The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-09

FORESTS.
If there is any one duty which
more than another we owe it to our
children and our children's children
tc perform at once, it is to save the
forests of this country, for they con-
stitute the first and most important
element in the conservation OF the
natural resources of the country.
There are of course two kinds of nat
ural resources. One is the kind which
can only be used as part of process
Of exhaustion; this is true of mines,
natural oil and gas wells, and the
like. The other, and of course ulti-
mately by far the most important,
includes the resources which can be
improved in the process OF wise use:
the soil, the rivers, and the forests
come under this head. Any really
civilized nation will so use all OF
these three great national assets that
the nation will have their benefit in
the future Just as a farmer, after
all his life making his living from
his farm, will, if he is an expert
farmer, leave it as an asset of increas-
ed value to his son, so We should
leave our national domain to our chill
dren, increased in value and not worn
out There are small sections of our
own country, in the East and in the
West. in the Adirondacks, the White
Mountains, and the Appalachians. and
in the Rocky Mountains, where we
can already see for ourselves the
damage in the shape of permanent
injury to the soil and the river sys-
TENS which comes from reckless de-
forestation. 1t matters not whether
this deforestation is due to the ac-
tual reckless cutting of timber, to
the fires that inevitably follow such
reckless cutting of timber, Or to reck-
less and uncontrolled grazing, especi-
ally by the great migratory bands of
sheep, the unchecked wandering of
which over the country means de-
struction to forests and disaster to
the small home makers, the settlers
of limited means.
Shortsighted persons, or persons
U11uuCu " IuC IubulO ny 0SoAlC "
make money in every way out of the
present, sometimes speak as II no
great damage would be done by the
reckless destruction of our forests.
1t is difficult to have patience with
the arguments of those persons.
Thanks to our own recklessness in
the use Of our splendid forests, we
have already crossed the verge of a
timber famine in this country, and
no measures that we now take can,
at least for many years, undo the
mischief that has already been done.
But we can prevent further mischief
being done; and it would be in the
highest degree reprehensible to let
any consideration of temporary con-
venience or temporary cost interfere
with such action, especially as re-
CARDS the National Forests which the
nation can now, at this very moment,
control.
All serious students of the ques-
ton are aware of the great. damage
that has been done in the Mediter-
ranean countries of Europe, Asia, and
Africa by deforestation.' The SINH
lar damage that has been done in
Eastern Asia is less well known. A
recent investigation into conditions
in North China by Mr.. Frank N. Mey-
er, OF the Bureau of Plant Industry OF
the United States Department of Ag-
ricuIture, has incidentally furnished
in very striking fashion proof of the
ruin that comes from reckless defor-
estation of mountains, and OF the
further fact that the damage once
done may prove practically irrepar-
able. So important are these inves-
legations that I herewith attach as
an appendix to my message certain
photographs showing present condi-
tions in China They show in vivid
fashion the appalling desolation, TAX
ing the shape of barren mountains
and gravel and sand-covered plains,
which Immediately follows and de-
ponds upon the deforestation OF the
mountains. Not many centuries ago
the country of northern China was
one of the most fertile and beautiful
spots in the entire world, and was
heavily forested. We know this not
only from the old Chinese records,
but from the accounts given by the
traveller, Marco Polo. He, for In
stance, mentions that in visiting the
provinces of Shansi and Shensi he OBJ
served many plantations of mulber-
ry trees. Now there is hardly sin
gle mulberry tree in either of these
provinces, and the culture of the silk
worm has moved farther south, to re-
in the rivers, we may take oPlo
an illustration of the complete change
in Their ivers, We may take Polo
statement that a certain river, the
Hun Ho, was so large and deep that
merchants scend it from the sea with
heavily laden boats; today this river
Is simply a broad sandy bed, with
shallow, rapid currents wandering
hither and thither across it, absolute
ly unnavigable. But we do not nave
to depend upon written records. Inc
dry spells, and the wells with water
far below the former watermark, bear
testimony to the good days OF the
past and the evil days Of the present
Whatever the native vegetation has
Teen allowed to remain, as, for IN