22 FOEEST PRESERVATION AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 



as in the past, the result will be lavish and wasteful use and probably 

 destruction of the forest. 



FOUESTS AND THE LIVESTOCK INDTJSTBY. 



Hon. JAKES WILSON, 

 Secretary of Agriculture. 



The regulation of grazing upon the public forest lands is a forest 

 question, and. like all other national forest questions, its settlement 

 should always be for the best interests of the people most deeply inter- 

 ested. Forest reserves are essential to the permanent productiveness 

 of that portion of the public range which they inclose. The question 

 of grazing has from the beginning been the chief problem in the man- 

 agement of the forest reserves. The principles which control the con- 

 servative use of the public range are identical with those which control 

 the conservative use of the public forests. The objects are a constant 

 supply of wood and water on the one hand and of forage on the 

 other. Just as the sawmills must eventually shut down unless for- 

 estry is applied to the forest from which the saw logs come, so the 

 horses, the cattle, and the sheep of the TVest must decrease both in 

 quality and number unless the range lands of the arid region are 

 wisely used. Overgrazing is just as fatal to the livestock industry 

 as destructive logging is to the lumber industry. The highest returns 

 from the forest can be had only through recognizing it as invested 

 capital, capable under wise management of a gfeeady and increasing 

 yield, and the permanent carrying power of the range can be main- 

 tained or increased only by the wise regulation of grazing. 



e. s. C-GSNEY, 

 President Arizona Woolgrcwers' Association. 



* * * President Eoosevelt. standing in the pine forest on the line of 

 the Grand Canyon of the Colorado a few months ago, said of our 

 Arizona forest reserves : " Use them for grazing, for farming, for 

 lumber, for whatever they are best adapted, but so use them that you 

 will not destroy their usefulness for future generations." And in 

 his heart every man in that audience said "Anen." 



* * * There must be closer relations between the stockmen and 

 home builders and the forest officials. Their representations must be 

 frank and open: they must know one another. If there are conflict- 

 ing interests, the parties must be brought together and no contest 

 settled on an ex parte hearing. 



* * * There is no real conflict of interest between the home builder 

 on the irrigated ranch and the home builder in the forest reserve, 

 with his cattle or sheep grazing on the public lands. Whatever 

 destroys the productiveness of the soil, whether too many stock, bad 



