August 30, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



263 



agricultural use, it does not exist as loug 

 as the soil is not so utilized. By the Avith- 

 drawal of large sections of land from such 

 use, society is harmed and deprived of the 

 benefit which it would derive from a use of 

 its property. The proper distribution and 

 the appropriation of the soil to proper use 

 form, therefore, fit functions of government 

 control. 



The rational appropriation of soil (land) 

 to either farm use, pasturage or timber pro- 

 duction, one would be inclined to think, 

 cpuld be left to the regulation of private 

 intelligence ; yet the fact is that the thin 

 rocky soils of mountain districts are worked 

 for a scanty agricultural crop, when thej^ 

 should be left to timber; while thousands of 

 acres in fertile valleys are still imder the 

 shade of virgin forests. 



Water and climate are the accessories 

 to agricultural production and supplement 

 the resources of the soil. Not objects of 

 private enterprise directly, except in a lim- 

 ited manner, it is evident that, as far as 

 they or the conditions which influence them 

 can be at all controlled, they should be un- 

 der the direct control of the state. 



A rational management of the water cap- 

 ital of the world, in connection with agri- 

 cultural use of the soil, will become the 

 economic problem of the highest impor- 

 tance as the necessity for increased food pro- 

 duction calls for intensive methods. And 

 in connection with this problem, it must 

 become a matter of state interest by a 

 rational management of existing forests 

 and by reforestation at the head waters of 

 rivers and on the plains to secure the con- 

 ditions which make a rational utilization 

 of the waters possible. For without forest 

 management, no water management is for 

 any length of time possible, no stable basis 

 for continued productive agriculture, in- 

 dustries and commerce. 



I may be allowed for the sake of illustra- 

 tion to state more in detail the considera- 



tions which pertain to the one resource 

 with which I am most familiar, the forest. 



The vii-gin forest is a natural resource, 

 which answers two purposes of civilized 

 society. On the one hand it furnishes di- 

 rectly desirable material ; on the other hand 

 it forms a condition of soil cover, which in- 

 fluences directly or indirectlj% under its own 

 cover and at a distance, conditions of wa- 

 ter-flow, of soil and of local climate. 



To the individual it is in the first place 

 the timber, the accumulated growth of cen- 

 turies, which has an interest to him and 

 which he exploits for the purpose of mak- 

 ing a profit on his labor and outlay. The 

 relation of the forest to other conditions, 

 direct or indirect, immediate or future, 

 hardly ever enters into his calculations. 

 Now the exploitation of this resource is a 

 necessity of our civilization, but the eco- 

 nomic conditions of our country and for 

 that of any new or partially developed 

 country, especially the condition of the dis- 

 tribution of population and consequent ne- 

 cessity for a long haul of the bulky ma- 

 terial, bring it about, that only the best 

 kinds of timber and the best cuts of these 

 can be profitably moved to market. Hence, , 

 since profit is the object, exploitation is by 

 necessity wasteful. 



Again culling the forest, which means re- 

 moving the good kinds, although appar- 

 ently not as destructive to the resource as 

 clean cutting, leaves the ground to the 

 kinds not useful or less u^seful to man, to 

 the weeds of the forest. This means not 

 only occupation of the ground by undesi- 

 rable kinds, but prevention of the reproduc- 

 tion of desirable kinds, which being reduced 

 in numbers, hence are at a disadvantage in 

 the struggle for existence and especially in 

 the struggle for the necessary light under 

 the shade of the growth that was left. 



Thus even under legitimate exploitation, 

 such as the interests of the individual ex- 

 ploiter and the economic conditions of the 



