1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



171 



the ore is of low grade, the transporta- 

 tion of timber from any distance being 

 out of the question, the use of the mine 

 is extremely limited by the amount of 

 timber available close at hand. 



The very existence of lumbering, of 

 course and lumbering is the fourth 

 great industry of the United States- 

 depends upon the success of your work, 

 of our work as a nation, in putting 

 practical forestry into effective oper- 

 ation. 



As it is with mining and lumbering, 

 so it is in only a less degree with trans- 

 portation, manufactures, commerce in 

 general. The relation of all of these 

 industries is of the most intimate and 

 dependent kind to forestry. 



It is a matter for congratulation that 

 so many of these great industries are 

 now waking up to this fact, the rail- 

 roads especially, managed as they are 

 by men who are obliged to look ahead ; 

 who are obliged by the very nature of 

 their profession to possess a keen in- 

 sight into the future, have awakened 

 to a clearer realization of the vast im- 

 portance of economical use both of 

 timber and of forests. 



Even the grazing industry, as it is 

 carried out in the great West, which 

 might at first sight appear to have little 

 reference to forestry, is nevertheless 

 closely related to it, because great areas 

 of winter range, ranges available and 

 good for winter grazing, would be 

 .absolutely useless without the summer 

 range in the mountains where the forest 

 reserves lie. 



As all of you know, the forest re- 

 sources of our country are already seri- 

 ously depleted. They can be renewed 

 and maintained only by your cooper- 

 .ation, by the cooperation of the forester 

 with the lumberman, with the practical 

 man of business in all his types, but 

 above all, with the practical man of 

 business whose profession is lumbering. 

 And the most striking and encouraging 

 fact in the forest situation is that lumber- 

 men are realizing that practical lumber- 

 ing and practical forestry are allies, not 

 enemies, and that the future of each 

 depends upon the other. The resolutions 

 passed at the last meeting of the repre- 

 sentatives of the lumber interests, which 



occurred here in Washington, were a 

 striking proof of this fact, and a most 

 encouraging feature of the present situ- 

 ation. As long as we could not make 

 the men concerned in the great lumber 

 industry realize that the foresters were 

 endeavoring to work in their interest, 

 and not against them, the headway that 

 could be made was but small, and we 

 will be able to work effectively and 

 bring about important results of a perma- 

 nent character largely in proportion as 

 we are able to convince those men, the 

 men at the head of that great profession, 

 of that great business, of the practical 

 wisdom of what the foresters of the 

 United States are seeking to accomplish. 



The last analysis, the attitude of the 

 lumberman toward your work, will be 

 the chief factor in the success or failure 

 of that w 7 ork. In other words, gentle- 

 men, I cannot too often say to you as, 

 indeed, it cannot be too often said to 

 any body of men of high ideals and good 

 scientific training who are endeavoring 

 to accomplish work of worth for the 

 country that they must keep their 

 ideals and yet seek to realize them in 

 practical ways. 



The United States is exhausting its 

 forest supplies far more rapidly than 

 they are being produced. The situa- 

 tion is grave, and there is only one rem- 

 edy. That remedy is the introduction 

 of practical forestry on a large scale, 

 and of course that is impossible without 

 trained men men trained in the closet 

 and by actual field -work under practical 

 conditions. 



You have created a new profession 

 a profession of the highest importance, 

 a profession of the highest usefulness 

 toward the state ; and you are in honor 

 bound to yourselves and to the people 

 to make that profession stand as high 

 as any other as the profession of law; 

 as the profession of medicine; as any 

 other profession most intimately con- 

 nected with our highest and finest de- 

 velopment as a nation. You are en- 

 gaged in pioneer work in a calling whose 

 opportunities for public service are very 

 great. Treat the calling seriously. Re- 

 member how much it means for the 

 country as a whole. Remember that if 

 you do your work in a crude fashion, 



