American Forest Congress 17 



effective one. It is upon you and others like you that 

 the future of our forests mainly depends. Unless 

 you, who represent the business interests of the coun- 

 try, take hold and help, forestry can be nothing but 

 an exotic, a purely Government enterprise, outside our 

 industrial life, and insignificant in its influence upon 

 the life of the nation. With your help, it will become, 

 and is becoming, one of the greater powers for good. 

 Without forestry, the permanent prosperity of the in- 

 dustries you represent is impossible, because a perma- 

 nent supply of wood and water can come only from 

 the wise use of the forest, and in no other way, and 

 that supply you must have. 



I am glad to see the irrigation interests so strongly 

 represented here, because forestry and irrigation go 

 hand in hand in the agricultural development of the 

 West. The West must have water, and that in a sure 

 and permanent supply. Unless the forests at the head- 

 waters of the streams used in irrigation are protected, 

 that is impossible, and irrigation will fail. Unless 

 we practice forestry in the mountain forests of the 

 West, the expenditure under the national irrigation 

 law will be fruitless, and the wise policy of the Gov- 

 ernment in the agricultural development of the arid 

 regions will utterly fail. Without forestry, national 

 irrigation will be merely a national mistake. The re- 

 lation in the arid regions between the area under 

 forest and the area in farms will always be constant. 

 We can maintain the present water supply of the 

 West by the protection of existing forests. In exactly 

 the same way, we can increase this supply by the for- 

 esting of denuded watersheds. The full development 

 of the irrigation policy requires more than the protec- 

 tion of existing forests — it demands their extension 

 also. 



