WHAT THEY ARE FOR. 15 



THE WHOLE RESULT. 



Taking it altogether, then, it will be seen that a 

 National Forest does not act like a wall built around 

 the public domain, which locks up its lands and resources 

 and stops settlement and industry. What it really does 

 is to take the public domain, with all its resources and 

 most of its laws, and make sure that the best possible 

 use is made of every bit of it. And more than this, it 

 makes these vast mountain regions a great deal more 

 valuable, and keeps them a great deal more valuable, 

 simply by using them in a careful way, with a little 

 thought about the future. 



WHAT THEY ARE FOR. 



IN GENERAL. 



Use. — National Forests are for use bj' all the people. 

 Their resources are now used in such a common-sense 

 way that instead of being used up they keep coming. 

 They are for present use, for use a few years ahead, and 

 for use a long time ahead. It is easy to draw a picture 

 of the West, say twenty-five or fifty years from now. 

 The picture will show a great increase in population, in 

 the cities and in the country; it will show innumerable 

 homes, now almost uuthought of; it will show a wonder- 

 ful growth in agriculture and the cultivation of vast 

 areas now unproductive; it will show great strides in 

 manufacturing and in all kinds of industry. This means 

 an enormous increase in the demand upon its natural 

 resources. Without enough wood, water, and forage it 

 would be a very poor kind of a country. If these great 

 resources should become scarce or hard to get, future 

 growth and prosperity would be severely handicapped. 



