The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-06-23
MISS PENFlELD ON 1.-THE PRESERVATION OF OUR
 NATIONAL RESOURCES

AIlUNAL kESUUkCES
 ssThe preservation of Our National
 Rescurcss." was the subject assigned
 Miss [ornelia Sterret Penfield. Miss
 Pen1Ald said:
 E6ur hundred years ago, Britannia.
 iyfpoverished by civil wars, turned to- Ward the rich promise of the new the tabled Eldorado was only a will derness. For long years it. remained thus, exposing it's sparsely settled shores to the ceaseless buffet of the gray ocean, and giving little 1nt1macon of it's miser-hoarded treasure
 Although as early as 1642, Lynn, Massachusetts,, could boast of her iron works, and along the New England coast, fishing, at first merely a means of ssastenance. greweto be, source of 'Drol1t as well, the agricultural possi- bilities of the soil received greatest consideration. After our final war with the mother-country, however, men awakened to realization of the RepubIicss natural heritage 1874 saw the foundatidm of our coal industry; by 1860 gold and silver were being mined in the west, and the petroleum of Pennsylvania had been discovered. which has forced us forward to first rank among the world powers.
 During the latter half of the nine teenth century, our national weath in creased from seven billion dollars to one hundred and ten rhillions-twice that of Great Britain, ana more than thrice tli8t of Russia: We lead the world in our production of iron and steel, coal. petroleum and. copper; we possess better facilities for lumber traf1c than any other nation and our graxing lands are unparalleled.
 The question is: Shall we retain our present status. or must we, forfeit it?' Few realize the vital importance of Toe 1t the assembling of the Conserva- ton Congress inS Washington.
 "Jumpin' snakesr snorted the village wiseacres. 'what has Rosyfelt got gather fer? Presarvin' qnaeooral ray Sources. fddlesticks. Atn'tS we a. beatin' th' hull airth !? Ain't we rich enough ter keep it up?''s and the post once Ioungers chorused an approving
 But the men who met at the White House on the thirteenth of May, 1908, were not calamity howlers, The pilot of the great ship had sighted break CTS. imperceptible to the passengers. fls- Our costly waste ofS our natural riches Is matter of mighty moment, and to avert, if possible, retribution from us, President Roosevelt called public life-statesmen, scholars and captains of industry. Three days was scant time in which to discuss the rroblem thoroughly, but the men who spoke rose ably to the exigencies of the situation, and devoted their powers to the most salient points.
 Clifford Pinchot, our Chief Forester, has long been endeavoring to check the riotous vandalism of the 1umbermen. These mimic Attilas had been slashing paths of devastation through the rich white pines of the Great Lake region. Only the choicest wood was sent to market; the rest. was consumed i'm gi- gantic waste-burners, and day and night was the northern sky darkened by the smoke from these funeral pyres of the forest monarchs-
 Perchance new growth appeared in the treeless district. Then frequently some careless wanderers camp-fire, famed up, into the malignant surface blaze. that runs along the ground, and shriveling the seedlings within the parched earth
 Qn this manner were the once "in- pines of Saginaw. de- stroyed with little counterbalancing gain. In this manner will all our mag nificent trees disappear, unless we make a speedy attempt to save them. equal to but one-third of the consump- t3en--aS poignant fact which means a lumber famine by 1850. To avert this danger, indiscriminate numbering must
 
 and the great and good work of the forestry bureau should be encouraged by special appropriations
 Again, the deforestation of our up- lands involves an annual loss of more than a billion tons of our richest soil Once the trees regulated the flow of the surplus rainfall, but now, uncon- trol1ed, the torrent rushes down the and foothills, tearing away khe earth, and swelling the rivers in- to raging avengers. Then forsooth, we rail at Providence for our disas- trous hoods
 The wisest method of coping with this evil is by storage reservoirs, placed near the sources of the moun lain streams, to collect the water until ! time of drought, and thus transform , retrfbutive curse into an .undeserved s--o ,,
 Our mines also exemplify our At presento,the United States produces ever, year 60 per cent rore coal than Great Britain. the for mer leader of the world. Of our. an- ion metric tons, -PennsylSania alone produces 6s per cent, being the source ,f all but 3 per cent of our anthracite Iurp1y. Yet government experts tell IS that the anthracite areas of the Keystone state will be exhausted by he year. 1000. Why not, when only | ,ne-hah of all the coal in our mines | sver reaches the surface2 This. sin is | l0paIQOu1Dle, IOI WQlle we waste oU | ,er cent of our coal each year. in the | mines of Vancouver, B. C.. only 2 per | ,ent Is lost To conserve the remain | Ier,- rather than to seek to open new | hines, should be our aim. WAfat use | 8 there in discovering new western | ields, if we cannot properly manage hose in the east? ,5sST Ts-....
 It is also to- Pennsylvania that we ,we our leadership of petFo1eum-pro- iucing countries. with an Annual yield If one hundred and SiXty-Six million that of Russia, our :losest competitor. At present esti- mates, however. one decade will be- lold the exhaustion of our Appala- .hian field. For this condition the re- 'ponsibility rests with the insatia ble <reed of the trusts The petroleum. .arelessly refined. has been rushed to LIien but profitable markets. 1
 Our western cattle-ranches, our At antic fisheries. our once illimitable tores of iron.-an echo the same plafnt if improvident proprietorship. We 'ank the world in our iron and steel ,ut we are rapidly exhausting every Inown bed of ore. Our cattle are peer ess but in their maintenance we are