The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1908-09-18
NATIONAL CONSERVATION
COMMISSION MAKE
FIRST REPORT
NATIONS RESOURCES BEING IN.
yEsTIGATED BY NATIONAL
COMMITTEE.
Every Element Of Waste In Lands,
Forests, Water, Minerals Are
Included in Investigation.

Washington, Sept. IA. The Ma
tional Conservation commission has
just made public the first of its
schedules on which the inventory OF
the country's natural resources il
being conducted. Only a few OF the
schedules have, as yet, been given
out but between the lines of these
it is plainly evident the national
conservation commission intends to
hunt down waste in all its varied
forms and to devise some means to
prevent it. This is apparent in the
general schedules as to each of the
four sections of the commissions
waters, forests, lands, and minerals.
For instance, the schedule relat-
ing to lands inquiries into waste Of
soil by erosion, which is the washing
away of the land. That schedule
also suggests waste through bad
agricultural methods The lands
schedule likewise goes into waste in
the carrying capacity of the public
range in the west. The section Of
waters is inquiring into how much
land capable of irrigation is wasted
by not being irrigated. More ims
portant still is its suggestive inquir-
les tending to show that we are
wasting our waterways to an alarm
ing extent by not using them as we
should. Perhaps the greatest form
of waste brought out in the entire
schedule is that relating to water
lower. Two of the official inquir-
es are as follows:
Are existing developed water
powers put to their full use?"
10 what extent can coal be saved
y the substitution of water power?'
Under the head of flood waters,
he commission inquiries, To what
xtent are flood waters wasted 2"
The minerals section of the COM
iission is seeking to find out tine
nature and extent of waste in the
mining, extraction and use of min
i al products" and methods of pre-
venting or lessening this waste.
That forest conservation must
largely take the form of saving
wastes in manufacture seems to be
the conviction of the conservation
commission. The commission Is
busy conducting census by corre-
spondence to find the common
wastes in wood using industries.
Queries have been sent to eight hum
dred manufacturers of co-operage
stock for the purpose of getting 8
line on the waste of wood in the
making of barrels and casks.
Similar wastes occur in turning
the logs into headings and in the
manufacture of barrel hoops. The
forest service is trying to find just
how important such wastes are, with
the object of suggesting, II possible.
some way of cutting down the
drains upon the forests which mean
no gain to any one, but loss to all.
The returns from the inquiries will
form part of the report Of tt e CON
servation commission when the work
of taking the preliminar inventory
Of our natural resources is COM
pleted.
: The national conservation COM
mission is to take up reports of the
various government bureaus which
are now at work on this inventory
for general discussion at Its meet
ing, in this city Tuesday, December
L. One week later, Tuesday, De-
cember 8, the commission will dis
cuss the same subject with the gov
errors of the states and territories.
or their representatives.