11 



where before there was nothing. * * * This is the sort of policy 

 we follow in France. It has given us very good results, and I am 

 sure when you feel the need you will follow it in this country with 

 splendid success. 



HON. JAMES WILSON, 

 Secretary of Agriculture. 



* * * Forestr}^ is not a local question. It is as wide as Ameri- 

 can 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. * * * Your 

 presence here is the best possible proof that forestry is rapidly tak- 

 ing its place as an active and indispensable factor in national 

 econom}^ The era of forest agitation alone has passed. We are 

 talking less and doing more. * * * The nation is awakening to 

 the necessity of planting trees and making the most of those that are 

 mature. Our institutions of learning are taking up the study of 

 forestry. State societies are inquiring. The experiment stations of 

 the several States and Territories are making research. The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture is training a bureau of forest experts in wood- 

 craft to serve the Nation, the States, companies, and individuals 

 along forestry lines. 



Reforesting of large areas is being carried on by the Bureau of 

 Forestry and by several States, for the purpose of giving object les- 

 sons to our people with regard to methods of planting and varieties 

 of trees. The farmer is planting for windbreaks and fuel, and in 

 many cases he is planting valuable varieties for coming generations. 



Cooperation between the Department of Agriculture and States, 

 companies, and individuals is progressing rapidly. Our trained for- 

 esters are getting into touch with the college and experiment station 

 forces of the States, with companies that hold woodlands for present 

 and future use, and with individuals. * * =5^ Congress is giving 

 liberally to forest research, enabling us to do systematic work with 

 wood in all its uses. 



The future requires forest planting at the sources of all our streams 

 that are not now protected by trees, to make the hills store up water 

 against time of drought and to modify the flooding of the lowlands. 

 We have to tell the people of the lower Mississippi every few years to 

 raise their levees to restrain the floods that exceed themselves because 

 the remaining forest no longer regulates the waters that were in pre- 

 vious years absorbed b}^ the hills and held back. 



* Hs H« ♦ * * * 



Unless those who represent the business interests of the country 

 take hold and help, forestry can be nothing but an exotic, a purely 

 Govermnent enterprise, outside our individual life, and insignificant 



