The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-23
INVENTORY OF
 COUNTRIES RESOURCES
Commission Tells How They
 Should Be Conserved.

ln IOTWaTO1nG to the preS1OenC the report of the national conservation commission Clifford Pinchot, chairman of the commission, says the entry of the conservation movement into the field of definite constructive worh~is accomplished by the authorization of a composed of six members of the state conservation commissions and three members of the national conservation commission, with it's chairman and secretary. This committee is to devise ways and means for effective co-opera- tion between all forces working for the conservation of national resources.
 MT. Pinchot takes occasion to recog- nize the work of the secretary of the commission, Thomas B. Shipp, and the secretaries of the four sections of wa ters, forests, lands and minerals, Messrs. w. J. McGee, Overton w. Price, George W. Woodruff and J. A. Holmes, respectively, without whose services, together with the government experts. the making of the national in- ventory would have been impossible.
 
 with him..
 The report of the commission is de voted mainly to an inventory of the country's resources in minerals, lancs, forests and waters, closing with a sec tion on national efficiency"
 The mineral production of the Unit ed States for 1907 exceeded $2,O0O, ,OOO- GOO and contributed 65 per cent of the total freight traffic of the country. The waste in the extraction and treat ment of mineral products during the same year was equivalent to more than $500, ,0OO The available and easily accessible supplies of coal in the United States aggregate approximately ], 100000, 100000 tons. At the present increasing rate of production this sup ply will be so depleted as to approach exhaustion before the middle of the next century. The high grade iron ores the only iron ores available for use under existing conditions) cannot be expected to last beyond the middle of the present century. The same is true of the petroleum supply. The SUD- ply of stone, clay, cement, lime, sand and salt is ample, while the stock of the precious metals and of copper, lead, zinc, sulphur, asphalt, graphite, quicksilver, mica and the rare metals cannot we'll be estimated, but is clear ly exhaustible within one to three cen turies unless unexpected deposits are found.
 The consumption of nearly all our mineral products is increasing far more rapidly than our population. A stray gleam of light in the otherwise gloomy mineral situation is seen in the fact that while the production of coal is increasing enormously, the waste and loss in mining are diminish ing. There is urgent need of greater safety to the miner. The loss of life through mine accidents is appalling. Stress is laid on the assertion that four-fifths of the country's fire losses, or an average of 1000, 900 a day, could be prevented if the precautions taken in Europe were adopted here.
 Speaking of the nations cultivable area, the report declares that there has been a slight increase in the average yield of our great staple farm prod ucts. but neither the increase in acre age nor the yield per acre has kept pace with our increase in population. Within a century we shall probably have to feed three times as many people as now, and the main bulk of our food supply must be grown on our own soil. We have now nearly 6,00O,- GOO farms, averaging 146 acres each, but only a little more than two-ffths of the area of continental United States is under cultivation. The United | States can grow the farm products needed by population more than three times as great as our country now con- tains. but we must greatly increase the yield per acre. GN
 The greatest unnecessary waste of our soil is preventable erosion. Second only to this is the waste, nonuse and 1 misuse of fertilizer derived from ami malls and men. Other great causes of | loss are due to injurious mammals, | plant diseases and insects. Most of | these farm losses are preventable.
 The present public land laws as a l whole do not subserve the best inter |
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