The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-10-21
FORESTRY A
VITAL ISSUE
QUESTION MEANS MUCH
IN THE DEVELOPMENT
OF NATION.
Is Most Important Economic
Policy Ever Adopted by
Any Nation.

y very lew years ago 1OrSSt
conservation was little more than
a phrase; today it is vital issue
IN our national development,
says Treadwell Cleveland, Jr., in
a circular on the status of forest
ry in this country, which was just
this country, which. has just been
issued by the United States For
est Service. I'm connection with
the general plan to conserve all
natural resources, it is the most
important and far-reaching eco
nomic ever adopted and pursued
by any nation.
The forest is one OF the chief
supports of the whole material
fabric OF our civilization. The
forest means not only a perman-
emit supply of wood and the life
of all the industries which de-
pend upon 1t; but also the con-
troll OF the waters for human use.
There is only barrenness in the
future of the nation which has
lost the use OF wood and the con-
troll of water.
The sort OF use that was made
OF natural resources during the
pioneering stage, while right
enough at the time, is far too
wasteful to(be carried on into the
new industrial era. In order to
know how to use thing, howev-
er, it is necessary first TO find out
how much OF, it there is to use,
and taking stock OF our forest e
sources has led>to, startling re-
suits.
1T has shown that we are still
destroying the forest as we use it.,
that we are taking from it every
three and half times as much
wood as is added by the new
growth. 1t has shown less than
one third of the growing tree
felled by the lumberman is ever
used at all, so that two-tilirds OF
all the timber cut 5 SIMPLY de-
stroyed. 1t has shown that one
eleventh OF all the forests are
swept by fires every year. and
that on the average is simply de-
stroyed. 1t has shown that one
eleventh of all the focests are
swept by fires every year. and
that on the average since 1870
forest fires have yearly cost $780,
900 1000 in timber and fifty VS..
1t has shown that over ninety
nine per cent of the forests in
private hands-which comprise
tire -fourths OF all the flores lf1
N four-fifths of all tn; wood
=: M: devasted By le;.ruct:ve
Use snd the scourge of uncheo SO
fires. WI 'e less than per mt
/; properly handled fof 5 Gees
sive crops or effectively protect
ed from fire. The fore,t as a re-
source rs rapidly being obliterat-
ed
But the inventory of the for
ests has had yet other ugly facts
to reveal. With the disappearance
and deterioration of the mountain
forests the nation is losing con-
troll of the streams. which are use
full in orr civilizatioprin ways and
degrees unparalleled by any other
resource. Pure water for domes-
tic purposes is, OF course, indis-
pensable; disable water at the
right seasons is the sole reliance
of the great projects by which
the arid lands are vivrfied by IT.
rigation; cheap water transporta-
ton is a matter of dollars aDd
cents to every citizen; trust
worthy power streams are the
key to the age of electricity al
the gates of which modern indus
try ise standing. Yet the guardian
of the waters is steadily compell-
ed TO retreat before the AK and
FIRE.
I'm waste alone we reject
more than two-thinds OF the lum
Der that might be taken from the
standing trees. AT least half o.
this waste. is unnecessary. In the
first place, we waste the forest
by refusing to take advantage O
its full capacity for growth. Pro
tected and properly managed oul
forests will produce far more
wood than they do at present
But while it is wasteful to Grip
pie the forest by a violent lum
bering which destroys youne
growth-the promise of the fu
ture forest-it is doubly wastefu
to lock up the forest ard let tht
ripe timber die and decay, for If
the former case the forest al
least contributes temporary
supply OF wood, whereas in thu
latter case it contributes no Woo
at all.
at is not Use which destroy:
the forest, but waste. Not use a:
such. but destructive use, com
bined with inexcusable neglect
IS causing the forests to dwindl,
under our progressive demands
upon them. The problem. there
fore. is not to be solved by dis
use, but by wise use and protec
-uur1s oe. IIM IopsSol 9s9qI 'uoI
ulate forest growth that the need
ed wood may be harvested with
out depicting the stock in hand
.,J u.l1 been intact the DrOteC