinois actually is 

 one of the best, and for the obvious reason that it will not be 

 necessary here to combat the undue cupidity of the lumber inter- 

 ests. In states like ^^'ashington or Louisiana, which are in the 

 throes of extravagant timber exploitation, the sentiment of the 

 ordinary intelligent citizens is against any large measure of forest 

 conservation: as might be expected, the lumber interests in such 

 states are vigorously opposed to any sort of conservation. Quite 

 as unreasonable as the views of the average western lumberman, 

 and very much harder for a rational conservationist to deal with, 

 are the views of the idealistic conservationist, who lives for the 

 most part well outside the regions of lumber exploitation, and 

 chiefly in our cities. ISIany lumbermen are too much concerned 

 in immediate gain to take thought for the future, and many con- 

 servationists are too impractical and too little familiar with forest 

 conditions to be able to deal sanely with things as they are. One 

 of the most pleading signs of the times is the readiness of many 

 of our most intelligent lumbermen to listen to plans of forest 

 management which take the distant future into account ; equally 

 pleasing is the attempt made by the wiser conservationists to 

 deal with the complex problem of forest conservation in the prac- 

 tical and conservative manner, which the name conservation ought 

 to imply. 



The establishment of forest reserves in our western states has 

 met with vigorous opposition from many of the best citizens of 

 the States concerned, and it is scarcely to be doubted that by the 

 somewhat wholesale establishment of such reserves a good deal 



