CONSERVATION OF THE FUTURE LUMBER 



SUPPLY. 



By President T. B. Walker. 



Any practical plan of conservation of existing forests 

 for a continued future supply of lumber and wood products 

 must be based upon a fair, candid understanding of past con- 

 ditions and policies which have been responsible for the 

 wasting and denuding in the past. 



Investigations should not be confined to summarizing 

 present conditions. They should be directed largely to 

 determining the causes which have been responsible for 

 denuding our forests. In this way only can past errors be 

 avoided and a comprehensive plan be worked out to con- 

 serve the future supply. 



The destruction of our forests is charged to the waste- 

 ful propensities of our lumbermen. This is as unjust as it 

 would be to charge the agriculturalists with a responsibility 

 and blame for destroying our hardwood forests. 



These forests were two to three times as extensive in 

 area and amount of timber as the pine or coniferous forests. 

 To reach the soil to furnish the food supply the timber was 

 'rightfully and naturally cut away, and in large part destroyed 

 by burning — only a fractional part being utilized. 



So far as the forestry questions relate to hardwood tim- 

 berland, which v/as mostly agricultural, the conveyance of 

 title, largely as a free gift under the Homestead Act v/as 

 not only justifiable, but a necessary policy to pursue. While 

 it resulted in the destruction and waste of a large proportion 

 of the hardwood timber, it cleared the land and laid the 

 foundation for the great national progress and the pros- 

 perous conditions now existing. 



The lum.bermen, being as legitimately, and next in useful- 

 ness to the farmer engaged in furnishing the timber supply, 

 were naturally compelled to cut and manufacture the pine 

 forests in a way which would make a return for the labor, 



