AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 309 



on. In the pursuit of this policy of forest conservation 

 it is only right to say that the forest has been the 

 gainer, while the mining company has been the loser. 

 The company I have the honor to represent, in using 

 wood as fuel instead of coal, does so at a material loss, 

 because the only wood used for fuel in the Black Hills 

 is the dead, down and insect-infested trees which the 

 departmental regulations very properly insist shall be 

 removed from the forest. Such very inferior material 

 costs the mining industry and all other industries using 

 it approximately 100 per cent more than coal for either 

 heating or steam-making purposes. If a suggestion in 

 this connection is pertinent, I desire to say that the 

 Government should give such material for the taking, 

 so that the consumers of forest products who can and 

 are willing to conserve the best interests of the forests 

 by taking the inferior stuff should not be compelled, 

 through having to pay for it, to bear an excessive share 

 of the burden of cost of forest conservation. The 

 Government enjoys excessive gain in having such 

 refuse removed through promoting, in a material 

 degree, the health and thrift of its green trees that 

 remain. I think that should satisfy it. Its gain, how- 

 ever, does not stop there, because the removal of this 

 debris practically eliminates all danger of loss or dam- 

 age to the green trees from forest fires. Trees breathe, 

 digest their food, live, thrive, sigh, and die much as 

 we of the higher order of animals do ; therefore, if the 

 fittest are to survive and thrive, the conditions around 

 them must be favorable and the elements of danger 

 must be removed. I think the forest supervisors and 

 rangers, and the scientists from the Entomological 

 Division and the Forest Bureau who have made so 

 careful a study of this subject and these conditions 

 will second this suggestion. 



K 



