meiit house in a tenement district. It becomes a 

 center of demonstration and practical education in 

 forestry methods. Co-operative efforts among tim- 

 berland owners for the prevention of forest fires 

 grow up around it. In its demonstration of methods 

 of cutting and growing timber, of disposing of fire- 

 breeding slash, and of the actual costs and results 

 of forest practce, it carries conviction to the 

 forest owners round about where argument would be 

 fruitless. It will be true in the United States as it 

 has been in Frane and Sweden that a core of publicly 

 owned forests under technical public administration 

 is the pivotal point in national progress toward the 

 right use of forest lands. 



As the virgin forests in private ownership are more 

 and more widely depleted, the timbers of high 

 quality like our old- growth white oak and yellow 

 poplar, like the ship timbers sawn from virgin long- 

 leaf pine or Douglas fir, will become increasingly 

 scarce and dear. The length of time required to pro- 

 duce such material by reforestation will largely pre- 

 clude it as a feasible undertaking for the owner of 

 private forest lands. This is an obligation to the 

 industries of the country which the national govern- 

 ment and the states may well assume, the produc- 

 tion of high class forest products requiring long 

 periods of time, as it has been assumed by most of 

 the governments of Europe. I know, for example, 

 of 110 solution of our waning supply of old growth 

 hardwoods which has become such a critical matter 

 for many wood-using industries which would be so 



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