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Organizations of similar kind and for a like purpose are at work 
in Oregon and Idaho. In the latter State, a portion of the ex- 
pense is borne by taxation and paid from the State treasury. A 
western railroad company which holds large tracts of timber has 
taken steps to guard its property from fire, and during the short 
time that its plans have been in operation, it has met with most 
encouraging success. 
Similar work is being done on the other side of the continent. 
Forest owners in Maine have gone to work in the same systematic 
way to control the forests' great enemy, fire. Like organizations 
are found in other parts of the country, showing how fully it is 
now realized that protection against fire is of the greatest im- 
portance. 
It is safe to say that fires in this country have destroyed more 
timber than lumbermen have cut. When timber was abundant, 
the waste passed almost unnoticed, but now that a scarcity is at 
hand and an actual wood famine threatens in the near future, the 
owners of forest lands are waking up and taking action to save 
what is left. 
NATIONAL RESOURCES CONFERENCE. 
"This conference on the conservation of national resources is 
in effect a meeting of the representatives of all the people of the 
United States called to consider the weightiest problem now be- 
fore the nation ; and the occasion for the meeting lies in the fact 
that the natural resources of our country are in danger of ex- 
haustion if we permit the old wasteful methods of exploiting them 
longer to continue." — President Roosevelt. 
NATIONAL POSSESSIONS. 
"This nation began with the belief that its landed possessions 
were illimitable and capable of supporting all the people who 
might care to make our country their home, but already the limit 
of unsettled land is in sight, and indeed but little land fitted for 
agriculture now remains unoccupied save what can be reclaimed 
by irrigation and drainage. 
We began with an unapproached heritage of forests ; more than 
half of the timber is gone. 
We began with coal fields more extensive than those of any 
other nation and with iron ores regarded as inexhaustible, and 
many experts now declare that the end of both iron and coal is in 
sight." — President Roosevelt. 
