And State Papers 255 



to succeed, you should understand what these fel- 

 lowmen are, and not merely what they are thought 

 to be by people who live in the closet and the parlor. 

 You must know who the men are with whom you 

 are acting ; how they feel ; how far you can go ; when 

 you have to stop; when it is necessary to push on; 

 you must know all of these things if you are going 

 to do work of the highest value. 



I believe that the foresters of the United States 

 will create and apply a more effective system of for 

 estry than we have yet seen. If you don't, gentle 

 men, I will feel that you have fallen behind your 

 brethren of other callings; and I don't believe you 

 will fall behind them. Nowhere else is the develop 

 ment of a country more closely bound up with the 

 creation and execution of a judicious forest policy. 

 This is of course especially true of the West ; but it is 

 true of the East also. Fortunately in the West we 

 have been able relatively to the growth of the coun 

 try to begin at an earlier day ; so that we have been 

 able to provide great forest reserves in the Rocky 

 Mountains, instead of waiting and attempting to 

 get Congress to pay a very large sum for their crea 

 tion, as we are now endeavoring to do in the South 

 ern Appalachians. In the administration of the na 

 tional forest reserves, the introduction of conserva 

 tive lumbering on the timber tract of the lumberman 

 and the woodlot of the farmer, in the practical solu 

 tion of forest problems which affect every industry 

 and every activity of the nation, the members of 

 this society have an unexampled field before them. 



