'245] Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. 61 



taining unknown quantities of mineral wealth, with 

 an inferior quality of forest for lumbering, but abso- 

 lutely necessary for use locally in the absence of 

 better timber. Owing to the general aridity of this 

 region these forests are invaluable as a cover to the 

 mountains from which the water supply is drawn for 

 the extensive irrigation that now exists on the lower 

 lands. These forests are in much greater danger 

 from fire than are those on the Pacific Slope, where 

 the enormous rainfall protects, and has protected 

 during the centuries of their growth, those wonder- 

 ful forests. In the Rockies the removal of the forest 

 by cutting or by fire means its destruction in very 

 many cases, as there is not sufficient moisture in the 

 soil and air to induce reforestation by natural meth- 

 ods. On the contrary, along the Pacific Slope, a 

 renewal of the forest cover may be reasonably ex- 

 pected. Thus we see that where our public forests 

 are most needed, both for the actual forest product 

 as well as for climatic and agricultural reasons, they 

 are most likely to be destroyed and most difficult to 

 renew. 



The great rainfall of our northwestern Pacific 

 Coast is well known, and the unrivalled timber grow- 

 ing there is world-renowned. 



A single tree of the immense fir and cedar varieties 

 in that region is often worth a hundred to a hundred 

 and fifty dollars, and many tracts of a square mile 

 are estimated to contain 100,000,000 feet board meas- 

 ure, worth, in the form of lumber, a million and a 

 half of dollars. The United States must still own 

 many hundreds of square miles, worth for the timber 

 alone $20,000 per square mile. Yet the government 

 sells this land for $2.50 an acre, or at $1,600 per 



