The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-01-17
Conserving Resources Of N. D.,
Especially the Soil Fertility

Prof c. B. Waldron of the North
Dakota Agricultural college at the ses-
sion OF the Grain Growers convention
this afternoon spoke on Conservation
Of the North Dakota Natural Re-
sources.
Professor Waldron said:
The development Of the conservation
idea has been very rapid in recent
years because of our knowledge and
our changed conception regarding
ownership in natural utilities and re-
sources.
Until within recent years there has
been little accurate knowledge of our
various resources and the time of their
endurance or possibility Of their ex-
haustion could be nothing more than
conjecture.
The geological and soil surveys un-
dertalxen by the federal government
and the different states and the meas
urements of our forests and rivers
have furnished data which enables us
to estimate with reasonable correct
ness what may be expected from these
various resources in the future.
In common with all other American
citizens the inhabitants Of North Da-
kota are directly interested in the
conservation of all of our natural re-
sources. Our lumber, iron, copper, tin,
zinc, lead, mineral oils and phosphates
as we'll as certain grades of coal must
be obtained from outside borders and
and we are vitality interested in the
supply.
We GET Cheap Lumber.
The rapid growth Of North Dakota
has been largely due to the supply of
cheap lumber coming from a large
tract Of pine whose eastern boundary
was within 100 miles of our state line.
Nine-tenths of the pine formerly mar
Reted in Michigan, Wisconsin and Min
nesota has found it's way into homes
for the vast population which has
taken possession of the prairie states
within the last fifty years.
This particular source of our lum-
Der supply, once thought to be prac-
tlcaI1y inexhaustible will last but a
dozen years or so at the present rate
OF cutting. Our supply then must
come from the far west or from the
south and these too at the present
rate of cutting will be exhausted with
in a generation.
This means that North Dakota in
common with all other states must
provide for a future supply of timber
or go without. Even If the timber
supply of the country could be depend
ed upon for a much longer or even an
Indefinite period as some Of our easy
going citizens would have us believe
against all indications to the contrary,
vet there are certain kinds of timber
like fuel and posts that cannot be
probably shipped great distances.
These can be and in the end must be
grown as other crops are grown in
the immediate vicinity in which they
are to be used.
There is no agricultural region in
which trees for this purpose can not
be grown and, up to a certain point,
probably. In fact 1t is the experience
of older countries that no region can
afford not to produce a large part
of it's timber, particularly of the cheap
er grades from quick growing trees.
While 1t is true that North Dakota
has no function to perform in the con-
servation of her own forests yet she
is confronted with the same problem
in a different form, that of creating
and maintaining a timber supply. To
this end each land owner should set
aside q certain tract to be planted
to such trees as are likely to prove
OF greatest use and profit.
Planting of Trees.
The likelihood as to whether he who
plants shall harvest them or not is
not the thing to be considered. The
essential question is the probable in
crease in the value of the estate upon
which the trees are planted.
Certain tree crops like the willow
and European Larch can produce pro-
fitable crops in twenty years. Others
cannot be cut for fifty years yet their
prospective value at the end OF twenty
years may be greater than the actual
value OF the more quickly developing
kinds.
Each land owner, through the aid
of the experimental stations and other