96 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



mineral world, they may be reproduced or restored. True, 

 the time required is so long, an average of two or more 

 generations, that timber culture is not an inviting or at- 

 tractive field for private enterprise. The average man, in- 

 deed more than 99 per cent of mankind, must realize on his 

 investments and the fruits of his industry at far shorter 

 intervals than is possible with timber culture. It is prac- 

 tically certain therefore that forests once laid low will be 

 reproduced or restored to any extent only as initiative and 

 control are assumed by states and nations. I think all will 

 agree that mountainous and other regions of public domain 

 ill suited to agriculture but capable of growing some kind 

 or kinds of timber should be set aside for forestry purposes 

 and to perpetuate our springs and sources of water supply. 

 But the extent to which good agricultural lands now tim- 

 bered should be so reserved, or cleared lands surrendered, 

 is a most vital problem in conservation. Personally 

 I believe that the solution lies in the direction of scientific 

 timber culture, under governmental control or at least under 

 governmental direction. Virgin forests should be utilized 

 and gradually give way to scientific tree culture. There is 

 no good reason why timber under cultivation should not 

 show the same relative increase in results as do other cul- 

 tivated products of the soil, or as do cultivated and controlled 

 fishery preserves as compared with those that are wild or 

 uncontrolled. 



Referring for a moment to the influence of forests over 

 the character and product of the smaller lakes and streams, 

 I believe that we should take broad ground and consider 

 the food problem as a whole and not solely in the interests 

 of these minor fisheries. By this I mean, for illustration — 

 and perhaps some will cry treason — that if a section of tim- 

 ber must be left standing indefinitely and the lands withheld 

 from agriculture, in order to preserve a few trout streams 

 as such, then the timber and the trout should go. On the 

 other hand, timber belts bordering such splendid trout 

 waters as the Au Sable and other rivers in Michigan and 



