13 



the reserves, and they illustrate also how closely and clearly the Presi- 

 dent is in touch with western needs and interests. In his message he 

 said : 



It is the cardinal principle of the forest reserve policy of this Administration 

 that the reserves are for use. Whatever interferes with the use of their 

 resources is to be avoided by every possible means. 



HON. JOHN liAMB, 

 Representative in Congress from Virginia. 



* * * Could the farmers of the South Atlantic States be per- 

 suaded to adopt the intensive system of farming and have their 

 poorer lands grow up in timber, they w^ould improv^e their own con- 

 dition and hand down to their children valuable possessions. 

 * -K * rj^Y^Q disastrous results of the freshets caused by the removal 

 of the forest from the sources of the rivers can not be learned from 

 any statistics. The report made to our committee of agriculture 

 shows a distressing condition, and one that appeals strongly for Fed- 

 eral and State legislation. Many valuable farms haA^e been impaired 

 in value and some utterly destroyed by the sand and debris washed 

 down by the overfloAv. 



HON. JOHN F. LACEY, 



Representative in Congress from Iowa. 



I was born in the woods of Virginia. I moved to the prairies, and 

 one of the most unpleasant things of my subsequent life was to return 

 to the woods of Virginia and find that the old streams and the holes 

 we used to swim in and where Ave used to go fishing are now gravelly 

 roads. They are highways as dry, as arid, as one of the deserts of 

 Arizona or New Mexico. Why is it? Because the trees have been 

 cut down and the springs, the children of the forest, dried up. In- 

 stead of a slow -running brook digging out holes here and there clear 

 as crystal, we have simply a torrent carrying the pebbles and sand 

 from the hills, and then a desert. * * * While preserving the 

 forest you will preserve the creatures that dwell there. A man or 

 woman who preserves a tree in a practical way will preserve the 

 things the tree shelters and produces and that are useful to man. 



HON. W. A. REEDER, 



Representative in Congress from Kansas. 



* * * The district which I have the honor to represent is a 

 prairie country, and has greatl}^ felt the need of protective belts of 

 trees. I am very glad that the Bureau of Forestry is so successfully 

 assisting the western farmers in establishing windbreaks. * * * 

 At the irrigation convention at El Paso I heard strong resolutions 



