THE LOSS OF OUR SOIL 



This striking statement is from The Outlook, edited by Lyman Abbott. 



We are in the habit of speaking of the solid earth and the eternal 

 hills as though they, at least, Avere free from the vicissitudes of time, 

 and certain to furnish perpetual support for prosperous human life. 

 This conclusion is as false as the term "inexhaustible" applied to 

 other natural resources. The waste of soil is among the most danger- 

 ous of all wastes now in progress in the United States. In 1896 Pro- 

 fessor Shaler, than Avhom no one has spoken with greater authority on 

 this subject, estimated that in the upland regions of the states south 

 of Pennsylvania three thousand square miles of soil had been destroy- 

 ed as the result of forest denudation, and that the destruction was 

 then proceeding at the rate of one hundred square miles of fertile soil 

 per year. No seeing man can travel through the United States with- 

 out being struck with the enormous and unnecessary loss of fertility by 

 easily preventable soil wash. The soil so lost, as in the case of many 

 other wastes, becomes itself a source of damage and expense, and must 

 be removed from the channels of our navigable streams at an enormous 

 annual cost. The Mississippi River alone is estimated to transport 

 yearly four hundred million tons of sediment, or about twice the 

 amount of material to be excavated from the Panama Canal. This 

 material is the most fertile portion of our richest fields, transformed 

 from a blessing to a curse by unrestricted erosion. 



THE LARGEST NATIONAL TASK 



From the address of President Roosevelt at the meeting of the Con- 

 servation Conference held in Washington, 1). C. 



I welcome you to Washington and to the work you have gathered to 

 do. No service to the nation in time of peace could be of greater 

 worth than the work which has brought you together. In its essence 

 your task is to make the nation's future as great as its present. That 

 is what the conservation of our resources means. This movement 

 means that we shall not become great in the present at the expense of 

 the future, but that we shall show ourselves truly great in the present 

 by providing for the greatness of our children's children who are to 

 inherit the land after us. It is the largest national task of today, and 

 I thank you for making ready to undertake it. 



I am especially glad to welcome the co-operation of the states, 

 through their Conservation Commissioners and otherwise. Such co- 

 operation gives earnest of mutual assistance between states and nation, 

 and mutual benefits to follow. Without it the great task of perpet- 

 uating the national welfare would succeed, if at all, with difficulty. 

 If states and nation work for it together, all in their several fields, 

 and all joining heartily where the field is common, we are certain of 

 success in advance. We are concerned with the people's rights; if this 

 means national rights, well and good; if it means states' rights, well 

 and good; we are for whatever serves the cause of the people's rights. 



The results of the inventory of resources will be laid before the 



24 



