60 The Canadian Forestry Journal. 



Knute Nelson, of Minnesota, Chairman of the Section. His 

 speech related almost entirely to the conservation of public 

 lands still under the control of the Federal Government. He 

 sketched the land policy of the Federal Government and the 

 different acts sanctioning disposal of the public lands. In regard 

 to timberlands he favored the Government's retaining them 

 and selling only the mature timber off them. Protection of the 

 privately-owned forests was the duty of the state, and it was 

 within their powder to require the destruction of brush. 



Governor Noel, of Mississippi, followed. He spoke at length 

 of the problem of stream control, particularly as affecting the 

 Mississippi River. In connection with his own state he reviewed 

 the work of the Federal Government in assisting to build levees 

 and in drainage. 



Mr. W. P. Lay presented the report of the Alabama State 

 Conservation Commission, dealing especially with the streams 

 of the state. 



Dr. Chas. R. Van Hise, of the University of Wisconsin, as 

 the representative of the Wisconsin Conservation Commission, 

 read the report of that Commission on the subject of lands. It 

 treated particularly of the necessity of phosphates in soils and 

 the loss of these under present conditions. 



Mr. J.N. Teai; Chairman of the Oregon State Conservation 

 Commission, then spoke as the representative of that Commission. 

 He suggested making the Conservation Commission a legalized 

 body and putting it on the same plane as any of the other great 

 departments of the Government. 



Other speakers of the session were Governor Ansell, of South 

 Carolina; Governor Broward, of Florida; Senator Newlands, of 

 Nevada; Mr. R. H. Richards, President of the American Mining 

 Congress; Governor Blanchard, of Louisiana; G. E. Condra, of 

 Nebraska, representing the Governor of Nebraska; Dr. Roth- 

 rock, of the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission, and 

 others. 



Section of Waters. 



At the session on Thursday afternoon, December 10th, the 

 report of the Section of Waters was read by Dr. W. J. McGee, 

 Secretary of the Inland Waterways Commission. Dr. McGee 

 emphasized the idea of the water being a resource ; the supply 

 of water was not imlimited, there was just so much water and 

 no more. The sole source of water was the rain, and on one- 

 sixth of this (in the last analysis) depended the habitability 

 and the productivity of the country. Each average adult man 

 took into his system, in the course of a year, at least one ton of 

 water, and each bushel of com required in its making about 

 fifteen to twenty tons of water. The important part of the 



