120 OUR VANISHING FORESTS 



been making a careful soil survey covering more 

 than two-thirds of the counties in the state, and 

 that survey indicates that five or six million acres, 

 being unsuitable for agriculture, will have to be 

 used for tree growing or allowed to lie idle. It is 

 probable that some real forest program will soon be 

 presented to the state legislature. Indiana is in a 

 similar condition, and has already acquired a little 

 over three thousand acres in the southern portion 

 of the state, where an experimental station has 

 been established. Even as far west as the Pacific 

 Coast, where virgin timber is still abundant, the 

 movement has been felt and the State of Washing- 

 ton has already formed the nucleus for a public 

 forest. 



Whole volumes might be written upon the 

 gradual development of state policies along this 

 line. There is no particular advantage to be claimed 

 for state forest ownership over federal ownership 

 or vice-versa, such efl^iciency and consistency of pur- 

 pose as has hitherto been shown by the federal 

 government being offset in a measure by the fact 

 that state action usually engenders greater local 

 interest and a better spirit of cooperation among 

 the people. Just as the centralization of authority 

 in Congress versus states rights has been an unend- 

 ing struggle since the American constitution was 



