American Forest Congress 427 



consumption, which means, of course, a rapid decrease 

 in the natural supply, and hence an increase in price, is 

 the first basis upon which to discuss the question of 

 private interests in forest properties. We can now 

 prove that forestry will be profitable, for the history 

 of the past gives us a clue to the history of the future. 



But we may discuss this question and we may discuss 

 the methods of forestry ad infinitum, yet we will never 

 succeed in persuading the private owner until we have 

 produced the conditions which make it possible to hold 

 forest property uninjured for the long time which is 

 necessary in order to reap the benefit. Of course, you 

 will see at once that I am coming to the fire question. 

 I have come down to this last issue as the one which 

 must be solved first before the others can be ap- 

 proached. One incident will suffice to illustrate what 

 I mean. A lumber company in New Hampshire was 

 induced to do what is called "conservative lumbering" ; 

 that is to say, not robbing the forest of all salable 

 timber, but to leave some for future taking. They saw 

 that was a good policy and treated one hundred thou- 

 sand acres in that fashion; leaving the smaller sizes 

 below a certain diameter. A fire came and swept over 

 the ground and destroyed everything that had been 

 left, and now there is one friend of forestry less. 



I am glad to say that there are not any more of the 

 mere economists and the sentimentalists interested in 

 this question, but the lumbermen themselves. With 

 their pocket-books interested, they will find the methods 

 of protecting their forest property and they will insist 

 that the function of the State, which first of all is to 

 protect property, should be properly employed. 



I do not know that I have been able to say anything 

 that is new. All these things have been threshed out 

 for the last twenty-four years at least, when the first 



