Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-06
CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES


now holding sessions in Washington is
directly the inspiration
American of the American For
r..z;-.4;., estry Association, which
was organized in 1882
and incorporated in 1897. Indirectly. the
inspiration springs not only from actual
and cruel necessities of the situation but
the lesson dates from Europe as far back
as the sixteenth century, and hence the
subject is International
In France, for example. million acres
Of mountain slopes are exposed to erosion
by torrents which have carried ruin and
devastation not only to the mountain
GERS. but to the denizens of the lands in
the valleys. 1t will seem singular that
constantly recurring floods. whose dew
astations have reduced the people Of
eighteen OF more departments to poverty
and emigration. should have been left
without a remedy. an effective remedy in
theory, until 1s46, when the mining en-
gineer Alexander Surrell published a
treatise on the torrents of the HauteS
Alpes in which he predicted the NATURAL
consequences of mountain torrents. which
provisions were confirmed by the terrible
inundations of that year. NJ Surrell
maintained that these foundations were
due to the denudation of the mountain
slopes. In opposition to previous authors,
among them Belgrand, notably. who
wrote Of the NEUROLOGY of the Seine val
ley and the Partisan basin in prehistoric
ages. and who declared that forests on
mountain sides did not sensibly restrain
the water courses.
Later. indeed. and subsequent to 1880.
the engineer-in-chief. NJ. Wales, main
tanned Belgrand's theory that the role of
the forests was null. and added that
their existence was the cause of droughts
and the hardening of the SOIL More
over. the author consoled his reader with
the reflection that because of mineral
combustibles and the tendency to replace
economical value of wood was destined
to be reduced to an insignificant place in
short time.
And yet, as Mr.. Cleveland. expert of the
forest service Of the Department of Agri-
culture. has demonstrated
french as far back as the six
r%.-4. teenth century, there were
local restrictions against
clearing mountain sides, enforced by fines
confiscation and corporal punishment.
"In the MAN, says Mr.. Cleveland
"these prevented ruinous stripping Of hill
sides, but with the French revolution
these restrictions were swept aside and
the mountains were cleared at such a
rate that disastrous effects were felt
within ten years"
The local restrictions, it is confessed
recognized a remedy. The conclusion Is
manifest that If 1t were not practiced il
was because under protection of the state
graft that it was enabled to employ for
it's purpose the engineers and writer's OF
books to thwart the local authorities in
their efforts to protect both the state and
the people.
have been awakened by the cry of alarm
that Is general. 1.-THE forest Is dying. the
forest is dead" and this cry is being re-
echoed in journals. reviews and bulletins
of the many forestry associations on both
sides of the Atlantic.
Mr. Clifford Pinchot, the forester of the
United States Department of Agriculture
i'm a farmers bulletin issued April 80
1908. says under the title of "The Con-
servation of Natural Resources:
First of American forest resources. A
was originally covered with what were
all in all. the most magnificent forests
of the globe-a million square miles OF
cumberland. In the short time Gas time
counts in the life of nations) we have
been here we have all but reached the
I'VE thought it unimportant until late
ly that We have been destroying by fire
as much timber as we have
Fire used But we have now
xxy,.4. reached the point where the
growth of our forests is but
one third of the annual cut, while we
have in store timber enough for only
twenty or thirty years at our present
rate of USE And we use five or six times
as much timber per capita as the Euro
pean nations A timber famine will touch
every man. woman and child in all the
land; it will affect the daily ffe of every
one of us. and yet without considera-
ton. without forecast and without fore
sight we have placed ourselves, not de-
liberately, but thoughtlesSly, in a position
where timber famine is one of the in
evitabie events of our near future.
Canada cannot supply this waste be-
cause she requires her timber for home
consumption. Siberia may not supply it
because beyond the point of transporta-
ton. South America cannot supply it
because it is unsuited to the wants OF
North America.
Minerals, oil and natural gas deposits
are threatened, anthracite coal will be ex-
hausted within fifty years, bituminous
@bal in the beginning OF the next century,
some oil fields are already exhausted and
so also natural gas The methods of min
ing the exploitation of oil and gas are
wasteful. Soil waste is characteristic of
American prodigality. \ billion tons of
soil are washed from the surface of farms
with fertilizing elements which the
farmer has purchased with money. This
waste may necesSitate its replacement by
the chemical disintegration of the rock.
Fertile soil is washed into streams from
which it's removal is asked by government
appropriations. Streams that are used
utilized at the same time for the genera
ton of power.
At the suggestion of the inland water
ways commission the President OF the
United States, i'm order to
Governors consider the problem of
A...,,h1.a conservation, invited the
governors of the states
and territories familiar with the four
great classes of resources-thc forests,
waters, mines and the soilto confer
ence which met in the White House, May
1915, 1905. and signed a declaration from
which we extract the following:
I'VE declare our firm conviction that
this conservation of our natural resources
is subject of tranScendent Importance
which should engage unremittingly the
attention of the nation, the states and the
people in earnest cooperation.
1--WE agree that the land should be SO
nd och ho1