36 FOREST LANDS FOE THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



The CHAIRMAN. Will you permit me to suggest right there that I 

 think that is an exaggeration of the existing conditions ? Of course, 

 I do not mean to say that I have traveled all over the Southern Ap- 

 palachians, but I did spend a week in a part of North Carolina, 

 where I was advised to go by a very enthusiastic advocate of this 

 project, because it was stated that the worst conditions resulting from 

 the denudation of the forests were to be found there that could be 

 found anywhere. I think it would be conservative to say that not 

 to exceed 10 per cent of the total area of the mountain sides was de- 

 voted to farming denuded. 



Governor PARDEE. I know nothing of that at all. 



The CHAIRMAN. I merely wanted to have that statement go in, 

 because I think it was conveying the wrong impression to give out 

 the idea that a great proportion of the country is denuded. 



Governor PARDEE. Would you permit me to call your attention 

 again to a statement made by Doctor Van Hise, which struck me 

 as the meat of this whole proposition that there are great areas 

 of that country which never should have been and never should be 

 put to agricultural purposes, and that those properties are the 10 per 

 cent which have already been put there, and that the other 90 per 

 cent of those districts should never be put to agricultural uses. 



The CHAIRMAN. I saw the slopes in North Carolina, which, coming 

 from the Kansas, where our land lies as it should lie, I should have 

 said ought never to have been devoted to farming, and yet it belonged 

 to men who said that they would not part with it for less than $20 

 an acre, because they were raising crops on it every year. 



Governor PARDEE. No doubt. 



The CHAIRMAN. And therefore it might become a serious question 

 as to whose judgment should determine. 



Governor PARDEE. Finally, Mr. Chairman, experientia has doceted 

 me [laughter 1 ] that finally } 7 ou must come to the expert and take 

 his views ; that the blacksmith must shoe the horse best ; he may now 

 and then lame a horse, but he can shoe the horse best. I have been 

 dragged a little away from my proposition, which was simply this, 

 that where cooperation is possible, and in a great many cases it is, 

 that that is the thing; that where the States will not or can not or 

 do not do as they should do in those matters, then the Government 

 of the United States, in defense of itself and in defense of its people, 

 should step in; that where necessary purchases should be made by 

 the State, where the thing can be regulated by the State or, if neces- 

 sary, finally by the Government, and where that regulation is itself 

 sufficient, then regulation is enough. But that no purchases should 

 be made, speaking from the standpoint of the Californian, I deny. 

 [Applause.] 



Mr. HAWLEY. Was that case you referred to from Maine a deci- 

 sion on the case, or was it an advisory opinion handed down by the 

 court to the legislature ? 



Governor PARDEE. It was an advisory opinion. 



STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK D. CURRIER, A REPRESENTATIVE 

 IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Mr. CURRIER. Mr. Chairman, I wish very briefly to present some 

 facts bearing on the question of whether the removal of forests from 

 the mountains affects in a material way the uniform flow of navi- 



