72 



The white-tailed deer which I hope to see reinstated in its former do- 

 main may again give joy to the nature lover and to the sportsmen, but that 

 is not forestry. Winding roads through inviting woodlands over which 

 travels in super-limousines or in the well-known- and popular make, a 

 crowd of recreationists more variegated than the motley crew of Chaucer's 

 Pilgrims to Canterbury, are a by-product but a by-product only of forestry. 

 And even the purer waters of streams, their greater abundance and their 

 wholesome influences on climatic conditions are not forestry. 



Forestry is the science of producing wood and keeping it in sustained 

 use for the benefit of men. And therefore, again the forestry problem of 

 Indiana must be solved on the basis of public welfare. 



Of all the materials that bountiful nature has bestowed on us, none has 

 found so many ready uses as wood. For, while the minerals lie dormant 

 until we reach out for them, the very life of a tree is full of productiveness 

 in the interest of man ; its death only marks a transformation of usefulness. 

 For that reason the oft-heard claim that we will find a substitute for wood 

 if we run out of trees is a dangerous fallacy, for we human beings need 

 trees in order to enjoy the many products thereof, because in a world 

 without trees we would not need any further substitutes having renounced 

 our place to the reign of billions of insects. 



So again we see how forestry has its ramifications in all human en- 

 deavor, how it is essential to human welfare nay, to its very existence. 

 Of late years there has come over many people in our state a keen realiza- 

 tion that all is not well on that score. More and more it becomes patent 

 that private ownership of forest land has been a round failure. 



We have spent a great amount of energy and a considerable sum of 

 money attempting to convince and encourage the private land owner in 

 the practice of forestry with but little result. We cannot escape the fact 

 that private ownership of forests and timberland is possible only, if imme- 

 diate cutting is contemplated. It is impossible in the sense of forest 

 administration. 



When we condense our material, we find that about the only advantage 

 in forestry practice that we can offer to the private owner, is the improve- 

 ment of aesthetic and climatic conditions surely a small boon for long 

 risks and short profits. We cannot say it is a profitable investment because 

 under present conditions it is not. Furthermore, the present disadvantages 

 of private forestry are many. The income from the land used for agri- 

 cultural, horticultural, and grazing purposes, for instance, is greater and 

 is received daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually or annually. Intensive 

 agriculture gives an outlet for man-power and increases the local popula- 

 tion, improves the public roads system which contributes to desirable social 

 factors, together with establishing a greater number of churches, and 

 social centers, and increasing the population of the school. With our 

 waning forests our saw mills are disappearing and in some communities 

 only one, or not even one remains which means no competition and a rela- 

 tive slump in the price of stumpage. The people of these districts will soon 

 not know how to haul logs or have the necessary equipment for handling 

 timber. The rapid development of the dairy business, the recent intro- 

 duction and wide use of the silo, added knowledge of certain forage plants, 



