FOREST RESERVES IN THE EAST 



223 



time required for the growth of a forest crop is longer than most indi- 

 viduals can or will wait for financial returns ; in the second place, 

 danger of fire makes such an investment somewhat risky ; and in the 

 third place, in a few instances at least, an irrational system of taxa- 

 tion has prevented private capital from engaging in this work. We 

 may take little pride in a transaction whereby the government buys 

 up for $5 per acre land which was sold for less than half that amount, 

 or given away, or turned over to perjured entrymen; nevertheless, it 

 is to our Federal government that we must eventually look for forest 

 planting and forest management; and under the Weeks Law a work 

 is being inaugurated which must grow vastly in magnitude if the 

 future interests of the nation are to be conserved/^ 

 69 Report, National Conservation Commission, II, 633 et seq. 



