THE GENERAL NEED OF FOREST 

 PRESERVATION 



BY 

 JAMES WILSON 



Secretary ol Agriculture and President of the American Forest Congress 



I MAKE you welcome to the Federal seat of Gov- 

 ernment, to consider the state of our forests, and 

 of our lands that cry aloud for want of trees and the 

 peculiar forest conditions that cannot exist without 

 their presence. 



Forestry is not a local question. It is as wide as 

 American Jurisdiction. It is not a class question; it 

 affects everybody. It is not limited by latitude or 

 longitude, by State lines or thermal lines, by rivers 

 or mountain ranges, by seas or lakes. 



Steel has taken the place of wood for fencing to a 

 large extent. It has taken the place of wood for ships 

 to some extent, it is being introduced in house-building, 

 and is replacing wood extensively in the making of 

 machinery and for other purposes. Coal and gas are 

 taking the place of wood as fuel, and cement is taking 

 its place for building. The use of wood, notwithstand- 

 ing these substitutes, increases every year and our 

 forests steadily vanish before the axeman. 



The extension of railroads, the settlement of the 

 public domain, the building of cities, towns and vil- 

 lages, the use of wood in paper-making and the open- 

 ing of mines, call for more wood every year, and the 

 forests respond to the demand. There are but a few 

 large reserves left from which to draw supplies. The 

 .extreme east, the extreme west, and the Gulf coast are 

 now sources of commercial supply. The industries 



