it can neither palliate or excuse the destruction of the gifts which a 

 kindly Providence bestowed upon us in such unwonted lavishness. 

 While reckless, useless waste and extravagance in dealing with our 

 natural resources is witnessed on every hand it has nowhere been 

 better exemplified than in dealing with our forests. One can hardly 

 picture the extent, variety, beauty and splendor of the tree growth 

 which covered the greater part of the United States less than fifty 

 years ago. In such states, for instance, as Georgia the primeval 

 forest has all but disappeared. 



On thousands of farms there is not even today a respectable wood 

 lot. Timber for the construction of a tenant house must be purchased 

 from the lumber dealer in the adjacent town or city. On many farms 

 there is barely sufficient wood available for the cook-stove and often 

 not enough to heat the house adequately. Yet there are thousands 

 of acres of land the virgin fertility of which has been depleted and 

 which have been eroded, washed away and destroyed in large measure 

 by reason of the useless destruction of our forests. One might almost 

 think when he views the landscape that trees were the primal enemy 

 of man. 



Today we are using trees three times faster than they can reproduce 

 themselves. How much longer is this uncalled-for waste and ex- 

 travagance to continue? Why not realize that in growing trees on 

 waste or idle land we can recoup ourselves as quickly as in any other 

 manner. We can make the forest a friend and neighbor, a protection 

 to the land, a source of water supply and a power in adding to the 

 unearned increment of any landscape or community. While utilizing 

 a part of our waste lands for the production of trees we are making 

 them a source of revenue as well as pleasure. 



There is not a farmer in Georgia who would not add to the value 

 of his holdings at least $100.00 per year through the planting of trees 

 and the conservation of his wood lot. There are 261,000 farmers in 

 the state. Would not the item of $2,610,000 look well as an asset at 

 the end of each and every year ? ' ' 



ANDREW M. SOULE. 



An Ex-President of the United States. 



"The necessity for a comprehensive and systematic improvement of 

 our waterways, the preservation of our soil and of our forests, the 

 securing from private appropriation the power in navigable streams, 

 the retention of the undisposed-of coal lands of the Government from 

 alienation, all will properly claim from the next administration earnest 

 attention and appropriate legislation. 



Without the resources which make labor productive, American 

 enterprise, energy, and skill would not in the past have been able to 

 make headway against hard conditions. Our children and their chil- 

 dren will not be able to make headway if we leave to them an impover- 

 ished country. Our land, our water, our forests, and our minerals are 

 the sources from which come directly or indirectly the livelihood of 

 all of us. The conservation of our natural resources is a question of 

 fundamental importance to the United States now. 



The truth is that the overwhelming necessity for our doing some- 



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