Arizona republican., 1903-04-03
CUR E ENT
 OHM EN r
Forests, Rivers and Farms.

Colonel William r Cody has written to the president from London agalhSt the sheep herders, the pasturaSe O. whose focks upon public lands Tn ccT- tain parts of the northwest has aroused SC much resentment from other ihhaD- ltants of that region of late years
 III sheep are allowed to browse Gn the underbrush of OUT mountains he asserts, in less than five years the tomcseeier, the man behind the pioW, the actual taxpayer, will have to leave the Big Horn basin for want of water to irTigate his land"
 Buffalo Bill' may e-XagSerate the particular danger against permission of whose continuance he protests. Yet it is quite evident that there is, in
 many parts e the country, d great and growing need of rational adjustment between conflicting industrial interests that will make the best of natural re- sources for al! concerned now and here after
 That unregulated forest destruction has gone to the very verge of safety if not beyond it is perfectly evident. The yearly increasing tale of floods more violent and irregular is sufficient proof. The waste of our forests is not
 
 involves also Q waste of water needed for navigation. fer power, or for ir'i- gation. according to the locality, and the ultimate decline of agriculture in the districts affected.
 There are many regions where it would have paid the nation to restrain private enterprise in the clearing Of land, even for agricultural purposes. It would have paid because, it is now evident that the land so cleared would have been worth more to grow trees upon and to serve as q regulator for streams than for farming. From such lands a small but regular harvest of timber and the stability of the streams is worth more to the country than the timber stripped off and all the subse- quent crops that can be raised.
 That these facts should have been understood in advance was impossible. They had to be learned by experience. The experience already acquired would seem to be sufficient for all reasonable men. Unless the nations resources ar. permanently to decline the lessons of that experience will have to be applied systematically and soon. The neces- sary condition fo" such application lo a general public understa nding that 2 tree crop can be made just as valua> blc, permanent and perpetual as . grain crop-that a forest is not like :. mine. of no further use when the de posit is exhausted, because no human wit can replace ore orce Gug-but that forest soil is like other soil, capable of improvement and of continuous pro- ductioD.
 Meanwhile it is the duty Of national and state governments to impress upon all industries concerned that no one can be regarded to the destruction Of others-to impress upon sheep raisers, for example. that important as their industry is it cannot be prosecuted n the detriment of agriculture, milling and navigation-tP impress upon the lumberman that they are injuring the whole nation for all time by their haste and recklessness, and that if}.- portant as their industry is there are others which must be considered. If the waste of natural resources were ever eXcusablc the time when 1t was is now passed. The country is too well filled with people who have not only to live themselves, but whose suc- ceseors have to live. Unless the nece.- sary adjustment of conflicting inter- ests be speedily and sincerely under taken in order that our rivers and our soil may be preserved, the nation will decline in wealth instead of contir- ually increasing as it should.-Chicago er-Ocean.