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prosperity is largely due to their farms, and agricultural development would 

 have been impossible without the sacrifice of the finest of their forests. 

 Nations and states, like individuals, cannot "eat their cake and have it, 

 too." 



Now, we are endeavoring to reclaim a part of this lost heritage of 

 forests. Removal of timber and the rapid vanishing of nearby sources of 

 supply are focusing public attention more and more upon the need of prompt 

 and systematic provision for the future. There is enough time but not too 

 much, in which to put forestation in the United States upon a sound and 

 permanent basis. But there will be no definite or assuring accomplishment 

 until the nation and the several states themselves shall have assumed this 

 obligation as their own. 



The fertile valley lands of the Ohio, the Wabash and the Miami have 

 figured prominently in the agricultural development and the industrial 

 prosperity of the central west. 



In the great joint forestry enterprise which you are here planning the 

 hill lands may be reclaimed. They too may help to make this prosperity 

 secure and permanent and the forests on the hills in the big bend of the 

 Ohio river may yet become a factor in the industrial life of these states 

 as vital perhaps as the farms on the banks of the Wabash. (Applause) 



MR. BOOKWALTER: I take special pleasure in presenting to you 

 Professor Rothrock of Indiana University, who will address you for a few 

 moments. (Applause) 



PROF. ROTHROCK: Mr. Toastmaster and gentlemen, I am not 

 a forester at all, I know very little about forestry, although I would like 

 to know a great deal more. This matter appeals to me in a personal way. I 

 like to see things saved and it seems to me that our forests are well worth 

 saving. Perhaps we can take steps at this conference that will lead into 

 something, so that the future legislature will give us more authority in the 

 conserving of forests. (Applause) 



MR. BOOKWALTER: A meeting of lumbermen or any industry con- 

 nected with the lumber industry held in Indianapolis would not be com- 

 plete without a few words from Mr. Barnaby, of Greencastle. (Applause) 



MR. BARNABY: It has always been that saw-mill men have been 

 blamed with misusing our forests. I am sure I don't know why it is, 

 because we only use the lumber as necessity demands. But I am glad to 

 see this company of men so alive and interested in forest conservation. I 

 have been attending lumber conventions for something like thirty years 

 and at their annual meetings we always hear from some forestry man, and 

 while he is talking, everybody goes to sleep. I don't know why they 

 don't become more interested, but they don't seem to. They need a bunch 

 of men like you to get them stirred up. The need for conservation is 

 growing daily more and more apparent. Right now there is a great de- 

 mand for white oak and we are having difficulty in getting all that we 

 need. The men who manufacture material from white oak are at a loss 

 to know where their future supply is coming from. 



I don't know how we are going to get the people of our country aroused 

 but I think it is up to the nation as a whole as well as the states. I don't 

 believe that the individuals alone can do it. (Applause) 



