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and to some it may perhaps seem that everything necessary to a 
correct understanding of the subject has already been said. But 
there are good reasons why forestry should continue year after 
year to hold a place in your deliberations. Forestry is very 
decidedly a live issue in the Territory of Hawaii. It is a part of 
the general land question, than which there is no more important 
local problem. In Hawaii the relation between forestry and irri- 
gation is peculiarly intimate. The continued success of the main 
industry of the Territory rests on the wise use of water. Over 
half of the fifty odd sugar plantations are dependent on irrigation. 
The majority of the non-irrigated plantations also use large quan- 
tities of water for fluming cane or for the development of power. 
Because of the characteristic features of Hawaiian climate and 
topography — the heavy precipitation in the windward districts 
and the steep, short watersheds — it is essential that a forest cover 
be maintained permanently on the catchment basins of the impor- 
tant streams. The conservation of the native forest has conse- 
quently a very direct bearing on the continued commercial pros- 
perity of the islands. 
But the benefits of forestry do not cease with forest protection. 
The question of meeting the demand for wood and timber of the 
various classes required for local use, not to speak of the need for 
fuel in certain districts, becomes each year more and more press- 
ing. It is the province of forestry to meet this demand through 
the introduction and establishment of trees that will in time sup- 
ply the required products, be the need for posts, railroad ties, con- 
struction timber, or fuel. Then too, on the side A windbreak, 
shelter-belt and incidentally of road-side and ornamental tree 
planting, forestry touches the life of this community at many 
points. 
Taken altogether the problem of using the forests wisely and of 
making them do their full part constitutes one of the vital issues in 
the Territory of Hawaii. And because forestry is a vital, a living 
issue it necessarily follows that not only do new problems con- 
stantly arise, but also that the old problems frequently take on 
new phases or develop relations not before appreciated. 
As a body the members of this Association are brought into 
more direct relations with forest problems than is any other class 
of citizens in Hawaii. It is therefore pertinent that at your meet- 
ings the underlying principles of forestry should be stated often 
enough to be kept clearly in mind, and that the aim?, objects and 
present condition of current work should be made known through 
frequent reports of progress. It is for these reasons that forestry 
holds its place on your program and comes up yearly as a subject 
for discussion and report. 
During the year of 1908 the many-sided importance of forests 
has come to be recognized as never before in the history of the 
Nation. Last May the President called together :,t the White 
House the governors of all the States of the Union to meet with 
