AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 311 



waste rock instead of timber it is done; so that there 

 need be no division of opinion as to the willingness of 

 the miner to adopt such practice whenever it can be 

 done. The better protection of his property from 

 disastrous caves suggests it; the protection of his 

 operatives makes it imperative; it is cheaper. 



It is true that a substitution of metal for wood in 

 certain permanent improvements about the works of 

 some of our great mines has been made, and it is 

 probable that wood will continue to give way to iron, 

 steel, and possibly other non-combustible materials in 

 limited extent. At the every-day task of mining ore 

 and developing underground, however, I do not antici- 

 pate any such substitution, nor do I think that the 

 importance of the public forest lands to mining will 

 be lessened by the change in practice in making such 

 permanent improvements, because of the small ratio 

 the consumption by such improvements bears to the 

 whole. 



I am not familiar with all of the conditions that now 

 surround the several areas in the United States which 

 constitute its forest reserves, or that surrounded those 

 areas when the reserves were created, but I have inti- 

 mate knowledge of the conditions which prevailed and 

 surrounded the home of the Sioux Indian up to the 

 spring of 1877. Inasmuch as Article II of the By-laws 

 of this Association suggests, as one of the objects of 

 its being, the advancement of such legislative measures 

 as the Association thinks may tend to promote the 

 general welfare of forests, I am persuaded to call the 

 attention of this Congress to the importance of consid- 

 ering well such local conditions as may be found at 

 each and every reserve before advancing general legis- 

 lation, the operation of which would affect all of the 

 reserves alike. I further desire to submit to the 



