June 3, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



507 



tard or entirely prevent further progress in 

 the region. No better example of this prin- 

 ciple can he found than agriculture and for- 

 estry. In many regions the forest is essential 

 to permanent agriculture. Where the land is 

 largely of high quality, agriculture can be car- 

 ried on as an independent enterprise; where 

 poor land predominates, successful agriculture 

 depends upon the development of other nat- 

 ural resources in the region. It was the for- 

 est and the forest industries that made farm- 

 ing possible in many of our lean-land regions. 

 "When the forest was destroyed, and the lum- 

 ber and auxiliary industries moved out, the 

 farms were abandoned or continued under 

 great difficulties. The forest is often re- 

 garded only as a temporary cover which is to 

 be removed to make way for agriculture or 

 other industrial use of the ground. 



It is assumed that settlement will take place 

 after the forest has been destroyed. Precisely 

 this situation exists in the pine region of the 

 South. The forests are being cleared away 

 with great rapidity, with almost no effort to 

 replacement. Every tree is cut that will make 

 a log, including the young timber that has 

 grown since the Civil War; and many thou- 

 sands of acres of small trees 25 years or so 

 of age, are turpentined under methods that 

 wiU kill them within a few years. The own- 

 ers then undertake to dispose of the lands for 

 farming. The public is appealed to for co- 

 operation in attracting settlers, and to estab- 

 lish colonies of farmers upon these devastated 

 areas. If this land were of the character of 

 that in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the 

 effort would be more successful. But only a 

 part of the land is fertile, and that is inter- 

 mixed with light soils suited only to tree 

 growth. The raising of live stock will help 

 this situation to some extent, just as it was a 

 great factor in the early settlement of Vir- 

 ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and other states. 

 But in the long run it will be the forest, grow- 

 ing on the poor soils, that will supplement 

 farming and stock raising and, by affording 

 additional opportunities to the farmer and by 

 supporting local forest industries, will make 

 the settlement successful and permanent. 



You have doubtless, most of you, visited the 

 Landes district of southwestern France. This 

 is an extensive sandy plain, presenting condi- 

 tions similar in many respects to the coastal 

 plain of our South. The original pine forests 

 were destroyed, and the whole region remained 

 for many years in a backward condition. Prior 

 to the middle of the last century this whole 

 area, through the initiative and cooperation of 

 the government, was reforested. The direct 

 result was that the tillable lands, often in small 

 areas, were cultivated and a prosperous rural 

 organization built up. The farmers were able 

 to devote a part of their time to logging, to 

 turpentining, and to work in the mills. All 

 of the land is in use, furnishing several re- 

 sources that altogether support an astonish- 

 ingly large population. 



I am in sympathy with the efforts to attract 

 settlers to the South and other cut-over land 

 districts. I am in ssrmpathy with the plans for 

 public cooperation in land classification. I 

 am in sympathy with public encouragement of 

 systematic establishment of farm colonies, even 

 with public help as is successfully done in 

 California. But first of all we must stop the 

 wasteful destruction of the very resources that 

 are necessary to make such settlement work 

 successful. And that can be done only by a 

 recognition of the interrelation of the prob- 

 lems of the various resources, and the working 

 together of all of them to the common end of 

 building up the country. 



Many other illustrations could be given of 

 two or more resources which are interdepen- 

 dent and whose problems of development and 

 conservation cannot be considered separately 

 without loss. Forestry and stock-raising, 

 farming and mining, agriculture and mining, 

 forestry and recreation, wild life conservation 

 and grazing, water resources and forestry, 

 water power, oil and coal, are a few examples. 

 Oftentimes too there is a failure to consider 

 the larger aspects of resource development in 

 the planning and building of highways. 

 Transportation is one of the largest factors 

 in removing the economic obstacles to success- 

 ful conservation. In the past great sums have 

 been expended on unwisely planned roads. 



