95 
woollen goods will materially advance in price, and' the daily life 
and comfort of every inhabitant of the United States will become 
hampered and restrained. 
One of the most serious consequences of deforestation will be 
the extensive denudation of fertile lands of their soil. The area 
annually stripped in the United States of its soil and rendered un- 
productive by erosion in consequence of destruction of forests, is 
estimated at hundreds of square miles. In the main, this enor- 
mous loss to the national resources is not only unnecessary but 
preventible by the adoption of sound methods of forestry. 
The problems involved in the conservation of the inland water- 
ways, together witfr those affecting the husbanding of the mineral 
deposits, national lands and lumber supplies, form a subject which 
is probably the most momentous now before the people of the 
United States. That efficient remedies can be found to lessen 
the wanton and thoughtless destruction of the national wealth is 
certain, and the conference at Washington, called by President 
Roosevelt, to deliberate upon the matter, will without doubt in- 
augurate a better order of things in some, at least, of the most im- 
portant of these sources of waste. With regard to the mineral 
deposits, the adoption of a more enlightened procedure of mining, 
looking towards the abandonment of wasteful methods and a 
recognition of the rights of posterity, would greatly prolong the* : r 
supply, so that by the time they approached exhaustion it could 
reasonably be hoped that science would have discovered sub- 
stitutes to take their place. The conservation of the national for- 
ests is fraught with much more promise. A general enforcemenc 
of modern principles would insure the use of these assets in 
perpetuity, for it is well recognized' that land can be made to grow 
trees as profitably as any other agricultural crop. 
The representatives of Hawaii at the National Resources Con- 
ference accompanying Governor Frear, are Messrs. W. O. Smith, 
Alonzo Gartley and Ralph S. Hosmer. The personnel of the dele- 
gation is particularly satisfactory and insures to this Territory an 
efficient representation by men whose knowledge of such of our 
local conditions as may bear upon the greater national question is 
full and exact. 
THE PRICE OF MEAT. 
The great cattle and sheep ranges of the West, because of over- 
grazing, are capable, in an average year, of carrvirg but half the 
stock they once could support and should still. iheir condition 
affects the price of meat in practically every city of the United 
States. — Gilford Pinchot. 
