FRANK S. BETZ ( Personal ) 
Betz Building 
Hammond, Indiana 
The 10 Lines Below Copied from Senate Resolution 175, 72nd Congress 
Whereas the consumption of the forests of the United States has pro¬ 
gressed to a point at which their early exhaustion is threatened; it being 
estimated (1) that over 50 per centum of all the softwood lumber cut in 
the United States has been cut during the last thirty years; (2) that, 
with a population almost 60 per centum greater today‘than at’the begin¬ 
ning of the twentieth century, the United States has been using nearly 
three hundred billion feet of softwood lumber alone during each decade 
since 1900, (3) that in 1928, with a population of more than one hundred 
and twenty million, the annual cut of softwood lumber alone was twenty- 
eight billion feet; and (4) that there now remain in the territory east 
of the prairies, only about twenty-five billion feet of original timber; 
HAMMOND, INDIANA 
June 5, 1935. 
Mr. F. C. Auchter, 
U. . Dept, of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. 0. 
CITY TAXPAYERS WILL PAY 
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS 
In 1928, after spending days with State 
Forester Wilcox going over Indiana’s soil 
eroded farm sections on which thousands of 
families were unable to make a living, I 
decided to assist in reforesting these 3 mil¬ 
lion acres of idle land and abandoned farms. 
As I lived in Japan in 1916-17, and trav¬ 
eled through the Far East in 1926, seeing 
poverty was not new to me and I had an 
idea our taxpayers who must in years to 
come throw away millions supporting these 
people would be interested in what Walter 
Davenport in COLLIER’S calls “our shift¬ 
less policies,” and would appoint commit¬ 
tees in every county for their own benefit 
and assist in doing what President Roose¬ 
velt will do carrying out one of the greatest 
reforestation propositions ever undertaken 
in any country, which will enable farmers 
living on what for a century was the best 
farmland in America to make a living. This 
work must be carried out even though it 
will cost billions, or we will go through 
what England and Europe did in the 16th 
century, when no man was allowed to marry 
until he had planted so many trees. 
It seems strange that our large taxpayers 
take no interest in what it costs to care 
for 23 million in cities and on what was the 
best farmland in America from 50 to 100 
years ago now ruined by soil erosion, but 
time will open the eyes of those who for¬ 
get that conditions change in every country 
where there are no trees to prevent the 
rain and melted snow from washing the 
black top soil from the land. 
Take Illinois: The highest priced farm¬ 
land in the United States 50 years ago. 
Today 81 of 102 counties, which should 
produce billions of dollars worth of grain 
in years to come and pay millions of dol¬ 
lars in taxes, are now practically ruined. 
There are still thousands of farms in the 
state producing good crops, which, if not 
protected, will also be ruined. 
F. A. Fischer and every expert on soil 
erosion have for years predicted that no 
country could be prosperous and allow over 
400 millions dollars’ worth of top soil, which 
requires 1,000 years or more to build up 
one inch, to wash downstream yearly. 
Much of what was the best farmland at 
one time in 22 states is in worse condition 
than Illinois. In North Dakota, 25 out of 
every 100 are on the relief rolls, as are over 
4,000 farmers IN ONE COUNTY IN THE 
SOUTH. 4 million acres ruined in Mis¬ 
sissippi and recently 74 sheriffs sold 39,669 
farms in one day for nonpayment of taxes 
. . . almost 200,000 souls without a place to 
call home. 445,000 of 2 million acres per¬ 
manently destroyed by soil erosion in the 
Morris Dam section. 
Thousands of farmers between Washing¬ 
ton and Jacksonville, Florida, northern 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arkansas, 
Missouri and other states are unable to 
make a living on their land. 
Many do not know that since 1840 farm¬ 
ers whose farms would not produce crops 
came west, took up a homestead, but today 
there is no good Government land left and 
they must stay where they are and be cared 
for by taxpayers. 
Joseph Medill, Editor, CHICAGO 
TRIBUNE, saw the handwriting on the 
wall in 1860 and advised farmers to plant 
trees. Had those who inherited these won¬ 
derful farms set aside only ONE HOUR 
EACH YEAR and planted a few of the 
millions of Walnuts, Hickory Nuts, Butter¬ 
nuts, Oak, Beech, Maple, Elm or Ash seed 
that rotted on the 3,500,000 acres of idle 
land in Illinois, these trees would be from 
25 to 48 inches in diameter. If planted 
42x48 inches and thinned out to 8 ft. cen- 
Dear Mr. Auchter: 
I am sorry I can't send you a big cata¬ 
log, but I find those who send out the big 
catalogs covering trees are like the dogs" 
that bark the loudest but seldome bite'. 
I took this work up seven years ago. It 
was up-hill work for the first' three years. 
My total income from all sources was over 
$1300 less than I paid one stenographer, 
but I kept hammering away and from Septem¬ 
ber, 1931, to June, 1932, I shipped out 
over 50,000 more trees, without it costing 
taxpayers $1.00, than did the Forestry de¬ 
partments of seven of our great st tes. 
.From September, last year, until this 
spring, I have shipped out more tree than 
were distributed by the Forestry Depart- * 
ments of Alabama, Idaho, Kansas', Utah, 
California, Oregon and Washington and 500,000 
WALNUTS, HICKORY NUTS and BUTTERNUTS, and 
over twelve bushel of PINTS, SPRUCE and AR¬ 
BOR VTBL R Tree Seed. 
Sorry I can't mail you a big catalog. 
Yours very truhh, 
FRANK S. BFT2 (Personal) 
fsb/vck 
WALNUTS, BUTTERNUTS, CHESTNUTS, HICKORY NUTS, 
AMERICAN, CHINESE, JAPANESE or KOREAN for SCOUTS, 
SCHOOLS, 4 - H CLUB MEMBERS and OTHERS. WRITE. 
