THE NEW EARTH , 



it, a timber famine in the future is inevitable. 

 Fire, wasteful and destructive forms of lum- 

 bering, and the legitimate use, taken together, 

 are destroying our forest resources far more 

 rapidly than they are being replaced. It is 

 difficult to imagine what such a timber famine 

 would mean to our resources. And the period 

 of recovery from the injuries which a timber 

 famine would entail would be measured by the 

 slow growth of the trees themselves.*' 



While all indications point to a gradual 

 national extension of the views of the Presi- 

 dent, resulting in checking forest destruction 

 before it is too late, the work of the individual 

 states in the period of the New Earth has itself 

 been significant. Steps are being taken in 

 many states to protect the forests from fire, to 

 provide reserves, and to take advantage of the 

 example of other countries in reforesting cut- 

 over areas ; but perhaps the most interesting of 

 all the developments is the creation of forests 

 in states where thay have not before existed. 

 I do not know that this can better be illus- 

 trated than by selecting the state of Kansas as 

 an example of what is being accomplished, a 

 prairie state beset with heavy winds, needing 



150 



