45' 



pendence, Manchester. Anani i>a. Ma- 

 (juoketa, P.elle Plaine. Wavcrly. < >sage. 

 Xew Hampton. Waukon. Decorah. 

 Cresco, Mason City. Xorthwood. an 1 

 Hampton, all in Iowa; Austin and Al- 

 bert Lea Minn., and Perry and Forest 

 ( ity, Io\\a. An address was delivered 

 at each of these points except l)ulnu|ue, 

 uhere the meeting wa> prevented hy the 

 violent storm of June JO. The work 

 closes "ii August 30, and includes nine- 

 teen points in Missouri. A more ef- 

 fective muhod of breaking new ground 

 and carrying to the ])eo|>le the truth for 

 which the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion stands would he hard to device. 

 The following report indicates the scope 

 < 'f the lecture : 



"( )ur matchless resources have long 

 been our pride. \Ye have thought 

 them inexhaustible. \Ve have used 

 them prodigally and abused them un- 

 pardonably. 



"To-day two great facts face us. 

 First, is the growth () f our population. 

 A half century hence will find on Amer- 

 ican soil probably 200,000,000 people. 

 Feeding, clothing, and sheltering these 

 would be a problem, even though our 

 resources were unfailing as the widow's 

 cruse of oil. 



"Hut the second fact is more omi- 

 nous : it is the depletion or exhaustion 

 of those resources. HufTalo. fish, arte- 

 -ian water, natural gas. and oil. are 

 >wiftly going or gone. Coal, chief 

 source of artificial heat and power, is 

 the basis of our material civilixation. 

 Its volume is estimated as equalling a 

 cube nearly eight miles on the edge. 

 Yet we waste vastly more than we 

 utilize. Further our consumption by 

 decades, once trebling and quadrupling, 

 is still almost doubling I'nless \\-jse 

 economies are promptly adopted another 

 hundred years may be expecte 1 t 

 cmptv our national coal bin. 



"I'.ecau-e both of their intrinsic im- 

 portance and the dependence ujxm them 

 . f other vital resources and interests, 

 our forests are of inestimable value. 

 \Ye consume each year enough lumber 

 t.. floor the State of Delaware, enough 

 shingles to shingle the District of Co- 

 lumbia, enough lath to 1-iad a train 



reaching from ( 'hicago to Memphis. 

 nough c.Miperage st,,ck to build a 

 rick four feet wide and high, and ex- 

 l nding from New York ('ity to ( "ol< .- 

 i ado. enough firewood t, . make a one- 

 mile cube, and enough railroad tie- to 

 build a railway around the globe with a 

 side track across the Atlantic, while our 

 annual wood bill excec<'- a billion dol- 

 lars. A New York newspaper con- 

 sumes each three months a forest as 

 large as Central Park, or ,^43 acres 



"L'nder present ]x>licies aiV'ther third 

 of a century will probably finish our 

 wood .supply. The resulting tragcd) 

 challenges human imagination. 



"Further, the forest is a grand, nat- 

 ural regulator of stream-plow. With de- 

 forestation comes HI Mid-, destroying 

 agriculture, commerce, and manufac- 

 turing. 



"Our inland waters are probably our 

 greatest natural resource. Xeglect and 

 railroad hostility have brought them 

 into disu.se and decay. P.ut the rail- 

 roads are now unable to handle our 

 growing traffic, and an irresistible de- 

 mand has arisen for the rehabilitation 

 of our inland waterways. A national 

 commission has been created t<> promote 

 this work, but it finds rivers and har- 

 bors filling with washings from fields 

 and slopes while multiplied millions are 

 annually spent by Congress to remove 

 tin- effects without touching the cause-. 

 ( )f these causes, one of the chief is for- 

 est destruction, with resulting erosion. 



"Two-fifths of the I'nited State- i- 

 arid, or semi-arid. This area exceeds 

 that of the Roman Fmpire. Much of 

 it is irrigable. Its value, reclaimed, will 

 exceed a thousand times the cost , if its 

 reclamation. 



"( )n June 17. n><>_>. Congress en;.cted 

 the reclamation law. placing in the 

 'Reclamation Fund' the proceeds ( .f 

 certain public land sale- With this 

 fund, the Government i- constructing 

 enormous dams, tunnels, and irrigation 

 works, and converting the desert into a 

 watered garden, the fund being con- 

 stantly rcneucd from pa\ men's made 

 bv -ettler- upon these lands. Yet the 

 Director .if the I'nited State- Reclama- 

 tion Service says : 'The water of this 



