from use in our forest reserves on June 30, 1909. 

 Of this, nearly 58 per cent, over 112,000,000 acres, 

 or 175,000 square miles, lies in six Western states. 

 That is an area six-sevenths the size of Germany 

 or France. It is 80 per cent of the size of the 

 unappropriated and unreserved land in those six 

 states. 



The forest reserves and the lands conveyed by 

 congressional grants to private interests in Oregon 

 amount to some 50,000 square miles. More than 

 half the area of this great state has been with- 

 drawn by action of the government in one way 

 or another from cultivation and the enjoyment and 

 profit of the people of the state. Over one-third of 

 Idaho and 27 per cent of Washington are forest 

 reserves. Colorado is almost as badly off; and not 

 more than 30 per cent of its forest reserves is cov- 

 ered with merchantable timber, while about 40 per 

 cent has no timber at all. On the Olympic penin- 

 sula are lands reported to be withdrawn to conserve 

 our water supply where the annual rainfall amounts 

 to something like seven to ten feet. According to 

 the official report, the cost of administering the 

 forest service in 1909 was a little short of three 

 million dollars, and the receipts were eighteen hun- 

 dred thousand. The deficit on current account 

 alone was over $1,100,000. The total disbursements 

 were over $4,400,000, and the actual deficit $2,600,- 

 000. The forestry service has over 2,000 employes. 

 In 1909 they planted 611 acres and sowed 1,126 

 acres more. The West believes in forest preserva- 

 tion. But it believes practically and not theoreti- 

 cally. It realizes that a good thing may cost too 

 much, and is not ignorant of the extravagant finan- 

 cial tendency of every federal department and 

 bureau. It wants all good agricultural land open 



