165 
The Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey has adopted a simi- 
lar view, which has recently been sustained by the Supreme Court of the 
United States. In delivering the opinion of the court on April 6, 1908, 
Mr. Justice Holmes said: "The state, as quasi-sovereign and repre- 
sentative of the interests of the public, has a standing in court to pro- 
tect the atmosphere, the water, and the forests within its territory, irre- 
spective of the assent or dissent of the private owners of the land most 
immediately concerned. * * * It appears to us that few public in- 
terests are more obvious, indisputable and independent of particular 
theory than the interest of the public of a state to maintain the rivers 
that are wholly within it substantially undiminished, except by such 
drafts upon them as the guardian of the public welfare may permit for 
the purpose of turning them to a more perfect use. (Applause.) This 
public interest is omnipresent wherever there is a state, and grows more 
pressing as population grows. * * * We are of opinion, further, that 
the constitutional power of the state to insist that its natural advantages 
shall remain unimpaired by its citizens is not dependent upon any nice 
estimate of the extent of present use or speculation as to future needs. 
The legal conception of the necessary is apt to be confined to some- 
what rudimentary wants, and there are benefits from a great river that 
might escape a lawyer's view. (Laughter and applause.) But the 
state is not required to submit even to an aesthetic analysis. Any 
analysis may be inadequate. It finds itself in possession of what all 
admit to be a great public good, and what it has it may keep and give 
no one a reason for its will." ■ 
These decisions reach the root of the idea of conservation of our re- 
sources in the interests of the people. 
Finally, let us remember that the conservation of our natural re- 
sources, though the gravest problem of today, is yet but part of another 
and greater problem to which this Nation is not yet awake, but to 
which it will awake in time, and with which it must hereafter grapple 
if it is to live — the problem of national efficiency, the patriotic duty of 
insuring the safety and continuance of the Nation. (Applause.) When 
the people of the United States consciously undertake to raise them- 
selves as citizens, and the Nation and the states in their several 
spheres, to the highest pitch of excellence in private, state, and national 
life, and to do this because it is the first of all the duties of true patriot- 
ism, then and not till then the future of this Nation, in quality and in 
time, will be assured. (Great applause.) 
farmers' bulletin 321. 
The Use of the Split-log Drag on Earth Roads. By D. Ward 
King. Pp. 16, figs. 5. 
This Bulletin contains directions for the construction and uses 
of a split-log dra\g and a ditch cleaner, with statements of th<e 
cost per mile of maintaining earth roads in several localities, with 
these implements. 
farmers' bulletin 323. 
Clover Farming on the Sandy Jack-pine Lands of the North. 
By C. Beaman Smith, Assistant Agriculturist, Bureau of 
Plant Industry. Pp. 24, fig. 1. 
This Bulletin describes the extent and character of the jack- 
pine lands of the North and contains information in regard to its 
purchase, cost, etc., with suggestions for its treatment, care of 
the clover crop, and handling the seed. 
