74 



with awe and reverence and attributed supernatural forces to its being. 

 The cities and municipalities in the past timidly began with parks, but 

 parks are not forestry. The Federal Government in some states has cour- 

 ageously plunged into the maintenance of public forests. The time has 

 come when Indiana should follow suit on a large scale ; the state as well as 

 its municipalities. The extent to which they should engage in forestry will 

 be determined by equating the value of the profits on the forest with the 

 profits that might be obtained on the same land from agricultural crops 

 including grazing. At least the location of public forests would be deter- 

 mined by this method, because it has always been axiomatic with foresters 

 that land with high agricultural possibilities should be used for that pur- 

 pose. 



State owned forests would be in large bodies, hence, could be more eco- 

 nomically administered and the management would be under trained for- 

 esters which would insure the maximum of income. Again, forests in 

 large bodies would afford opportunities for revenue from game, from 

 use as a hunting preserve and from park privileges in general. 



The time for the inauguration of state forests for Indiana is today. We 

 cannot afford to delay any longer. We must go to work at once and find 

 the most economical locations; the method of financing; the administration 

 and work out the great mass of detail consequent upon such a project. 

 We cannot intelligently speak of the hundreds or thousands of acres, but 

 rather in hundreds of thousands of acres, because we must get out of the 

 time worn rut we have been running in, and realize that the question is 

 large and pressing and that only by the intelligent management of hundreds 

 of thousands of acres of forest can we hope to establish a permanent sup- 

 ply of Indiana hardwood. 



The biggest problem is to place before the public the urgency of the 

 situation ; the necessity of action and responsibility that rests upon the 

 civic body. Thankfully ! the large upheaval caused by the world war 

 has aroused the public from its old lethargy to a keen appreciation of its 

 power and responsibility. There must be launched at once a campaign of 

 education, through the schools and mails and the press, setting forth the 

 present conditions of our timber supply and the requirements which will 

 make it possible for the great wood-using industries to continue. Pains- 

 taking investigation is necessary to produce the authentic information with 

 which the public must become acquainted. 



The Department of Conservation is a willing instrument and I hope that 

 it may prove an able one to make the people of our state acquainted with 

 the prevailing condition. Together with Ohio and Illinois we have stated 

 the purpose of our conference to be "an arousing of the public and wood- 

 using industries to the need of action if our future timber supply is to 

 be assured, to formulate a practical working policy of state forestry, out- 

 line a comprehensive legislative program and secure adequate legislative 

 backing." 



When we adjourn this meeting tonight after we have learned even 

 more from the moving pictures that we are to see, then the real work 

 should begin. It has been my pleasure to consult with a few of the gentle- 

 men and we agreed that the following would be the best plan to conserve 



