438 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON ‘AGRICULTURE. 
forests; it should be regulated; the trees should not be eaten by ani- 
mals, and quite often, if you pasture a forest, you will prevent a fire. 
It requires intelligent supervision and control. I would have people 
living in the forests, sufficient to get workmen 
Mr. Roper. On the contrary, they drive the people who are there 
out; give them script and on that account take a great deal of value 
out of the country. 
Secretary Wutson. I think there are probably two sides of that 
question. They are pretty sharp fellows who live out in that country. 
They are not so far behind but that they will catch up. 
A word with regard to chemistry-—— 
Mr. Roper. I would like to put in the record there, because I have 
to write a good deal about it to the President and the Secretary, that 
we think down in our country the forest reserves are created without 
proper investigation before they are created—they are done in a night 
without notice to the people, and the first thing you know you are 
surrounded with forest reserves. If they were created carefully and 
properly there would be no objection anywhere. 
Secretary Wizson. There has to be a forest: reserve in your Terri- 
tory or your Territory will not amount to a row of pins atter the for- 
ests are all out. 
Mr. Roper. We do not object to that, but we do not'like to have the 
pasture lands in forest reserves—— 
Secretary Witson. I think the Government intends to do wise things 
and kindly things by our Western people. 
Mr. Ropey. I believe in a general way that is the idea, of course. 
Secretary Winson. Referring to chemistry—we got authority last 
year to look into the importations of foods that might be misbranded 
or might be poisoned, and we have really sent back a great deal of 
stuff that had acids in it that were deleterious to the nealch of our peo- 
ple. It is working smoothly. The merchants generally say they were 
not aware of the condition. I think that is true. I do not think the 
American merchant, asa general proposition, wants to poison his cus 
tomers, and I think we will do a great deal less of it by and by. 
‘We have done work along sirup lines. The people along the Gulf 
Coast have been producing one hundred and sixty-five millions of gal- 
lons of cane sirup every year, and they have been at work for nearly 
a century, and they needed help along the lines of a uniform color, the 
prevention of sugaring, and the prevention of souring; and we are at 
work to show them how to do that, and we are succeeding. We are 
showing them how to cultivate and get better results, and that money 
given has, I think, been expended with discretion. We will solve that 
thing in a few years, so it will not be necessary to continue. 
The Cuarrman. Doctor Wiley told us that two or three of the prob- 
lems were already solved; that the main question now was the uni- 
formity of color. 
Secretary Witson. Yes; the trouble has been, if you ordered a dozen 
barrels of sirup from one of those good people down there they were 
colored differently and look differently and the consistency was differ- 
ent; some of it might solve and some of it might not. I think it is the 
finest sirup in the world which those people make. 
Now, with regard to the Soils Division. I suppose you have had 
Mr. Whitney here. They are in great demand. The people are 
calling upon us to give them information regarding the different kinds 
