The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-11-30

shat control you now have over the
streams without which manufacturing
would b. crippled. The only way u
keep up the wood supply and 10 retain
control over the streams is 70 place the
White mountain forests in the hands 81
the people. and 20 manage them. a. the
national forests In the West are man.
aged, for the combined use and Perpetua-
ton Of all their resources.
IF the New England forests need 10
be protected against the careless use Of
the axe and saw, which at least takes
useful material from them for a time,
how much more do they not need to be
protected from the total waste OF FIRE,
Yet In spite Of some excellent forest fire
laws 10 several OF the New England
states, and also in New York, the inef-
fectiveness of present fire protective
methods has been made startlingly clear
during the past few months. II seems
to me. emphatieally, that the fire prob
lem Is best solved by means OF an eff
cient Ere patrol and fire-fphting force,
paid for this work and mainly dependent
upon it, such q force as does not now
exist anywhere, to my knowledge, out
side OF the national forests.
Sometimes a farmer viii ask, How
much does this forest conservation con-
Germ me? | know OF no better way
Of answering him than by asking him in
return, Does anything else concern you
more? Very naturally and justly the
farmer is proud Of his independence. As
the president has said in his letter 20
YOU upon this occasion, Successfully
managed family farms give to the father,
the mother, and the children better OPP
portunities for useful work and for
happy life than any other occupation
The farm is rich in opportunity enjoyed
under slight restraint The farmer Is
less disturbed than anybody else about
other peoples money. Yet all this indie
pendence and all this opportunity must
have basis somewhere. This basis is
unquestionably the farmers inheritance
in the natural resources Of the land.
When we say Of man, generally, that
he is independent, or a man Of indepen-
dent means, the very last thing that We
mean is that he has no wealth. We
mean that he has the wealth which
makes him independent, And 20 the
farmer has the wealth which makes him
independent, and this wealth is the for
ests, the soil, the water, and the min
erals. BY the direct aid of the soil and
the water, he produces his crops: indi-
rectly he draws also upon the forests
and the mines. The depletion Of the soil,
ard the want of excess of moisture. cut
down his crops. In precisely the same
way he will feel the change when the
price Of iron or of coal rises, or when
it costs more to get the wood that he
needs. So true Is this, that. though
wood has rarely been regarded as farm
crop. the farmer is coming to see that it
really is, and that a good woodlot is the
source of both saving and profit. Often.
indeed, the only way the farmer can
make the best of all his land ii to grow
wood on part of it.
But the need of wood for fences. for
fuel, and for building material is only
part Of the farmers dependence upon
the forest Just as the New England
needs the forest To protect
the water which he uses to drive his
mill, so the farmer needs the forest to
protect the soil which he cuItivates.
Stripping the forest from the wrong
place, that Is, from the slopes on which
nothing else grows SO well, has exposed
The soil OF these slopes to the wash OF
the rains, with the result that at least
one billion tons Of fertile soil is swept
away by the freshets, every year. and
ost in the sea. Too often, the soil wash.
II from quilted hills, sandy bills. sandy
md infertile, Is spread over the rich bot.
BY the food waters. and they
IRE made hopelessly barren.
The individual farmer is not always
himself responsible for these results of
N.asteful forest use; that II, lie has not
llways brought them ca ~ his own posi-.
i've actlon. But he il responsible If he
ais 70 grasp and act upon the truth I'm
ne matter when it is laid before him,
Shen he has not asserted his rights as
citizen against the injury done to this
New England az ours which Il his home
Thus both his pocketbo0k and his public
prit should iTnpel the New England
armer 70 insist upon the conservation
i the New England forests