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less and usually selfish attitude of so many park visitors ; the will- 

 fully lawless are estimated at but five to ten per cent, of the 

 offenders. 



The parts of President Taft's message most interesting to 

 botanists deal with the control of forests, the conservation of 

 soils, and the irrigation of arid lands. They are reprinted below : 



Control of Forests : "The forest reserves of the United States, 

 some 190,000,000 acres in extent, are under the control of the 

 Department of Agriculture, with authority adequate to preserve 

 them and to extend their growth, so far as that may be prac- 

 ticable. The importance of the maintenance of our forests can- 

 not be exaggerated. The possibility of a scientific treatment of 

 forests so that they shall be made to yield a large return in 

 timber, without really reducing the supply, has been demon- 

 strated in other countries, and we should work toward the stand- 

 ard set by them, as far as their methods are applicable to our 

 conditions. 



"Upward of 400,000,000 acres of forest land in this country are 

 in private ownership, but only 3 per cent, of it is being treated 

 scientifically and with a view to the maintenance of the forests. 

 The part played by the forests in the equalization of the supply 

 of water on watersheds is a matter of discussion and dispute, but 

 the general benefit to be derived by the public from the exten- 

 sion of forest lands on watersheds and the promotion of the 

 growth of trees in places that are now denuded and that once 

 had great flourishing forests goes without saying. The control 

 to be exercised over private owners in their treatment of the for- 

 ests which they own is a matter for state and not national regu- 

 lation, because there is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes 

 the federal government to exercise any control over forests within 

 a state, unless the forests are owned in a proprietary way by the 

 federal government. 



It has been proposed, and a bill for the purpose passed the 

 lower House in the last Congress, that the national government 

 appropriate a certain amount each year out of the receipts from 

 the forestry business of the government, to institute reforestation 



