482 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



government, that debatable subject must 

 be ignored here for the reason that 

 .conditions and not theory will deter- 

 mine in the matter of the forests. But 

 this much can and should be said : If 

 conditions were alike, there is no more 

 reason why either national or state gov- 

 ernments should grow, maintain, and 

 dispose of forests and forest products 

 than there is that they should grow, 

 harvest, and sell wheat or other prod- 

 ucts of the soil known as farm crops, 

 a work not recognized as a govern- 

 mental function. But conditions are 

 unlike ; the element of time of ma- 

 turity enters largely into the case. 

 Farm crops, in the main, mature in one 

 year, while it takes well on toward a 

 century for forests to grow fit to har- 

 vest. In one case, the time is well 

 within the limits of the average indi- 

 vidual's lifetime ; yet that feature does 

 not prevail when he grows trees, but 

 it does when the government engages 

 in it. \Ye do not contemplate the gov- 

 ernment's death ; we assume that it will 

 live for all time, and that it is as much 

 its duty to provide for the future as 

 for the present. For that reason, grow- 

 ing and disposing of the forests of the 

 countrv should not be classed with the 

 control of other natural resources. Nor 

 is this the only difference. It is no 

 wild shriek when we declare that the 

 forest is the only one of our natural 

 resources that can be perpetuated. It 

 is a living, burning fact, the existence 

 of which all must admit : and it car- 

 ries with it the obviously greater need 

 to put forth efforts to maintain in per- 

 petuity the only one possible, for in 

 our frantic efforts to exploit our nat- 

 ural resources we are hastening the pe- 

 riod of their exhaustion, and when 

 that time is reached development and 

 destruction will have become prac- 

 tically synonymous terms. 



In a recent speech at Spokane, Presi- 

 dent Taft stated that: "The United 

 States government timber land is only 

 about one- fourth the timber land owned 

 by private individuals." He referred 

 to the productive forests and did not 

 include cut-over lands, of which the 

 United States government owns but 



little. This gives us a basis upon w 

 to approximately determine what 

 national government can now do to\ 

 furnishing a supply of forest prod 

 If the forests of the country are ai 

 in extent, then the government's 

 ply of one-fifth will suffice ; if 

 ample, then that supply may fall 

 short of the needed amount, a su 

 which will continue to grow 

 through exhaustion until new fo: 

 can be grown. The question 

 arises, are they ample? Recent 

 tistics show that we are consuming 

 forest products more than three t 

 faster than they grow. If this b< 

 and it undoubtedly is, the forests o\ 

 by the United States government 

 utterly fail in supplying the dem 

 of the country, and that, too, wit 

 considering any increase of popul; 

 or new uses for wood, both of w 

 will inevitably occur ; and, furthern 

 it must be remembered that some o 

 timber lands now belonging to the 

 eminent must be given up for s< 

 ment, for forestry must not claim 

 suitable for agriculture. Thus, 

 restoration and conservation of our 

 ductive forests by the United S 

 government will be greatly restr 

 unless it shall plant additional om 

 purchase them, as advocated in the 

 of the Southern Appalachian and 

 White Mountain reservations a f 

 osition which the judiciary comir 

 of the House of Representative 

 Congress has decided would be ur 

 stitutional, unless -for the sole anr 

 clared purpose of providing for 

 protection and preservation of the i 

 gable rivers receiving their waters : 

 such areas : and this would pro! 

 give no power to harvest the tin 

 and without that power such ; 

 would be of little value in suppl 

 forest products. It will appear 

 this that a constitutional amend] 

 will be necessary to enable the go^ 

 ment to increase its timber prodt 

 forests, unless by planting. That 

 power should be given, there is 

 question ; but whether it will be, 

 matter of uncertainty. 



