The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-04
PRESIDENT RO0SEYELTS MESSAGE TO THE
 FFTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS- OF THE UNITED STATES


 1 breeding of new varieties of plants to experimental shipments, to animal indus-
 try and applied chemistry. very practical | aid has been given our farming and stock-growing interests. The products of | the farm have taken an unprecedented
 place in our export trade during the year
 that has just closed. | Public opinion throughout the United
 States has moved steadily toward a just
 appreciation of the value of forests. I whether planted or of natural growth. | The great part played by them in the creation and maintenance of the national
 wealth is now more fully realized than ever before.
 | Wise forest protection does not mean | the withdrawal of forest resources, 1 whether of food. water, or grass. from contributing their full share to the
 welfare of the people, but, on the con- | trary, gives the assurance of larger and
 more certain supplies. The fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetuation of for- | ests by use. Forest protection Is not an | end of itself: it is a means to increase and | sustain the resources of our country and
 the Industries which depend upon them. | The preservation of our forests is an im- | perative business necessity. We have come to see clearly that whatever de- | ' agriculture, threatens our well-being. | The practical usefulness of the national | forest reserves to the mining, grazing, | irrigation, and other interests of the re-
 gions in which the reserves lie has led | to widespread demand by the people of ] the West for their protection and exten-
 sion The forest reserves will inevitably
 be of ctill greater use in the future than
 In the past. Additions should be made to I yh ha r1ra rt traH and fNf l fulness should be increased by thors l oughiy business-like management. At present the protection of the forest reserves rests with the General Land Of- flee. the mapping and description of their timber with the United States Geological Survey, and the preparation of plans for their conservative use with the Bureau of Forestry, which Is also charged with the general advancement of practical forestry in the United States. These va- rious functions should be united in tho Bureau of Forestry, to which they prop erly belong. The present diffusion of re- sponsibility is bad from every standpoint. It prevents that effective cooperation between the Government and the men who utilize the resources of the reserves, without which the interests of both must suffer The scientific bureaus generally should be put under the Department of Agriculture. He already has such power in the case of lands needed by the De- partments of War and the Navy.
 Preservation of Game.
 The wise administration of the forest reserves will be not less helpful to the in- terests which depend on water than to those which depend on wood and grass. The water supply itself depends upon the forest. In the arid region 1t is water, not land which measures production. The AoIf ~F Tai kaA Gfuta sustain a population greater than that of our whole country today if the waters that now run to waste were saved and used for irrigation. The forest and water problems are perhaps the most vital inc ternal questions of the United States.
 Certain of the forest reserves should also be made preserves for the wild for est creatures. All of the reserves should be better protected from fires. Many of them need special protection because of the great injury done by live stock, above all by sheep. The increase in deer, elk, and other animals in the Yellowstone Park shows what may be expected when other mountain forests are properly pro- tected by law and properly guarded. Some of these areas have been so denuded Of surface vegetation by overgrazing that the ground breeding birds. including grouse and quail, and nAny mammals, including deer, have been Exterminated or driven away. At the same time the wa- ter-storing capacity of the surface has been decreased or destroyed, thus pro- noting floods in times of rain and dimin- ishing the flow of streams between rains.
 In cases where natural conditions have been restored for few years, vegeta- ton has again carpeted the ground, birds and deer are coming back, and hundreds of persons, especially from the immediate neighborhood, come each summer to en- joy the privilege of camping. Some at least of the forest reserves should anord perpetual protection to the native fauna and flora, safe havens of refuge to our rapidly diminishing wild animals of the larger kind, and free camping grounds for the ever-increasing numbers of men and women who have learned to find rest. health and recreation in the splendid forests and fiower-clad meadows of our mountains The forest reserves should be set apart forever for the use and benefit of our people as a whole and not sac- rificed to the ehortsighted greed or few.
 The forests are natural reservoirs. By restraining the streams in flood and re- plenishing them in drought they make possible the use of waters otherwise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing. and so protect the storage res" eryoirs from filling up with silt. Forest conservation Is therefore an eHsehlldL condition of water conservation.
 Irrigation a National Function.
 The fore sts alone cannot however. ful- ly regulate and conserve the waters or the arid region. Great storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of streams and to save the flood waters. Their con- struction has been conclusiveIy shown to be an undertaking too vast for private effort Nor can 1t be best accomplished by the individual States acting alone. interstate problems are tn- volved; and the resources of single States would often be inadequate. It Is properly a national function, at least in some of its features. It is as right for the Ma tional Government to make the streams and rivers of the arid region useful by engineering works for water storage as to make useful the rivers and harbOrs of the humid region by engineering works of another kind. The storing of the floods in reservoirs at the hedawaters of our rivers Is but an enlargement of our pres ent policy of river control. under which levees are built on the lower reaches of the same styeams.
 The Government should construct and these reservoirs as it does other public works. Where their purpose is to regulate the flow of streams. the water should be turned freely into the channels in the dry season to take the same course under the same laws as the natural flow.
 uba racIo tion of hn unsettled arid