14 ACQUIRING LAND FOE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS, ETC. 



vocates of the policy which it initiates maintain that the policy can 

 only be carried to a successful issue through the purchase of many 

 million acres of land. The last official report upon the subject recom- 

 mended the purchase of 5,000,000 acres in the southern Appalachians 

 and 600,000 acres in the White Mountains, the average estimated cost 

 being $3.50 an acre. , But it states also (on page 32) that there are 

 75,000,000 acres in these mountains which "will have to be given pro- 

 tection before the hard-wood supply is on a safe footing and before the 

 watersheds of the important streams are adequately safeguarded." 

 While no one now advocates the purchase of this enormous area, yet 

 with the policy once entered upon and backed by the tremendous polit- 

 ical and industrial influences that can be brought to its support, who 

 can give assurance that such purchases may not be made in the future 

 and the cost of this policy be thereby extended from tens of millions 

 to hundreds of millions? 



Notwithstanding the enormous expenditure which will almost in- 

 evitably result from the entrance upon this policy, it might still be 

 warranted if it were a demonstrated fact that the maintenance of the 

 forested watersheds is the only way by which the filling up of navi- 

 gable streams and the destructive erosion of large sections of our 

 country can be prevented, and that the only means by which forested 

 watersheds can be maintained is through federal ownership of such 

 watersheds. Believing, however, that this destructive erosion and 

 consequent silting of rivers can be prevented by the introduction of 

 proper methods of farming and by adequate fire protection, both of 

 which can be accomplished through the cooperation of state and fed- 

 eral agencies at comparatively little expense, we are unwilling to con- 

 sent to a measure which commits the Government to a policy which 

 we believe to be both unwise and unnecessary. 



CHAS. F. SCOTT. 



WM. LORIMER. 



GEO. W. COOK. 



JACK BEALL. 



W. W. RUCKER. 



