Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 105 



possible speed. Our methods of mining are often wasteful; and we 

 not only prohibit our industries from having recourse to the coal sup- 

 plies of other countries, but actually pride ourselves upon becoming 

 exporters of a prime necessity of life and an essential of civilization. 



The iron industry tells a similar story. The total of iron ore mined 

 in the United States doubles about once in seven years. It was less 

 than 12,000,000 -tons in 1893, over 24,000,000 tons in 1899, 47,740,000 

 tons in 1906, and over 52,000,000 tons in 1907. The rising place of iron 

 in the world's life is the most impressive phenomenon of the last cen- 

 tury. In 1850 the pig iron production of the United States amounted 

 to 563,757 tons, or about 50 pounds per capita. Our production now is 

 over 600 pounds per capita. We do not work a mine, build a house, 

 weave a fabric, prepare a meal or cultivate an acre of ground under 

 modern methods without the aid of iron. We turn out over 25,000,000 

 tons of pig iron every year, and the production for the first half of 

 1907 was at the rate of 27,000,000 tons. This is two and one half times 

 the product of Great Britain. It is nearly half the product of the whole 

 world. And the supply of this most precious of all the metals is so far 

 from inexhaustible that it seems as if iron and coal might be united in 

 their disappearance from common life. 



We now turn to the only remaining resource of man upon this earth, 

 which is the soil itself. How are we caring for that, and what possibili- 

 ties does it hold out to the people of future support? We are only 

 beginning to feel the pressure upon the land. The whole interior of 

 this continent, aggregating more than 500,000,000 acres, has been occu- 

 pied by settlers within the last fifty years. What is there left for the 

 next fifty years'? Excluding arid and irrigable areas, the latter limited 

 by nature, and barely enough of which could be made habitable in each 

 year to furnish a farm for each immigrant family, the case stands as 

 follows: In 1906 the total unappropriated public lands in the United 

 States consisted of 792,000,000 acres. Of this area the divisions of 

 Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New 

 Mexico, and Wyoming contained 195,700,000 acres of unsurveyed land. 

 Little of Alaska is fitted for general agriculture, while practically all 

 of the rest is semi-arid, available only for grazing or irrigation. We 

 have (subtracting these totals) 50,000 ; 000 acres of surveyed and 

 36,500,000 acres of unsurveyed land as our actual remaining stock. 

 And 21,000,000 acres were disposed of in 1907. How long will the 

 remainder last? No longer can we say that ''Uncle Sam has enough 

 to give us all a farm. ' ' 



Equally threatening is the change in quality. There are two ways 

 in which the productive power of the earth is lessened : first by erosion 

 and the sweeping away of the fertile surface into streams and thence to 

 the sea ; and, second, by exhaustion through wrong methods of cultiva- 



