541 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



December 



The situation on the open govern- 

 ment range is strikingly different. Its 

 carrying capacity has probably been 

 reduced one-half by over grazing and 

 is still falling. Range controversies 

 in many places are active and bitter, 

 and life and property are often in dan- 

 ger. The interests both of the live 

 stock industry and of the government 

 are needlessly impaired. The present 

 situation is indefensible from any point 

 of view and it should be ended. 



I recommend that a bill be enacted 

 which will provide for the government 

 control of the public range through the 

 Department of Agriculture, which 

 alone is equipped for that work. Such 

 a bill should insure to each locality 

 rules for grazing specially adapted to 

 its needs and should authorize the col- 

 lection of a reasonable grazing fee. 

 Above all, the rights of the settler and 



home-maker should be absolutely guar- 

 anteed. 



Much of the public land can only be 

 used to advantage for grazing when 

 fenced. Much fencing has been done 

 for that reason and also to prevent 

 other stock owners form using land to 

 which they have an equal right under 

 the law. Reasonable fencing which 

 promotes the use of the range and yet 

 interferes neither with settlement nor 

 with other range rights would be thor- 

 oughly desirable if it were legal. Yet 

 the law forbids it, and the law must 

 and will be enforced ; I will see to it 

 that the illegal fences are removed un- 

 less Congress at the present session 

 takes steps to legalize proper fencing 

 by government control of the range. 



Theodore Roosevelt. 

 The White House, December 16, 1906. 



NEW NATIONAL FOREST RESERVES* 



Plea for Preservation of Important East- 

 ern Regions by Federal Government 



BY 

 DR. THOMAS ELMER WILL 



Secretajy American Forestry Association 



AMONG the bills to be considered 

 by Congress at the present ses- 

 sion few, perhaps, if any, are of more 

 far-reaching importance than that pro- 

 viding for national forest reserves in 

 the Southern Appalachian and White 

 Mountains. 



That the "Switzerland of America" 

 should be preserved should require 

 no argument. The Southern Appa- 

 lachian region, greater by far and 

 much less appreciated, will receive 

 chief attention in this paper. 



Beginning in Maryland and extend- 

 ing southwestward through portions 

 of Virginia, West Virginia, North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 

 Alabama, and Tennessee, is a narrow 

 strip of mountain land including from 

 four million to seven million acres. 



Here lofty mountains, forty-three of 

 them six thousand feet and upward in 

 altitude, gorges with perpendicular 

 sides from five hundred to two thou- 

 sand feet in height, cascades and 

 waterfalls without number, and vast 

 stretches of noble forest trees of be- 

 wildering variety, produce a scene of 

 surpassing magnificence. 



Within twenty-four hours' ride of 

 sixty million people we have here, in 

 possibility, a national park and recrea- 

 tion ground more generally useful 

 than any other in the United States. 



On the material side, also, this re- 

 gion is of great importance. Of the 

 four great timber areas of the United 

 States two alone remain ; the North- 

 western and the Southern Appalach- 

 ian. In the latter is found our last 



* Reprinted by permission from the Review of Reviews. 



