FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



thing like a similar situation hitherto 

 has always adopted a single course, 

 that of a spendthrift. And we did the 

 same. We have reached a point now 

 where it is fair for us to take account 

 of what has happened. 



But one point before I proceed we 

 must remember that the life of a na- 

 tion represents at least centuries, 

 where the life of a man is measured in 

 decades. Now, what have we done 

 with the physical basis for our future 

 prosperity from that point of view? 



seen iron mines in full swing where 

 now they are gone; and the same is 

 true of the coal. At our present rate 

 of increase of consumption, our an- 

 thracite coal is good for only about 50 

 years, and our bituminous for only 100 

 years. That is, within a period of the 

 Nation's life which is equivalent to 

 only a single decade in the life of an 

 individual, the Nation's supply of fuel, 

 that mo-t es.-ential of all products for 

 our present form of civilization, is 

 likelv to be exhausted. 



Wasteful methods of lumbering on land now in Black Hills National Forest, 

 South Dakota Such waste is averted under scientific management 



There are two kinds of resources, 

 renewable and non-renewable re- 

 sources. Resources which come out 

 of the interior of the earth are non- 

 renewable. Those which come from 

 the surface are most of them renew- 

 able. \Ye have treated our mineral 

 resources as if of those there was no 

 end. Many of you here have seen 

 natural gas pouring day and night 

 out of great torches in the States of 

 Indiana and Pennsylvania, from fields 

 no\v exhausted. Many of you have 



\Vehave treated our soils in precisely 

 the same way. The figures are familiar 

 to most of you. I will -imply say that a 

 billion tons of the most fertile soil 

 on the most fertile land of the United 

 States goes annually into the ocean. 

 It is the largest of all taxes paid by 

 the farmer, and one of the largest 

 losses that the Nation suffers. Hun- 

 dreds of square miles a year are made 

 practically uninhabitable, or at least 

 unsuitable for the support of a den si- 

 population. The surface of the soil is 



