Act 333 provided for conservation of natural gas and oil by preventing

waste.

A number of other Conservation measures were enacted into laws, 29 in all, but I cannot touch upon them at this time.

We are proud of our success in inaugurating safe and sane policies for Conservation; we are proud of our Governor, J. Y. Sanders, who urged the passage of the various bills; we are proud of our lumbermen, timber owners, gas and oil operators, and miners who recognized the need for Conservation and the justness of our bills, and assisted in their passage. And above all we are proud of our people as a whole, who are so wide-awake on the question of Conservation of natural resources.

REPORT FROM MAINE

CYRUS C. BABB

_District Engineer Maine State Water-Storage Commission_

The two principal resources of the State of Maine are its forests and its water-powers. Of its total area of 30,000 square miles, 21,000 square miles, or 70 percent are in forest lands. Over 1500 lakes and ponds are located in the State, covering 2200 square miles of water surface, and not including the innumerable little ponds of an acre or two in area that are located in all directions. There are in the State one lake to each 20 square miles of territory, and one square mile of lake surface to each 14.3 square miles of territorial area.

Although the State ranks 35 in area, and 30 in population, it ranks third in the Union in water-power development, having, according to the U. S. Census, a total of over 343,000 horsepower in use. It is surpassed only by New York and California in total horsepower.

The State has always conserved its water-power. The Supreme Judicial Court of the State has held as follows:

It is a rule of law peculiar to this State and Massachusetts under the Colonial Ordinance of 1641-7 that all great ponds--that is ponds containing more than 10 acres--are owned by the State.

While private property cannot be taken for public use without compensation, the waters of great ponds and lakes are not private property.

Under the ordinance, the State owns the ponds as public property held in trust for public uses. It has not only the jus privatum, the ownership of the soil, but also the jus publicum, and the right to control and regulate the public uses to which the ponds shall be applied.

The authority of the State to control waters of great ponds and determine the uses to which they may be applied is a governmental power, and the governmental powers of the State are never lost by mere non-use.

_Early Investigation_

Maine has always been in the forefront in the investigation and conservation of its resources. Thirty years before the National Government authorized its first geological investigations, and over forty years before the Federal Geological Survey was established, the State of Maine had made such a survey. By Act of the State Legislature, March 28, 1836, a geological survey of the State was authorized under the direction of Dr Charles T. Jackson, State Geologist. The investigation was continued for three years. The results of this geological survey, considering the difficulties of transportation at that time and the non-existence of accurate maps, are interesting.

A detail survey and report on the natural history and geology of the State was made in 1861 and 1862 by Ezekiel Holmes, Naturalist, and C. H. Hitchcock, Geologist. Reports were made on the zoology and botany of the State, but the most interesting and detailed reports treated of the geological resources.

A hydrographic survey of the State was authorized by the Legislature as early as 1867. The resulting report of Mr Walter Wells is considered as authority even to the present day.

_Present Organizations_

At the present time there are two organizations in this State working along geological, topographic, and hydrographic lines. They are known as the Maine State Survey Commission, and the Maine State Water-Storage Commission. The first organization was authorized by Act of the State Legislature March 16, 1899. Its powers were subsequently amended and enlarged by an Act approved March 23, 1905. It is authorized to cooperate with the U. S. Geological Survey, and its work includes the topographic and geological surveys of the State.

The creation of the State Water-Storage Commission was authorized by Act of the Legislature April 2, 1909. His Excellency, Governor Fernald, at the Conference of Governors in May, 1908, was so impressed with the importance of the objects and recommendations there brought forth that, at the next meeting of the State Legislature, he advocated and finally approved the Act creating said Commission. This Commission is directed to collect information relating to the water-powers of the State, the flow of rivers and their drainage area, the location, nature, and size of the lakes and ponds in the State, and their respective value and capacity as storage reservoirs, with a view to conserving and increasing the capacity of the water-powers of the State. The Act further provides that every person, firm, or corporation before commencing the erection of a dam for the purpose of developing any water-power in the State, or the creation or improvement of a storage reservoir, shall file with the Commission certain prescribed engineering plans.

The first report of the Commission to the Legislature is asked to show, in so far as time will allow, a comprehensive and practical plan for the creation of such water-storage reservoirs as will tend to develop and conserve the water-powers of the State, and to report the necessary steps that should be taken by the State to further conserve and increase them. The Commission is further requested to ascertain what lands can be purchased by the State and the cost thereof, with information as to their value as forest reserves or for conserving the water-powers of the State, or for reforestation; and further to investigate the question of denuded, burnt-over, or barren lands in the State, and their extent and value, with a view to their purchase by the State for reforestation.

By an agreement dated December 1, 1909, between the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey, the Chairman of the State Survey Commission and the Chairman of the State Water-Storage Commission, the work of the three organizations in the State is brought under one direction. This agreement provides for a cooperative survey of the natural resources of the State; that said survey shall include the continuation of topographic mapping, a determination of the amount and availability of water resources, their present development and the best methods of their future utilization; also the further determination of geologic resources. The executive officer, under the terms of this agreement, is a duly appointed employee of the U. S. Geological Survey, with the title of District Engineer.

_State Highway Department_

This department was authorized by legislative Act of 1907. The appropriation for the work is based on a tax of 1/3 mill on the State valuation. Provision is made in the law whereby the State will aid financially, on a sliding scale, the various towns if they raise money for highway construction purposes. On the average it may be said that for every dollar appropriated by a town, the State will pay an additional dollar. The law further provides for a limitation of the amount that the towns may raise for this purpose, based on the valuation of said town. The sliding scale of appropriation by the State is as follows: to towns having a valuation of $200,000 or less, the State will pay two dollars for each dollar appropriated by said towns; to each town having a valuation of over $200,000 and less than $1,000,000, one dollar for each dollar appropriated by said town; to towns having a valuation of over $1,000,000 and less than $1,200,000, ninety-two cents; to towns having a valuation of over $1,200,000 and not exceeding $1,400,000, eighty-five cents; to towns having a valuation of over $1,400,000 and not exceeding $1,600,000, eighty cents; to towns having a valuation of $1,600,000 and over, seventy-five cents for each dollar appropriated by the town; and to unincorporated townships, one dollar for each dollar appropriated.

_State Forestry Department_

This department was created by legislative Act of 1891 through the appointment of the State Land Agent as Forest Commissioner. This Commissioner is directed to institute an inquiry and to report as to the extent to which the forests of the State are being destroyed by fires and by wasteful cuttings, and the effect of such action on the watersheds of the lakes and rivers and on the water-powers of the State. His principal duties, however, are the supervision and control of measures for the prevention and extinguishment of forest fires in all plantations and unorganized townships in the State. An efficient fire-fighting organization is now in operation in the State under this department, and during recent years valuable tracts of timber have been saved that would otherwise have been destroyed.

_Other Organizations_

There are other departments and organizations that are doing very valuable work in the preservation of the natural resources of the State of Maine. Many pages could be written on their results but at present a number of them will only be mentioned by name. Included in this list are the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Game, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics, State Board of Health, and Department of Harbor and Tidal Waters.

REPORT FROM MASSACHUSETTS

FRANK WILLIAM RANE

_State Forester_

HENRY H. SPRAGUE

_Chairman Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board_

While we do not have an authorized Conservation Commission in Massachusetts, we nevertheless have many wide-awake and active State officials and commissions in charge of work which in the total answers the same purpose to the Commonwealth.

Massachusetts is noted for her excellent roads, and she is constantly enlarging the mileage. The Fish and Game Commission is perfecting our laws and encouraging modern protection and management of both fish and game. The propagation and dissemination of each is a large part of their work.

General agriculture is undoubtedly improving and various rural industries such as apple raising, cranberry growing, asparagus culture, and various specialties are receiving renewed attention. The State Agricultural College is growing in influence and value to the State.

The increasing population of the State has made it necessary to set apart and protect many of the ponds and streams throughout the Commonwealth for the purpose of water supply. During the past fifteen years the Commonwealth has expended more than $41,000,000 for the acquisition and construction of Metropolitan works in order to provide the city of Boston and surrounding municipalities with water. One of the storage reservoirs constructed for the "Metropolitan District" is the largest reservoir in the world built up to the present time for the purpose of providing domestic water supply. Large sums have been spent not only for the direct protection of the reservoirs from pollution, but also in acquiring and improving large marginal areas of woodland, and in the planting with trees of many hundreds of acres of cleared lands which have been acquired. Cities and towns outside of the Metropolitan District have made and are making like provisions for obtaining and preserving their water supplies.

Under recent legislation the gradual metering of all water services in the Metropolitan District is required, and more vigorous inspection has been introduced; so that in the past year or two a material reduction in the total consumption has been effected notwithstanding the increasing number of water takers.

In the building of the great Wachusett reservoir for the Metropolitan Water-works provision has been made for the utilization of the power which may be generated by the fall of the water over the dam to the level of the aqueduct through which the water is conveyed into the Metropolitan District. Machinery for a power plant is about to be installed in the power house already erected, by which it is estimated that from 2500 to 3000 horsepower may be generated and disposed of, not only at a profit to the District, but also to the advantage of the local industries.

While the State has permitted the taking, for the benefit of the municipalities, of the necessary sources of water supply by the exercise of the power of eminent domain, it has adopted the policy of compelling the husbanding of the waters by the prevention of unnecessary and wasteful consumption, and of utilizing the power generated by water works for the benefit alike of the works of the mechanical industries of the Commonwealth.

For conserving forest, park, and shade trees, Massachusetts has undertaken the great task of suppressing the ravages of the gypsy and browntail moths. This work has now extended over a period of years, and eminent entomologists concede that nothing equal to this undertaking has ever before been attempted. As many as 2700 men at one time have been employed by the State in this work. Massachusetts has spent millions of dollars in the work, and it is not only a protection to our own people but equally prevents the dissemination of these pests to other States. Parasites have been collected and introduced from foreign countries, and everything possible undertaken to assist in the work. Our improved high-power spraying machines with new and improved devices for destroying these insects will undoubtedly prove of great value in future spraying undertakings throughout the Nation.

The forestry work meets with continued whole-hearted support at the hands of our people. The work of reforestation is becoming more popular each year, and great good is bound to result therefrom. Our forest fire laws are proving to be workable and hence practical. The poorer towns are receiving State aid in the purchase of fire-fighting equipment, and the wealthier towns are equipping themselves. The past year, as heretofore, the Legislature has been inclined to assist the State Forester in his various endeavors.

REPORT FROM MISSOURI

HERMANN VON SCHRENK

_Chairman Missouri State Forest Commission_

The Forest Commission of the State of Missouri was appointed a year ago for the purpose of making recommendations to the Governor concerning a future forestry policy for the State.

The Commission, after a thorough study of the conditions prevailing in the State, prepared a report to the Governor, the principal feature of which was the recommendation that a State Forest Board be established with a State Forester. In submitting its report to the Governor, the Commission suggested a bill, modeled after what appeared to be the best laws already in force in other States. The Commission called particular attention to the necessity for establishing fire guards and doing educational work among the people of the State. The report and the bill were sent to the Legislature by the Governor with a strong recommendation that the bill be passed. Owing to the enormous amount of other business on hand and the lateness in the year, the Legislature did not have time to fully consider the bill, and it will come up again at the next session.

The Commission has investigated the forest resources of the State in a general way, and feels that there is a large field for the work of perpetuating forests, especially in some parts of the State where the land is more or less unfit for agricultural purposes. The Commission has furthermore planned the organization of a State Conservation Association, this to be organized sometime this fall along lines similar to those of Associations already existing in many States.

While the Conservation work of this State is as yet in its infancy, the general interest awakened is very large, and the Commission anticipates large practical results during the coming year.

REPORT FROM MONTANA

RUDOLPH VON TOBEL

_Chairman Montana State Conservation Commission_

Probably none of the Governors of States who attended the Conference of Governors called by President Roosevelt in May, 1908, returned to their constituents more thoroughly imbued with the principles of Conservation, or more fully determined to put those principles into practice in this State, than Governor Norris, of Montana. Almost immediately, acting on the suggestion of Governor Folk at the Conference, he appointed a Forestry Commission, consisting of Judge Lew A. Callaway, of Virginia City, Ex-Governor Robert B. Smith, of Kalispell, and Ex-Senator Paris Gibson, of Great Falls.

It soon became apparent to Governor Norris, in view of the most unsatisfactory condition of the land laws of the State, that there was work along the lines of Conservation of a broader scope than was comprehended in the plans laid down for the Forestry Commission, and he appointed what was known as the State Lands Commission, which was expected to draft a bill covering all State lands, except timber lands, to present to the Legislature. This Commission consisted of Honorable David Hilger, of Lewistown, Ex-Governor B. F. White, of Dillon, and Honorable Charles S. Hartman, of Bozeman. Subsequently, Mr E. M. Brandagee, of Helena, was appointed to fill the vacancy on the Forestry Commission caused by the death of Ex-Governor Smith, and Mr Rudolf von Tobel, of Lewistown, was appointed on the Land Commission to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr Hartman.

After several meetings had been held by each of these Commissions, it was found impracticable to separate the work of the two without duplicating much of it and causing some conflict; so the two were consolidated, and thereafter worked together in the preparation of a bill covering the entire land holdings of the State to present to the Legislature. Such a bill was prepared, submitted, and passed by the Legislature, and approved by the Governor, March 19, 1909, and is now the law of the State.

This Act places all State lands under the control of the State Board of Land Commissioners, consisting of the Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Superintendent of Public Instruction. It provides for the appointment of a Register of the State Land Office, a State Land Agent, a State Forester, and other minor officials. The duties of the Register are to attend to the sale of lands, and he is the chief of the office. The State Land Agent's duties are, generally, to examine all lands in the field; and the State Forester has general charge of the timber lands of the State.

The Act further provides that no timber land shall ever be sold, except only such as, after being cleared, would be more valuable as agricultural land, than it would be for the growing of timber; and that only the merchantable timber in the forests of the State shall be sold from time to time. It also provides for the reforestation of the lands as occasion may require. The State Forester is made the general Fire Warden of the State, and the Deputy Forester, all peace officers, and the Game Wardens, are made Deputy Fire Wardens, charged with the duty of protecting the forests of the State, all being liable to forfeiture of office for neglect.

The Act provides for prohibiting the sale of lands known to be coal lands, and provides that mines may be opened in the coal lands of the State and worked on the royalty basis, the minimum royalty being fixed at ten cents per ton; it provides that every patent issued for State lands shall reserve to the State the coal, oil, gas, and other minerals contained therein, with the right to enter upon the land and extract the same: thus reserving to the State all coal and other minerals in State lands, whether the same are known at the present time to exist or not. It also provides for the location of water-rights by the State for irrigation of State lands and provides for the location of mining claims on State lands in practically the same manner as it provided for the location of such claims under the Federal Statutes.

This, in brief, is an outline of the work accomplished by the Commission.

Owing to the facts that the timber lands of the State are not in one compact body and that large tracts of timber land lying adjacent to the State forests are owned by private parties and corporations, the experiences of the past summer in fighting forest fires, has demonstrated that all owners are not equally interested in preventing the destruction of the timber upon their lands; at any rate that they are not equally willing to pay the expense of preserving it. It was found that while some few corporations, owning large tracts of timber land, furnished their quota of men and money to protect their interests, by far the larger number either declined or neglected to furnish either, throwing upon the State the burden of protecting the timber of private owners in order to protect State property; and it is the intention of the Commission to recommend and urge upon the Legislature the passage of an Act requiring private owners of timber land to protect their forests, and in case of their failure or neglect to do so, authorizing the State to do so and to charge the expense thereof to the land.

Inasmuch as the State has a large quantity of timber land within the National forests which is unsurveyed, and which if surveyed would be school sections, but which the Secretary of the Interior has decided belongs to the National Government until surveyed, the State derives no benefit whatever from the land and will not derive any until the same has been officially surveyed. The Commission proposes to recommend the passage of an Act ceding to the Federal Government all of the lands within the National Forests which would be school section, upon Congress granting to the State a like area of equally good timber land, in one or more compact bodies so located that the State can obtain some benefit therefrom. This method of handling the matter, I understand, was favorably considered by Mr Pinchot while in office, and also by President Taft.

The Commission also has in mind the preparation of a bill looking to the conservation of the waters of the State. While Montana has many valuable water-powers, most of which are still undeveloped, the principal use of water in the State is, and always must be, for the irrigation of the land; nevertheless, much of the water of the State is available for power purposes which could not be made available for irrigation. Under a long line of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, beginning with the case of Martin vs. Waddell (16 Peters, 367) decided by Chief Justice Taney in 1842, down to the case of Kansas vs. Colorado (206, U. S.), the beds of all navigable streams below high-water mark, together with the waters flowing over them, belong absolutely to the State, subject only to the right of Congress to regulate commerce, and are subject to State control. On the other hand, the land bordering upon such streams all belonged to the general Government originally, and in many places available for power sites the lands bordering on the streams still belong to the General Government. In order to develop these power sites the work must be undertaken by both State and Nation, or by their joint consent; and it is hoped that some legislation may be secured in the State and in Congress regulating this joint control. Much has been said and written in regard to the compensation due the Government, either State or Nation, from the owners of developed power sites such as we have in Montana; but the Montana Commission is more interested in the power to regulate rates than in the power to exact compensation for the use of the waters, for the reason that all compensation paid to the Government must eventually come from the consumer, and in any event would be comparatively small, while the regulation of rates to the consumer is the only power necessary to complete control and the prevention of monopoly--although it is believed that some compensation should be exacted. Such legislation would eventually conserve the undeveloped water-powers of the State, but other questions arise as to those sites which have already been developed.

There are four dams across the Missouri river in Montana, either completed or in process of construction, each of which utilizes, or is intended to utilize, the entire flow of the river. All of these powers were developed under special Acts of Congress passed after Montana became a State; but in no case was the consent of the State obtained, or even sought. The Commission has not yet decided whether it will attempt to bring these developed powers under State control or not, and of course has not devised any method of doing so (in case it should be deemed advisable to attempt it), although individual members of the Commission--including the writer--have expressed themselves as decidedly of the opinion that the owners of these developed powers, not having obtained any consent from the State for the construction of their dams or for the use of the water, may be brought under State control. The Montana Commission looks upon this water conservation as its main work for the immediate future.

On the whole, the Commission feels that it has already accomplished considerable in the way of practical Conservation, but that there is much more to be done, some of which it hopes to be able to accomplish at the coming session of the Legislature during the first of the coming year.

REPORT FROM NEW MEXICO

COLONEL W. A. FLEMING JONES

I come from a Territory that for sixty years has been knocking at the doors of Congress, seeking admission to the sisterhood of States. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that our Territory should be admitted to Statehood "at the proper time" (which was to be judged by the Congress of the United States), and to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of the Constitution. The implied requisites for admission are population, taxable wealth, and the desire of Statehood. All of these we have in abundance, including a population that exceeds by far that of any of the States at the time of their admission, with the single exception of Oklahoma, and something that is by no means generally known is the fact that our Territory has fewer foreign-born citizens per thousand than any State in the Union. However, the present Congress has enacted legislation under which we may be admitted, and our Constitutional Convention is now in session, framing a fundamental law that I am sure will meet with the approval of Congress and the President. But for the fact that the best brains of our Commonwealth are engaged in the work of framing this Constitution, a much larger representation would have been present here.

New Mexico is proud of what she has done in the cause of Conservation. The Act of the Thirty-eighth Legislative Assembly creating our Conservation Commission is broad in its scope and is a model for those States which have not enacted any such legislation.

I hope to attend the Third National Conservation Congress, not from a Territory whose people are wards of the Government and not considered capable of the management of their own affairs, but as the representative of the Great State of New Mexico, the forty-seventh star in our flag.

REPORT FROM NEW YORK

J. S. WHIPPLE

_Chairman State Forest, Fish and Game Commission_

New York may well be called the Empire State because of its great population, its railways, canals, navigable rivers, agricultural development, and diversified industries. It also has within its boundaries vast forests that give it an important place among the States of the Union in regard to woodland products, fish, and game.

No statement regarding the Conservation question in New York would be complete without first referring to a few of its assets and their stupendous value. Those to which I refer will readily indicate the importance of New York as a field for the protection, development, and use of natural resources.

The State has an area of 50,203 square miles, or 32,129,920 acres. Of this great territory 27 percent is occupied by forests, a proportion nearly the same as that of the forest area of Germany. There is standing in New York about 41,500,000,000 board feet of timber; the output of our forests last year was 1,064,000,000 board feet. There are 2,308 saw-mills. The value of our forest product in 1907 at the mill was $24,000,000. In the manufacture of wood pulp New York leads all other States. Last year 245,000,000 board feet of domestic logs were used for pulp, and that was only about 20 percent of the total amount used. New York also leads in the number of paper-mills. It has approximately 170 establishments for the manufacture of paper. The paper and wood-pulp industry is represented by a capital investment of about $57,000,000.

New York's vast wilderness contains much large game. Over 6,000 deer and 100 bear are killed each hunting season. The annual commercial value of fur and game animals and game birds approximates $750,000. We rank third as a fish-producing State; the products of all species, including shell-fish, amounts to about $40,000,000 annually, the annual shell-fish product being valued at about $12,000,000.

The Adirondack Park contains 3,313,564 acres, the Catskill Park 576,120 acres, and 1,641,526 acres of land are owned by the State, of which one-third is virgin forest or that which is now equally good. Twelve large rivers wholly within the State have their source in the Adirondacks. The course of each is marked at frequent intervals by falls or rapids, and they, with others outside of the Adirondacks (excluding the Niagara and Saint Lawrence), have a natural horsepower already developed of 630,000; they are capable of furnishing at least 1,500,000 horsepower. This estimate would indicate that there is still 880,000 horsepower running into the sea wasted. It has been estimated that New York State would derive a revenue of over $15,000,000 annually from its fully developed water-power if controlled and sold by the State. Besides the Adirondack rivers there are the Delaware, Susquehanna, Chemung, Alleghany, Esopus, Genesee, and many other rivers of great value.

New York has over 500 miles of canals, or about 25 percent of the total canal mileage of the United States, over which there are transported annually some 3,500,000 tons of freight. Mineral production is considerable. The mining of iron ore is a well developed industry. One of the largest known iron ore deposits in the world is located in the Adirondack wilderness. Gas, oil, garnet, graphite and many other mineral products are marketed annually to an amount over $5,000,000.

Only three other States yield a greater total value of agricultural products. New York ranks first in average value of production per acre. One-ninth of the hay and forage of this country are raised in New York, and the animal industries are of enormous value. Our hay-producing acres are worth $93,000,000. New York has 226,720 farms with an aggregate area of 9,522,000 acres, valued at $1,070,000,000, furnishing employment for 373,650 persons. The annual product of these farms is worth $345,000,000. New York has 30 acres of tree nurseries capable of producing 12,000,000 trees annually, and will double that acreage during the next year. We have taken the lead in the establishment of tree nurseries, in planting, and general work of tree propagation.

_Work Accomplished_

These are some of the factors which make Conservation of natural resources in New York State very important. The work is being carried on by various State Departments rather than by any single commission. Governor Charles E. Hughes, and the Departments under him, gave great impetus to the work during his term as Governor. Besides $101,000,000 authorized for canal improvement and $55,000,000 for good roads, over $2,000,000 is expended each year by the State in Conservation work as represented by the activities of the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission, the Agricultural Department, and the State Water Supply Commission.

All sections of the State have been awakened, and active steps are being taken in every direction. New York was first to achieve an onward movement in the preservation of its natural resources when in 1885 it led the way in the establishment of State Forest Preserves, and inaugurated the policy of protecting her forests for the health and recreation of the people and the protection of water sources. The same leadership has been continued in control of water by statute creating the State Water Supply Commission in 1905 and vesting it with jurisdiction over the water supply of the State.

_Water_

Water is now recognized as one of the most valuable economic resources of the earth, and the importance of measures for public control to secure full benefit of hydraulic resources to the people is being realized very rapidly as the great educational propaganda now carried on in New York progresses. The powers of the Water Supply Commission extend to the progressive development of water-powers of the State for the public use under State ownership and control. It also has the power of improving, straightening, and dredging the channel of any water course of which the irregular flow is shown to be detrimental to public health and safety. Four great reservoir projects have been located and surveyed; many other propositions have been tentatively examined, so that all water storage possibilities of the State are approximately known.

I want to say just a word about the granting of franchises, especially in respect to water-power rights in perpetuity. We have become so accustomed to the idea of a non-controllable ownership of our natural resources that even our agents in the Legislature have seemed at times not to fully appreciate the importance of State control and the rights of the people at large. No agent of the people has any moral right, nor have the people themselves, to bind by water rights in perpetuity future generations who will have their own problems to solve and their own lives to live. It is therefore of first importance to understand our relationship as trustees toward these public resources. Are they ours to do with as we please, to use or waste as we see fit, or are they ours to use to the best advantage and with the least waste; and is it our duty to pass them on unimpaired, improved if possible, for those who are to follow us? It is self-evident that this world was not made for us alone. After us countless millions will come and go. Could it have been intended that during our temporary occupancy we should have such a complete control of God's gifts to Man that we, by our own act or legislative will, could determine for all time how these blessings might be used or enjoyed? We may give them away, we may deprive the people of their rights in them; but when on the one hand a road leads to safety and on the other a way to danger, there should be no hesitation about which we should take. New York has improved on its old policies, which can best be illustrated by an extract from an address by Governor Hughes:

"Water-power privileges have been granted in the past without any provision for a payment to the State in return for what the State gives. These grants have frequently been made without proper reservations or conditions and without anything constituting a suitable consideration. They have amounted simply to donations of public rights for private benefit. It does not fetter individual enterprise to insist upon protection of the common interest and due payment for what is obtained from the public. Last year on the grant of a franchise to a development company which was to develop power from Saint Lawrence river it was insisted that provision should be made for compensation for the privilege upon a sliding scale according to the power developed. And thus it was established that hereafter in the State of New York public privileges, on terms of justice to the investors and the public alike, must be paid for."

_Proposed Legislation_

Last year a measure prepared for the purpose of relieving the tax burden on reforested land was presented to the Legislature, but it failed of passage. This effort will be renewed until the much desired result is obtained. Timber should be treated as a crop and taxed when cut. Timber owners and tree planters should be encouraged to conserve and plant by making the carrying charges less, that better management may be had and more planting done.

The leasing of camp-sites on State land, the building of good roads through the Forest Preserve, and the removal of dead and down timber were all submitted in the shape of constitutional amendments, but the Legislature also failed to sanction these propositions. The public mind is not yet ready for complete and comprehensive Conservation in New York, to have which requires a change in our Constitution. The need is urgent, but, I regret to say, not fully appreciated.

_Agriculture_

The Agricultural Department is performing a splendid work in soil Conservation. It assists in the preservation and protection of trees and in planting work, as well as the fostering of farm crops and the husbandry of meat products. The College of Agriculture is devoted to the cultivation of intelligent and scientific methods in all branches of crop production. Fertilization of the soil, destruction of injurious agents, and new methods of intensive farming, are all taken up in the various branches of the Department. In the State College of Agriculture there were enrolled last winter nearly 1000 students. We have two experiment stations with over fifty scientific men on their staffs. We have three lower-grade agricultural schools, and the State is conducting farmers' institutes, which have held more than a thousand sessions in the past season.

_Forests_

All the foregoing endeavors are closely related to the continued life of our forests, and in many respects are dependent on them. A producing soil we must always have, or life of all kinds will become extinct. Without a fairly regular supply of water a producing soil is impossible; producing farm land is impossible. Hence if our water sources do not perform their natural functions, we cannot get along very well. The absence of forests in a mountainous State like New York will prevent a regular flowing water supply, necessary to the demands of good soil productivity; therefore, forests very largely hold the key to the whole Conservation situation as it bears on the life, health, and general welfare of the people of New York State. The question of timber supply, water-power, health resorts, and atmospherical conditions, as affected by the forests, are matters of secondary consideration in view of the indirect but vital influence forests have on our soil production. Neither soil nor water can be totally destroyed. They may become impaired and unavailable on account of irregularity in rainfall, but to some degree they will always perform their natural services for mankind. The forests, however, might suffer total obliteration as they have in many sections of the Orient and Occident. Wherever this calamity has occurred, we find soil and water have reached their minimum of usefulness. While we could not exist without water or soil, that does not mean that they are the most important subjects for Conservation in my State. The question of having to exist without them is entirely eliminated; they will always be there in some degree of efficiency or inefficiency. They will always be with us in their efficient state if we exercise reasonable care in the use of our forests. On the other hand, it is within the scope of possibility that our forests might be destroyed to all practicable purposes, and history points out that soil and water supply would then be of slight utility in a mountainous country. The forest is the controlling resource, like the governor of an engine without which the engine would destroy itself. Hence forests in New York State by their influence upon soil and water flow occupy the position of first importance among our natural resources to be conserved.

The waste of our forests has been appalling, both by lumbering and conflagration. The great "burns" found through all our mountains furnish striking evidence of gross carelessness and indifference to the value of this great resource. It is time that these acts of colossal folly were stopped. Supreme selfishness on the one hand and deadly indifference on the other are at the root of it all. Some people do not understand the great danger of total forest destruction threatening certain of our watersheds. It takes 50 to 100 years to grow a mature tree. The average soil may increase about one inch in a century. It requires soil to grow trees, and fire, the great enemy of the forest, destroys not only the trees but the soil as well. On two or three occasions in the past seven years the Adirondack Park has come dangerously near being wiped out by fire. Rain alone has saved it. In 1903 and again in 1908 several large fires burning at the same time threatened to unite and destroy the entire park. No human agency can combat successfully a great forest conflagration when once it is under way. In 1908, 177,000 acres of land was burned over in New York State; the loss approximated $644,000. In 1903, 500,500 acres were burned, and the loss was more than $1,000,000. Loss of soil and reproduction was not considered in the estimated loss and never is.

It is logically evident from the history of forest fires that prevention is the right objective in seeking to remedy this great evil. Methods of protection after fire starts will fail when certain commonly occurring weather conditions prevail. In New York we have devised an effective forest fire-fighting organization, based on the principles of prevention. The Adirondack and Catskill sections have been divided into four districts, three in the Adirondacks and one in the Catskills. A superintendent was appointed to take charge of each district. Under him there were assigned regular patrolmen and special patrolmen, and to a certain extent the superintendent cooperates with supervisors of towns. The aggregate number of men engaged in this work this year is 356. In addition to this the supervisors in every town in the State of New York are responsible personally for damages caused by forest fires in their respective towns, if they are negligent in putting them out.

I met the Boards of Supervisors of the various forest preserve counties and discussed with them ways and means of fighting fire, explaining the law and showing their responsibility. This action was followed by good results. The superintendents were in turn assembled at Albany, and properly instructed as to their duties and the relationships to be carried on between their subordinates and themselves. Twenty observation stations were erected on high points, and equipped with strong field glasses, range finders, maps, and telephones. The whole territory has been covered with telephone lines. These stations have proved an incalculable benefit in the apprehension of fires when they are in an incipient state. We have also added to the fire-fighting apparatus portable fire extinguishers. These are very useful in checking a fire at the beginning. Old trails and tote roads are kept clear of obstructions to make the woods more accessible. The whole system is chiefly valuable in that it is based on the fundamental principles of early discovery, immediate alarm, and prompt action. Over 250 fires were discovered and extinguished last year so quickly that they attracted no public notice, and the damage done was unappreciable.

Another step was taken by the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission when the question of oil-burning locomotives running through the Forest Preserve was called to the attention of the Public Service Commission. After an exhaustive investigation, oil as fuel was substituted for coal by order of the Public Service Board. This order required that the railroads should install oil-burning engines for use between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. from April 15 to November 1 each year, all engines to be inspected by representatives of the Commission. Coal-burning locomotives still run through the Forest Preserve at night which, on account of the heavy dew, it is thought in most seasons does not materially increase the fire risk; but it is doubtful whether in an extremely dry season coal-burning locomotives would not set fires at night as readily as they do during the day time. The partially restricted use of coal as fuel was the best change obtainable at the time the order was promulgated.

The third factor contributing to reduce fire danger was the provision of the new law requiring the lopping of tops of all coniferous trees felled in the forest preserve. The value of this provision is realized when it is understood that the tops of trees felled a decade ago, when not lopped, are still ready to burn, while the debris of lopped trees disappears entirely as a fire menace in the same period of time because they lie flat on the ground, absorb moisture and rapidly decay.

Scenic assets have a tangible value. Figures have been adduced showing that $200,000 was paid in fares to Niagara Falls to the New York Central Railroad in three months. The visitors to the Adirondacks leave nearly $8,000,000 behind them each season. These figures seem to suggest the culture of the esthetic, as that side of the problem is very remunerative. There ought to be as much attention paid to the acquirement and preservation of places of natural beauty, public usefulness, and historic interest, for the full enjoyment and use of all the people, as there is for the preservation of natural resources that have only a commercial value. To this end the people of the State of New York and New Jersey have established an interstate park, and by statutory enactment preserved for all time the picturesque and historical palisades of the Hudson, and many acres of woodland. To this end Mrs Harriman gave 10,000 acres of wild wooded land and $1,000,000 to the State last winter, to which the State of New York added by bond issue $2,000,000 for the enlargement of the interstate park. By statute also about 53 square miles of the historic Highlands of the Hudson south of West Point have been saved and set aside for park and forestry purposes. Watkins Glen, a beautiful part of Schuyler County near Seneca Lake, has been purchased by the State, and its scenic beauty preserved. A reservation has been established in the Thousand Islands of Saint Lawrence river and one at Niagara Falls preserving these beautiful places to the people for all time. Without such places pleasant to the eye and conducive to health, a numerous portion of the race thus deprived of opportunity for exercise, for recreation, and the quiet enjoyment of nature's great gifts of beauty that have existed for the full and untrammeled benefit of former generations, we must become a nation of human derelicts rather than a nation of healthy-bodied men and women. We must have these resources to keep up the physical standard of men and women, and more so in the future than in the present because conditions of living are changing rapidly in America. In 1800 only 3 percent of the people dwelt in the cities or large towns; in 1900 more than 33 percent lived amid urban conditions.

President Roosevelt never said a more striking thing than when he gave as the definition of civilization something to this effect: "The prime difference between a civilized and an uncivilized people is that civilized man looks beyond his own immediate needs, and even beyond those of his lifetime, and provides for generations yet unborn."

In considering the principles of Conservation, development comes first, using and improving the natural resources of our country for the benefit of the people. The second principle is the prevention of waste. Conservation comprehends the substitution as far as possible of materials for those that are exhaustible. Conservation reaches out into a wide field, and, as often said, it means the "greatest good to the greatest number for the longest time." Conservation advocates the use of foresight, prudence, thrift, and intelligence in dealing with public matters. It means the application of common sense to our public affairs. Conservation guarantees progress, efficiency, supremacy, perpetuity, the life of the Nation. There is no interest of the public to which the principles of Conservation do not apply.

SPECIAL REPORT FROM NEW YORK--WATER RESOURCES OF THE STATE

HENRY H. PERSONS

_President State Water Supply Commission_

The people of the State of New York have a deep natural interest in the important economic problems now brought so forcibly to the attention of the American people through the Conservation movement. That interest is properly manifested at this time because, in all probability, no other State in the Union is invested with conditions so favorable and opportunities so promising for the early accomplishment of material progress in the practical conservation of one of its most valuable natural resources. In New York State the surface water supply as a natural resource is second in value only to the land itself, which indeed owes its value largely to the existence of an abundant natural water supply. It must be conceded that the value of water for potable and domestic purposes cannot be estimated in dollars and cents, constituting as it does a necessity of life for which no substitute exists. Its money value is represented by whatever it costs to obtain the supply, be that much or little.

Aside from any such consideration as this, water is practically the only natural resource within the State of New York for the development of power, that great and fundamental requisite to the prosperity and comfort of a civilized community. The State does not have enough coal of its own to operate its existing iron mines, to say nothing of mining the whole of the valuable deposit, estimated at 300,000,000 tons. This condition is compensated for in a large measure if not altogether by the fact that, in addition to the existence of an abundance of water, the profiles of the streams and the general topography of a large portion of the State are naturally favorable for the establishment of hydraulic power developments and the construction of storage reservoirs for the regulation of the flow of the streams.

The State has taken a notable step forward by assuming certain regulative powers over the disposition of these resources, and by the institution of a systematic inventory of them to determine the extent not only of the supply but of existing developments and present uses, and the possibilities for additional uses and new developments. It has also made extensive studies to determine the possibilities for water storage, the necessary complement to extensive power developments within the State.

_Development of Water Conservation as a State Policy_

A brief statement of the most important historical facts leading up to and determining the present status of water conservation within the State seems pertinent, and will doubtless be of assistance in furnishing a clear prospectus of the controlling conditions and the complicated problems involved in the formulation of a comprehensive and practicable plan for the regulation of these waters.

In 1902 a special Act of the Legislature created the Water Storage Commission. That Commission was directed to make surveys and investigations to determine the causes of the overflow of the various rivers and water courses of the State, and to determine what, if anything, could be done to prevent such overflow. The serious nature and wide extent of the floods occurring at more or less frequent intervals in a large number of streams throughout the State had long been a source of anxiety to the residents of the flooded districts owing to the injuries and dangers occasioned by the sudden overflow.

The failure to take proper measures of a corrective nature earlier was not due in any sense to a lack of interest, intelligence, or energy on the part of the citizens of the State. The interest was usually localized, owing to the fact that ordinarily the entire State does not suffer from floods at the same time, so that while small communities had made some attempts to secure relief there had been no State-wide movement or concerted action in that direction. Several obstacles usually rendered individual and local remedies comparatively difficult and ineffective. The complexity of the hydrographic problems usually involved in a study of flood conditions, together with the expense incident to a technical investigation to determine the causes and means of relief, constitute one of these obstacles. Small municipalities cannot usually see their way clear to employ a hydraulic engineer to investigate such problems, and conclusions arrived at, or remedies applied without such a study are likely to result in an unsatisfactory manner. Furthermore, the proper remedies, when ascertained, usually require for their execution the acquisition of land and water rights which individuals or minor municipalities have no power to condemn. Another obstacle arises from the fact that the distribution of the burden of expense for any particular improvement can scarcely be made equitably, or the payment of the amount enforced by any means other than the power of assessment.

These were the conditions which led up to the demand for a State investigation and the creation of the State Water Storage Commission. That Commission, after about a year's investigation and research with a remarkably small appropriation at their disposal, submitted to the Legislature an extremely valuable and comprehensive report on the flood conditions of the principal streams of the State. The report pointed out that storage reservoirs constituted the only practicable solution of the problem in the majority of instances, and recommended the construction of several such reservoirs at points where conditions were known to be favorable. Having submitted its report, the Water Storage Commission automatically ceased to exist.

The next step in the development of the water-storage movement was the creation of the River Improvement Commission by act of the Legislature in 1904. The creation of that Commission was the only practical outcome of the valuable report on the causes and remedies of floods in New York rivers made by the Water Storage Commission in 1903. The River Improvement Commission was invested with power to make preliminary investigations, plans, and surveys for the regulation of the course of any stream, of which the restricted or unrestricted or irregular flow should be shown by petition of local residents to be a menace to the public health and safety of the community. If the improvement appeared to be of sufficient importance and the Legislature approved, the Commission was then authorized to carry out the project and to assess the cost of the same according to the benefits received by the various individuals and the properties benefited. To provide for carrying on the work pending the collection of such assessments, authority was given the Commission by the act to issue certificates of indebtedness, or to sell bonds, to be retired on the collection of the cost from the beneficiaries. That Commission was composed principally of State officers as ex-officio members, and while its work was excellent its progress was unavoidably slow.

While the River Improvement Commission was still in existence, the State Water Supply Commission was created in 1905; the primary object of its creation being to insure an equitable apportionment of the sources for public water supplies among the various municipalities and civil divisions of the State. The Legislature apparently had a very clear conception of the need for such a State agency and hence created the Water Supply Commission with those specific powers. It soon became apparent that this Commission was in better position than the River Improvement Commission to study flood conditions, involved as they were with the general subject of water supply; so that by Act of the Legislature in 1906 the River Improvement Commission was discontinued as a separate board, and all its powers and duties were transferred to the State Water Supply Commission.

The jurisdiction of the Water Supply Commission was thus considerably broadened to include the study of water storage on a large scale. Its powers and duties were subsequently extended to an investigation of water-powers within the State, and the preparation of a plan for their general development. The Commission is therefore engaged in three distinct but closely related lines of work: (1) the apportionment of municipal water supplies; (2) the improvement of rivers in the interest of public health and safety; and (3) the formulation of a plan for the general development of the water-power resources of the State.

_Municipal Water Supplies_

In practically working out a comprehensive plan for water conservation, the State has rightly begun with the matter of public water supplies. Previous to the establishment of the Water Supply Commission, the laws of the State permitted any city, village, or other municipal corporation to acquire or condemn lands for sources of water supply practically at will, and without regard to whether its plans were just and equitable to other municipalities and their inhabitants that might be affected thereby. Thus, a large city armed with the power of eminent domain might take territory from a smaller community regardless of the present or prospective needs of the latter for the water sources thus appropriated. In fact, the people of the community invaded did not always have the foresight to realize that they would sooner or later require those sources for themselves. It can readily be seen that such a course might involve a serious menace to the future growth of the smaller community. Fear of such procedure led to the passage of special prohibitory laws for many localities, particularly those adjoining New York City, against what was feared might be the ruthless exercise of the great power of the larger community. The effect of such legislation, involving as it did so much hostility between the different localities of the State, proved that the then current practice afforded but a partial, inadequate, and unfair method of administering the distribution of sources of water supply.

Provision for a pure and adequate supply of water for domestic purposes for all its inhabitants is one of the first duties of the sovereign State. Through its important effect upon public health alone, the general use of pure water is a matter of the gravest importance to every man, woman, and child regardless of local divisions of government or grouping of citizens. It was with a realization of these principles that the Legislature of 1905 wisely determined to delegate the power of control over the selection of sources of public water supply to a permanent commission which, by the aid of constant and special consideration of this subject, should become expert in controlling such selection so as to insure equity, among all the inhabitants and civil divisions of the State, and the resulting unimpeded prosperity, growth and comfort of each and every community. The law, therefore, provides that no municipality, or person, or water-works corporation engaged in supplying the inhabitants of any municipal corporation with water shall have power to acquire lands for any new or additional sources of water supply until its plans have been submitted to, and approved by, the Water Supply Commission.

In passing upon plans thus submitted to it, the Commission is empowered to determine: (1) whether the proposed plans are justified by the public necessities of the community; (2) whether the plans are just and equitable to other communities, special consideration being given to future as well as present needs for water supplies; and (3) whether the plans make fair and equitable provision for the determination and payment of any and all damages, both direct and indirect, which will result from their execution.

Under the operation of this law, which appears to have set a precedent among the States of the Union in the general State administration of water-supply resources, there has resulted a smoothly adjusted progress in the development of public water supplies, without further need of appeal to the Legislature for the drastic prohibitory special legislation formerly so much sought after.

It is thus well established in the public law of New York State that the control of sources of water supply is a State function, and that all persons or municipalities must apply to the central State Government and receive permission to take what may be determined to be a just share from the State's total supply of this indispensable resource. It must, therefore, be evident that the State should aim toward an ideal of administration of its water resources which would secure fully and impartially the rights of each and every one of its inhabitants and all of their local groupings to a just and equitable share of the public waters. This problem becomes especially complicated under our modern conditions of civilization which in promoting the growth of enormous cities, call for engineering works of the greatest scope and magnitude for the purpose of providing the requisite quantity of pure and wholesome water.

One of the most recent and familiar illustrations of this fact is the present vast undertaking of New York City, which at a cost of about $161,000,000, is going 90 miles to the Catskill Mountains to secure a water supply which its engineers estimate will be sufficient for its needs for only a comparatively few years. In this great project, as well as in the case of many others not so great, there is involved a large element of hardship and damage to the locality invaded, in the necessary taking of private property for the larger public water supply by constructing immense storage reservoirs which permanently occupy the lands thus acquired, and furnish no considerable means of support and prosperity to the region--as is the case when land is acquired for railroad purposes.

This project of New York City constituted the first important case to come before the Water Supply Commission for its official approval. After extended and careful consideration of all the manifold interests involved in this remarkable project, and after a protracted series of hearings, the suggestions of the Commission with regard to the protection of the rights of all the other municipalities and people affected were incorporated into law, and the project received the sanction of the Commission. Under the authority thus given New York City has entered upon its work of constructing the most pretentious municipal water-supply system in the United States.

Subsequent to the New York City petition, many other applications from villages and cities, large and small, have been passed upon. By the accumulation of special knowledge resulting from comparing the problems of different localities, the Commission has been able to bring to the aid of the smaller communities of the State a fund of experience and counsel which in not a few instances has proved of great benefit and assistance. The Commission aims to make its practice simple, expeditious, and inexpensive; and the technical points involved in each application are carefully passed upon by a competent engineer.

A complete census of all existing water supply plants and systems has been made and is revised from time to time, and the progress of each applicant whose plans are approved is carefully followed. Construction work involving expenditures of $230,000,000 has been passed upon by the Commission and undertaken by the municipalities of the State. This has entailed the official consideration by the Commission of 85 separate applications, in connection with each of which public hearings are conducted.

Numerous complaints have been filed with the Commission alleging unsatisfactory domestic or fire service both on the part of municipalities and water companies. The source of dissatisfaction seems to be the lack of foresight on the part of the municipal or water company officials, as a result of which they have obtained an inadequate supply or insufficient pressure. There are many instances of this condition in the State. There are also many consumers who object to excessive rates which they claim are imposed upon them by water companies. On the other hand, some of the companies themselves have attempted to secure legislation to provide that the State shall be the arbitrator in the adjustment of water rates. These conditions seem to point to the conclusion that in the comparatively near future the State will have to assume control over these matters. A certain degree of this sort of control is exercised in an indirect way at present in the case of applications which are before the Commission for consideration, but no jurisdiction lies with the Commission unless the acquisition of lands for a new or additional source of supply is involved.

_River Improvement for Health and Safety_

A number of river-improvement petitions presented to the River Improvement Commission and still pending at the time that Commission's powers were transferred to the Water Supply Commission involved the construction of storage reservoirs in the Adirondack forests. The River Improvement Commission had considered the constitutional questions involved in the utilization of State forest lands for storage reservoir purposes, and had reached the conclusion that the force of a clause in the Constitution prohibiting the removal of timber was paramount to all exercise of the police authority of the State to protect the public health and safety; and it had declined further to consider any petitions involving the utilization of State forest lands for reservoir purposes. The Water Supply Commission on the other hand has held that the statutes relating to river improvements in the interest of the public health and safety are not sufficiently comprehensive to afford a proper basis on which to advance systematic water conservation involving water-powers. The existing river improvement law has the health and safety element as its basis, whereas the carrying out of a comprehensive conservation policy would be of greatest financial value to the existing and new power developments, owing to the regulating effect of storage reservoirs on the flow of the streams. For this reason the Water Supply Commission has not urged the execution of river improvement projects involving water storage, under existing statutes, and has recommended to the Legislature that the advancement of such projects should await the determination of a definite State policy and the formulation of a thoroughly comprehensive plan by means of which the storage reservoirs shall constitute a source of income to the State, even after the bonds are retired. Several projected improvements therefore await the enactment of a more suitable statute.

Meantime, however, an important project calling for rather different treatment had arisen in the proposed improvement of the Canaseraga creek, the most important tributary of Genesee river. This project originated with the River Improvement Commission, and the Water Supply Commission inherited and actively carried on the consideration of the problems involved. For the last 22 miles of its course this creek flows through a broad, fertile valley. Owing to the steep declivities of the upper water-shed and the resulting suddenness and severity of floods in the valley, a large portion of these flat lands were submerged two or three times a year, and the channel had gradually become filled with silt which raised the prism to such a height that the stream itself and its banks were actually higher in places than the adjacent land. In times of flood the stream overflowed and the water would stand for several days at a time over the low areas, in a large measure destroying such crops as were in a growing condition and effectually deterring the farmers from cultivating the lands thoroughly and systematically. The project of improvement which, after due course of public hearings and consideration by the Water Supply Commission received the official approval of the Legislature, contemplates the straightening, widening, and deepening of the channel of the stream, so as to afford a much more capacious flood prism and to shorten the length of the stream through the flooded district by about six miles. At the same time lateral ditches are proposed to be constructed to carry off the overflowing waters from the lower adjacent lands in order to protect them permanently from any serious or protracted inundation.

This project did not involve the use of any State forest lands, nor did it affect any water-power developments. The fact was readily established that the proposed improvement was of great importance to the public health and safety of the community, and also of great importance, from a financial point of view, to the prosperity and general welfare of the community on account of the benefits that would accrue to agriculturists from the protection to be afforded by the proposed improvements against flood damages. The machinery involved in the working out of the project was put in operation and from time to time various obstacles were encountered which had to be surmounted by amending the law. Gradually the statute has been so moulded that it is now thought to be in practical working order, and the proposed Canaseraga creek improvement is actually provided for and financed; the bonds having been sold at a good premium. The actual work of the construction of the proposed improvement will probably be begun in the near future.

The practicability of the method having thus been established the Water Supply Commission believes that the State now has a method by which floods may be mitigated if there are no water-powers or State forest lands involved. On the other hand, the solution of the problem where these complications do exist, is much more difficult. In the cases of the Genesee, Hudson, and Raquette rivers, petitions for the improvement of which have been filed under the public health and safety statute, very little real relief can be afforded by straightening or enlarging the channels of the streams. Water storage appears to be the only practicable solution, and the water-powers which would be improved could afford to bear a larger share of the cost of improvement than those who would benefit from flood control.

_Water-Power and Water Storage_

The most recent extension of the jurisdiction of the Commission, under which it is investigating the water resources of the State, contemplates three principal lines of operation. These are: (1) To collect information relating to the water-powers of the State; (2) to make plans for such specific developments as the Commission deems available; and (3) to make such other investigations and studies as will enable it to devise a comprehensive and practicable plan for the general development of the water-powers of the State for the public use and benefit and the increase of the public revenue under State ownership and control. In accordance with this statute, the Commission has proceeded to investigate in great detail the conditions governing rainfall and run-off of streams within the State, and has maintained a number of observation and gaging stations in cooperation with the United States Weather Bureau and the United States Geological Survey. A detailed investigation was also made by competent engineering employees to determine the number, capacity, equipment, and other material information relating to practically every water-power in the State. A general investigation of topographic conditions has also been made and practically all promising storage opportunities have been located and their approximate possibilities determined. A number of great reservoir projects have been surveyed and mapped in great detail. In many instances borings have been made to determine the character of foundations for dams, and complete detail plans of the dams and other structures have been prepared. The financial phases of a number of these great projects have been gone into in detail, and an exhaustive study of the constitutional and other legal aspects of the problems involved has been made by the Commission, and the required comprehensive plan has been prepared.

In spite of the great natural advantages which New York State possesses in its interior streams with their enormous possibilities for power, developed and undeveloped, the fullest utilization of these possibilities can never be realized under existing conditions. Every river in the State exhibits such irregularity of flow that the water-power which may be economically developed from the present minimum flow is far below the average which can be attained by means of scientific regulation. The difference between maximum and minimum flow of most of our streams when stated in figures is startling to the layman. The Hudson, which is more or less typical of the streams of the State, has a maximum recorded daily discharge of 100 times its least daily flow. The Genesee, which is much more flashy, has a maximum daily discharge about 400 times the minimum daily flow. On the other hand the Oswego, which is naturally more or less regulated by storage in the "Finger Lakes," has a maximum discharge about 20 times the minimum. The yearly discharge of some of the rivers in a wet year is nearly double the yearly flow of a dry year. On a great many streams as much as three-fourths of the volume of yearly flow usually runs off in the spring and early summer months. These remarkable fluctuations of stream flow are principally attributed to the uneven distribution of precipitation through the year, which unfavorable conditions are undoubtedly aggravated by the varying conditions affecting evaporation, which is generally greatest in the months of least precipitation. Over a large portion of the State, the greater part of the annual precipitation occurs in the winter and spring months. Considerable water is temporarily stored in the snow banks, and is usually reduced to the equivalent of rain simultaneously with the customary heavy rainfall of the early spring months. It is quite common for millions of cubic feet of water to run over the falls and dams in the streams during these spring freshet periods which, if it could be stored until the drier summer and fall months, would be of wonderful utility in not only maintaining a higher rate of flow in those dry months, but also doing away largely with the damage and inconvenience incident to the sudden run-off of flood waters in their natural condition. These conditions point to the necessity for large water storage reservoirs as the only practical means of accomplishing any considerable degree of regulation.

The investigations of the Water Supply Commission have shown that there is an installation of water-wheels having a capacity of about 830,000 horsepower within New York State, of which amount about 200,000 horsepower is at Niagara Falls. The average daily output of the plants is about 620,000 horsepower, including 145,000 at Niagara Falls. There are in all more than 1,800 hydraulic power plants within the State, many of which are equipped with steam auxiliary power plants. The total capacity of these auxiliary plants is about 124,000 horsepower. The investigations have indicated a total development of about 1,500,000 horsepower to be economically feasible within the State. This would be uninterrupted continuous power, exclusive of Niagara river and the portion of Saint Lawrence river not under the jurisdiction of New York State. A considerable part of this amount is represented by that which would be added to the existing developments by the regulation of the flow of the streams. A number of individual opportunities exist for considerable new developments, some of the more important of which are a 30,000 horsepower on Genesee river at Portage Falls, a 30,000 horsepower on Sacandaga river at Conklingville, a 32,000 horsepower on Raquette river at Colton Falls, and many others ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 horsepower.

The investigations of the Commission have shown that the construction of large storage reservoirs for impounding flood waters may be beneficial in many ways. Probably not all of the possible advantages would result from the construction of any particular reservoir. The extent and variety of benefits may be summarized somewhat as follows:

(1) The equalization of stream-flow by storing the water during wet seasons and using the same to increase the volume of the stream through dry seasons;

(2) A consequent large increase in the power value of the stream, due to augmenting the low-water flow, and thus doubling or trebling the dependable flow for power purposes;

(3) A consequent decrease in the height of freshets, thereby reducing the great pecuniary damages caused by the periodic recurrence of floods;

(4) By increasing the low-water flow of polluted rivers a dilution would result which would improve the sanitary conditions on the stream;

(5) Navigation would be benefited by a higher stage of water on the lower reaches of the rivers;

(6) The extension of transportation facilities, often to an important and desirable extent, by navigation on the proposed reservoirs;

(7) The low lands of the river valleys could be made somewhat more tenable, and their agricultural products increased by reducing the contingency of floods;

(8) The perpetual submergence of extensive tracts of swamp lands, which are now unsightly and a menace to health, would be possible;

(9) The creation of extensive lakes with beautiful shores offering desirable locations for permanent homes and great attractions to summer visitors seeking recreation and health; and

(10) Inestimable indirect benefit to the State due to the stimulation of industrial enterprises, the increase in number and prosperity of the people, and the creation of taxable wealth by the progressive development of water-powers.

* * * * *

Among the more promising opportunities for the inauguration of a State policy in storage reservoir construction is that offered by Genesee river. The Commission's investigations have shown that it is practicable to build a reservoir with a dam near Portage, which would be about fifteen miles long and over a mile wide, with a total capacity of about 18,000,000,000 cubic feet at a cost of about $4,500,000. The regulation of the stream by this reservoir would not only practically do away with disastrous floods in the Genesee valley, but would add power worth at least $200,000 a year to the existing developments at Rochester, and develop at least 30,000 horsepower in connection with the dam; the value of water-power at Mount Morris would also be greatly enhanced, and the nuisance created by the present polluted condition of the river below Rochester would be abated. Other opportunities are offered on Sacandaga river and other tributaries to the Hudson, on Raquette river, and on Black river, where a system of several reservoirs is proposed. Many smaller projects are also under consideration. It is estimated that $20,000,000 would be sufficient to build the reservoirs whose construction is justified under present conditions.

_Problems Involved With Water Storage_

There are in general two acceptable methods of reducing or preventing floods. The storage of the water which constitutes the hood wave, or a considerable portion thereof, is doubtless preferable if there is a site for a reservoir of sufficient capacity and the construction is not too expensive. The other method consists of widening, deepening, and straightening the channel. In recent years, the public has been rather generally educated to believe that storage reservoirs constitute the universal and easily applied remedy. There are many rivers in New York State on which this method may be used effectively, but on many others the absence of basins of sufficient capacity or the excessive cost preclude the possibility of complete flood control in this manner.

The problem of absolute flood control is, however, more complex than the foregoing simple statement would imply. One complication arises from the fact that the damage from floods in New York State is often increased by the formation of ice gorges. The formation of these gorges cannot be prevented by an ordinary system of storage reservoirs, although the temporary holding back of the ice in a reservoir would in a few cases undoubtedly be of some assistance. It seems that the most effective method of dealing with this condition consists of keeping the ice broken up on the reaches of the stream where gorges are most likely to form, and thus provide a clear passage for ice brought down by floods. This method would probably work hardships or inconvenience to the ice harvesters on some of the rivers; but the protection afforded to property would doubtless more than offset the disadvantages. The State has entered upon a policy of protecting property in this manner along the Hudson below Albany.

Another condition by which floods are greatly aggravated is the obstruction of the channel by insufficient bridge openings and other structures. The cause may be ignorance as to volume of flood run-off, or in the struggle to realize a large ultimate income from a small present investment the possibility of occasional damages may be carelessly disregarded. This encroachment on the channels of streams should be a matter for official regulation, and deserves more public attention than has yet been given it in this country.

Perhaps the complication which involves the most difficult problems of construction and operation of flood-control works is that of combining adequate flood protection with equalizing of stream-flow for the development of power and other purposes. To materially ameliorate flood conditions on large rivers usually requires the provision of an enormous amount of storage; logically, the larger the proportion and the greater the capacity, up to a certain limit, the better the control. On many streams it is doubtless feasible to build systems of reservoirs which would entirely do away with destructive floods, provided the reservoirs be intelligently operated solely for flood control. It must be frankly admitted, however, that the ideal use of storage for flood control is not entirely consistent with the best use of the same storage for equalizing the flow throughout the year. For the purpose of ideal flood control, the reservoirs should be emptied of accumulated flood waters immediately after the flood has subsided and as rapidly as possible without swelling the stream to dangerous proportions, in order to have the storage available for another flood. On the other hand, for the purpose of equalizing the flow as completely as possible throughout the year, the reservoirs should only be drawn upon when necessary to supplement the natural flow in the stream in order to maintain the desired average flow. Theoretically, if the extremes both of the rate and volume of flow of the stream can be determined (which usually requires very long records of discharge), and if sufficient storage be provided for the absolute equalizing of the flow, the solution of both problems would go absolutely hand in hand, and flood control by storage would be synonymous with ideal equalization of stream flow. The most practical solution, where conditions will permit, seems to be to provide an excess of reservoir capacity so that the portion of the reservoir above a certain elevation may be reserved entirely for flood control while the portion below that elevation may be used for equalizing the flow of the stream. This plan has been proposed by the Commission in the case of the projected Portage reservoir on Genesee river.

Undoubtedly the greatest economic problem involved in a study of flood control is that of the adjustment of the relative rights of the residents of the upper and lower sections of the river valley. From the point of view of each the matter calls for different modes of treatment. The up-river resident believes the solution of the problem will be found in facilitating the passage of the flood by his district. This may result in discharging a great volume of water on the communities down-stream at a time when it would swell the crest of the flood in that section. The down-stream resident naturally has to contend with a much larger volume of water, so that to restrict it to a channel of moderate dimensions is out of the question, and he therefore prefers an arrangement whereby the surface waters from the upper stream may be at least temporarily stored in the basins containing the lands of his up-stream neighbor. The Water Supply Commission has held that the proper disposition is the improvement which will work the greatest good to the greatest number, provided there is a distinct economic advantage to the community in the river valley as a whole.

The matter of municipal water supply is likely to be involved in some of the great storage projects, also the water supply for the canals of the State. Several streams on which water storage is practicable are at present or will be in the future used as sources for canal water supply. The plans contemplated by the Commission would result in insuring the sufficiency of these supplies, but the uninterrupted maintenance and protection of a constant water supply during the navigation season is undoubtedly essential to the proper operation of the canal system. In these times of extensive municipal water supply systems, it seems reasonable to assume that there may be instances in the practical working out of a comprehensive plan of water conservation where the project of water supply for a municipality or group of municipalities may be combined with a water-storage project to good advantage. At any rate the careful and prolonged study which has been made of municipal and domestic supplies by the Water Supply Commission has given it a full appreciation of their prime importance, and the Commission believes that in any water-shed the question of municipal water supplies should be given first consideration.

It has been believed by many that the State, in the exercise of its police power, could construct storage reservoirs which involved the use of some of the State's forest lands in spite of the constitutional provision that "The lands of the State, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the Forest Preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands," and that "They shall not be leased, sold, or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, or the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed." The River Improvement Commission considered the constitutional question thus involved, and reached the conclusion that the force of this prohibitory clause in the constitution was paramount to all exercise of the police authority of the State to protect the public health and safety, and it declined further to consider any petitions involving the utilization of State forest lands for the construction of storage reservoirs. The Water Supply Commission has held practically the same view of this question and has accordingly recommended to the Legislature that the Constitution of the State be so amended as to permit the flooding of State forest lands for the purpose of constructing storage reservoirs which are to be forever owned, maintained, and controlled by the State for the public use and benefit and for the purpose of providing a public revenue.

The conservation of the water resources of the State on a broad and comprehensive basis, which shall give practical consideration to the most favorable natural opportunities and produce the most beneficial results necessarily involves the flooding of relatively small areas of State forest lands in the Adirondacks. The surveys indicate that 55,000 acres of State land would be required for a complete system of water storage, including many reservoirs likely to be built only in the distant future, if ever. Even this total of 55,000 acres is only 3.9 percent of the State's holdings within the boundaries of the Adirondack Park; of this amount about four-fifths is low swampy land or is under water, and only one-fifth, or eleven thousand acres, is of any considerable value for forest purposes. This question of the amendment of the Constitution is under consideration by the State Legislature.

The drainage of swamp lands is another problem which tends to complicate rather than simplify the water-storage situation. There are within the State extensive areas of swamps whose owners would like to have them drained and reclaimed for agricultural purposes. Some projects of this character have already been carried out, but the questionable constitutionality of most drainage laws has interposed to retard any very widespread reclamation movement of this character. Here again the desires of the up-stream and down-stream residents do not harmonize. The down-stream riparian owner, especially if he operates a water-power, objects to the drainage of those marsh lands on the ground that they constitute a natural storage reservoir which operates to steady the flow of the stream. His solution of the problem would be to build dams across the outlets from these great swampy tracts and thus increase their capacity for storage. In some instances it appears to be entirely feasible to do so, while at the same time it seems equally practicable to secure the necessary storage by raising the surface of some existing lakes and subjecting them to some fluctuation. The question enters as to whether it is not better to flood a comparatively small additional area around the shores of existing lakes in order to secure the required storage and then drain and reclaim swamp lands for agricultural purposes.

By special act of the Legislature in 1909 the Water Supply Commission was given jurisdiction over certain local improvements to streams which contemplated the betterment of both the sanitary and scenic conditions. Certain lakes in the State are bordered with large areas of unattractive swamp and stump land which the local residents would prefer to have permanently submerged. It is claimed that the scope of improvement would include not only benefits to the conditions affecting the health of the community, but that such improvements would in a number of instances result in rendering the region more attractive, especially to summer visitors seeking recreation and health. It is also pointed out that in some instances the interior navigation on some of the lakes would be materially improved, and that the community would materially benefit from the improvement in this manner. The State has already carried out some improvements of this nature, and it seems quite probable that there are possibilities of a number of similar improvements. The problem does not appear to enter into the larger storage reservoir projects, and has not been given very extended consideration by the Water Supply Commission.

New York State and her citizens are justly proud of her scenic falls. Of these the American Falls of Niagara are doubtless the most widely known. There are, however, other falls on streams within the State which constitute local attractions of great interest in their respective communities. The Salmon Falls on Salmon river in Oswego County, the series of falls in Letchworth Park on the Genesee, and High Falls on the Ausable are prominent examples. The Water Supply Commission entertains a deep appreciation of the esthetic value of these beautiful masterpieces of the hand of nature, and believes intrinsically in their preservation. This attitude of the Commission is exemplified in the plans for the proposed Portage Falls power development, which provide for a flow greatly in excess of the minimum flow over the falls for a period of twelve daylight hours in each day. On the other hand, the Commission sees also the wonderful amount of quiet comfort which would be afforded to modern civilization by electric light and the many other applications of power which can be generated by the waters running over some of the falls of the State. The major part of the surplus water is wasted in the spring months of the year, and does not contribute in any appreciable measure to the scenic beauty of the falls; on the other hand, the natural flow of the streams frequently is reduced to such a low rate that the falls lose something of their attractiveness. It will doubtless prove practicable in connection with power developments at some of the naturally attractive falls in the State to insure a larger minimum flow in the dry weather as well as to conserve the great amount of power at present running to waste over the falls in the wet season.

In humid climates irrigation is admittedly more or less of an experiment. Its financial feasibility seems to depend on its being considered a matter of insurance against the failure of crops in seasons of low rainfall. There have been a number of scattered experiments carried on at different places in the State, but the plants used, especially in the older experiments, were comparatively complicated and expensive. The equipment for one particular set of experiments cost about $500 per acre. More recent experiments have been conducted in sections of the State where the precipitation is light during the growing months, and in fact throughout the year, and with a less expensive and a more generally practical equipment. In a few instances, which have been brought to public attention, the experimenters have been able to raise excellent orchards and garden products by means of a comparatively inexpensive irrigation plant, whereas other portions of the gardens and orchards of the same farms did not produce results nearly as satisfactory. One successful experimenter claims that he has made 20 percent interest on his investment by the installation of a small irrigation plant. The precipitation records show that there are portions of New York State where the rainfall during the crop-growing months does not amount to more than one-fourth or one-fifth of the water which is applied to the same crops where irrigation is conducted on a broad scale. The subject has not been entered into in great detail by the Water Supply Commission owing to the fact that its statutory jurisdiction does not seem to justify such a study, but it appears that the possibility of such use of at least a portion of the water supply of the State should be borne in mind and its development carefully watched in connection with the formulation of a general plan for the conservation of the water resources of the State by means of storage reservoirs.

_Need for Comprehensive Plan and Definite Policy_

The importance of a fixed policy establishing State leadership and control in the matters of water Conservation cannot be overestimated. Without it, there is no place for consecutive and correlated action, either executive or legislative. In the past the State has had no policy of power development, either under public ownership or by encouragement and regulation of private or corporate development. Unlike many other States, New York has never, under general laws, granted the right of eminent domain to individuals or corporations for the purpose of flooding lands to create storage ponds and develop water-power. Moreover, it must be conceded that in view of the doubtful constitutionality of the "mill acts" of other States, and particularly in view of the strength of the modern sentiment demanding universal sharing in the benefits of natural resources, this State is not likely in the future indiscriminately to grant its power of eminent domain for this purpose. Unless the State shall define its policy and enter upon the work of carrying it out, this feature of its natural resources must largely remain in its present undeveloped condition, or be subject to the same haphazard and uncontrolled methods of utilization that have governed in the past. If we are to permit private interests to build storage reservoirs for power purposes on any broad and satisfactory plan, it can only be done by amending the Constitution. As adequate reservoirs cannot be generally constructed for power purposes by private enterprise without constitutional amendment, and possibly not then, the better way to accomplish this object is for the State itself to announce its policy and undertake its performance in the interest of all classes and citizens.

Development by the State ensures the fullest possible utilization of the power possibilities of each stream, whereas development by uncontrolled private enterprise often involves waste of resources. Private capital, seeking the greatest possible immediate return on the investment, naturally confines its attention to the most concentrated portion of a given fall. The less precipitous portions of the fall above and below, involving a large unit outlay in development, are consequently apt to be neglected, and in too many cases permanently wasted, because no other enterprise is likely to undertake their development afterward, even if the rights of the company already on the spot would permit this to be done. On the other hand, the State, with its greater power and scope, and with financial resources enabling it to defer the return on its investment, could undertake the construction of the more extensive works necessary to develop the full extent of the fall in the supposed case. Without amplifying the point, it should be clear that the State is the only authority with sufficient power to ensure the complete development of each and every stream so that every foot-pound of energy represented by its falling waters may be given up when necessary to the service of man.

The prime inclusive reason for the exercise of State authority over the control of stream-flow for power development is that under modern social and economic conditions this step is necessary to ensure the equal participation of all citizens in this form of natural wealth, which is peculiarly the heritage of the whole people. Some of the more particular supplemental reasons for State control have been mentioned in the foregoing. It appears that from all points of view the State is the proper authority to undertake and carry out the conservation of its own water resources.

The State Water Supply Commission is engaged in studying the subject of conserving the falling waters in the rivers and streams of the State. In a country where all of the streams both great and small fill their banks in the springtime after heavy rains, and then decrease in volume all through the dry months so that they become in most instances worthless as power streams and of but little value in many other ways, it is clear that storage reservoirs of large capacity, the size depending, of course, on the water-shed in each case, must be built, if wasted water and worthless streams are to be turned into valuable assets. The building of storage reservoirs requires available areas to flood, favorable sites for dams, and scientific knowledge to supervise the construction of such damns and reservoirs. There must be, also, some general head to locate and plan such reservoirs on a broad and comprehensive scale, so as to store the largest possible amount of water in each given case; otherwise opportunities for economic development will be lost and money wasted. The plan should be so feasible and comprehensive as to include every profitable storage possibility, be it either great or small. The plan must permit of doing the work by reservoir units, and at such places as make promise of early and satisfactory return. With such a plan all who are interested in using to the best advantages that which is our own, and saving and conserving for the future that which justly belongs to our children, can work in harmony. Such a plan will enlist the people of every locality in the possibilities of water storage in their own developments, and at the same time not interfere in the least with the developments of a similar character in other parts of the State.

A plan that will enlist such an interest and make possible such a systematic development of a great and wasted natural resource, the Water Supply Commission has been trying to devise. It makes no claim to perfection, but it does claim that it has devised a workable plan for saving and conserving this wasted energy for both public and private use and so as to provide a public revenue. The plan includes the building of storage reservoirs by the State which shall be owned and controlled by it. The scheme is to use the stored water to equalize the flow of each stream upon which it is built, and charge the users of the stored water for the additional power such stored water gives to mill owners further down the stream. This does not contemplate charging a mill owner anything for the power he now has, but only for the additional power he gets by reason of the equalized flow of the streams due to using the stored water when he needs it most.

The Water Supply Commission as a part of its last annual report to the Governor and Legislature submitted a bill providing for a systematic development of the water-power resources of the State under State control. This bill contemplated the return of a net revenue to the State and accordingly provided for the assessment of benefits upon individuals and properties benefited by reason of the construction and operation of storage reservoirs. Many of the provisions of this bill were new in principle, and it was to be expected that a measure of such far-reaching effect would meet with some opposition. Although the bill provided for contracts to be entered into with respect to payments for benefits to be conferred, and the power of assessment was only to be resorted to in order to forestall an unwilling beneficiary from blocking the progress of a great public enterprise, such a provision met with disapproval in the Legislature and the bill was not advanced. The Commission believes that as the Legislature becomes more familiar with the problems involved, it will approve of this policy. For these reasons, the bill with amendments in other respects will again be submitted to the Legislature in connection with the next annual report.

REPORT FROM NORTH DAKOTA

C. B. WALDRON

_State Agricultural College of North Dakota_

While Conservation means the same to all people, namely, the perpetuation of those resources and conditions that make a prosperous existence possible, yet each Commonwealth must develop its own best means for bringing this about.

While it is wise for the Federal and State governments to take what steps they may to prevent the wasteful destruction of certain natural resources like our minerals and forests, yet if all this be done and with the thoroughness that the most ardent of us could demand, still the great problem of Conservation taken as a whole would scarcely be touched. The utmost that the Government can do directly, though of considerable magnitude in itself, is relatively of small importance. Even meetings like the present one have a significance and value only as they inaugurate and vitalize Conservation movements more important and extensive than any Government can ever hope to bring about by direct means.

This principle applies to the greatest degree in instances in which control of the natural resources has already passed to the individual owners. It applies with even added force when such ownership lies in agricultural lands. The reason for this lies in the fact that of all natural resources the soil is by far the most important, and, further, that conservative principles and practices apply with greater directness and profit there than in any other field. The conservation of this season's plant food and soil moisture means next season's crop. Through plant and animal breeding the more prolific and profitable strains are conserved, and through battle with plant and soil diseases and with pests of all kinds we conserve the purity of our soil and the crops that we grow. Such active and constant exercise of Conservation as this may be, in a field that directly affects our entire population in the most vital and direct manner possible, is a matter for our most earnest consideration.

What is being done to train the great body of mankind to whom this important task of Conservation is entrusted; and are the present measures adequate?

Aside from legislation pertaining to weeds, plant diseases, and insect pests, there is little that can be done directly to enforce Conservation measures. The friction encountered in enforcing even this body of laws indicates the difficulties that arise when public restrictions come into conflict with private enterprises. True, it is a crime to waste the fertility of the soil on which the very existence of the race depends; but until all our traditions change, the only punishment that will be visited upon the offender is not from the legally constituted State but from nature herself. He whose will is to rob and skin the land may not be reached by legal process, but he must be taught that the penalties which an outraged nature exacts are as inexorable as the Blind Goddess ever pronounced.

While there always will be fools that can learn only in the school of experience, yet the great majority are glad to find an easier and cheaper way.

Back of the Conservation of the farm must lie the education of the farmer; and greater than all the other problems of Conservation is this one. We are barely entering upon this field, for the reason that the fund of knowledge upon which this education is to be based has been but recently acquired. Our knowledge of the soil in its relation to plant growth, the control of plant diseases, and the laws of plant improvement, have all come to us in recent years. Still, much as there is yet to determine, there is already a vast fund of knowledge of untold worth; but means are not yet provided for making it useful and effective.

Speaking for North Dakota, such natural resources as she possesses, aside from her soils, are being well protected and conserved through public measures already in force. Her vast fields of lignite coal underlain with valuable clays have been withdrawn from homestead entry, and hereafter only surface rights in these lands will be granted.

Such forests as the State originally had have long since passed into private hands, and the land has mostly been cleared for farming. In North Dakota, forestry, like agriculture, will be operated by the individual land owners for their direct if not immediate benefit. It may be found advisable to plant public forests in parts of the Bad Lands and other rough areas, but by far the greater part of tree planting will be done upon small areas on the individual farms. The State already encourages such planting by a bounty paid in the remission of taxes. This is not enough. The land owner in most cases does not know what trees will prove the most profitable, nor how they may best be grown. Here again the one necessity is education. Object lessons in tree planting should be established in each community, and all pupils in the public schools should be shown how to grow a grove of trees. Such a system would produce immeasurably greater results in the way of timber production than would come from the public forests, important as these doubtless are.

But agricultural education will conserve something more than the fertility of the soil and the vitality and purity of our crops. It means also the conservation of a prosperous, virile, self-dependent, and intelligent people. It means a prosperous people, for no cost of education of the right kind was ever known to impoverish a people, and no expenditure rightly made could ever equal the gain. Conservation can never be expected of the ignorant. Conservation is but the larger and more altruistic expression of the term known as thrift; and ignorance and poverty know it not. The means for extending and improving agricultural education will develop and expand in the same measure that we apply ourselves to the problem.

Agricultural colleges have not rendered the assistance that they should in extending agricultural education, because their field has been too restricted. Excellent as their instruction may be, it reaches only a very small percentage of our people directly. Their scope and activities must be enlarged till their influence is felt in every community. They should not be shut out from participating in the work of general education as they now are in many instances. In a measure we repudiate the findings of science, and discount the progress we have made, in not providing a wider application for our researches. There is at present no adequate means for the dissemination of the vast body of knowledge that alone will save to us our own great underlying industry of agriculture.

The world has oftentimes tried the experiment of building a State upon other foundations than that of a conservative agriculture and an intelligent and prosperous agricultural class, and always with the same fatal outcome. The grandeur of cities, the glory and might of great armies, the highest culture in the arts, and the noblest of religions and philosophies, will not suffice to save the nation that knows not nature and defies her laws. That State but hastens the day of its own destruction that fails to train its citizens in the right use and management of their land holdings. No jealous interest of whatever worth in itself should be given consideration at the expense of that which maintains all of our interests.

North Dakota has been favored by nature with a soil so productive that, properly tilled and conserved, it will feed one-tenth of the present population of the entire Nation. It is an asset such as few nations ever possessed, and it should be so safeguarded that its great contribution to the Nation's existence may steadily increase. The one way to do this is to teach the land owners that Conservation in agriculture means not only patriotism and good citizenship but prosperity as well, that useful education at any price is always cheap and ignorance costly, and that no values can be more stable and certain than those lying in productive farm lands.

The patriotic sentiment that leads men to sacrifice time and money that our natural resources may be conserved is most commendable. Of still more service is he who aids in developing a system of education that shall teach men to conserve the natural resources entrusted to their own hands. The task is a great one, but not beyond the range of possibility; and upon its successful accomplishment rests the welfare of the whole Nation.

REPORT FROM OHIO

WILLIAM R. LAZENBY

_Ohio State University_

_Chairman Executive Committee of the Society for Horticultural Science_

The welfare of our country, as well as that of the States composing it, depends on a wise Conservation of its rich and varied natural resources. Many of these resources have been so bountiful, and apparently so inexhaustible, that we have drawn upon them without a thought of their limitations of the dire effects of their exhaustion.

Speaking especially for Ohio, I trust it will be understood that by "Conservation" I mean an honest effort to make that State a good one to live in for all of us now there, and for all who may come after us.

In addition to the three problems named below, other Conservation questions will doubtless require attention; but for these, every instinct of justice and humanity insists that we accord them instant and earnest consideration.

1--_The Forestry Problem_

I place this first, because the influence of the forests is so far-reaching, and we have no clear-cut, well-defined policy in Ohio designed to preserve, improve, and extend our forests.

Ohio has an area of 41,000 square miles, and has been tremendously rich in hardwood timber. We have cut down this timber most improvidently, with no effort to restore the supply, and so far as the State is concerned are now on the verge of a timber famine. In 1900, according to the Twelfth United States Census, Ohio ranked seventh as a lumber-producing State, being exceeded by Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, and Maine. Since then she has dropped to the nineteenth rank, and bids fair in the near future, unless prompt and vigorous action is taken, to have so little timber left as not to be rated at all. The effects of this wholesale removal of our forests may be briefly summarized as follows:

(1) We are compelling those who come after us to pay an almost prohibitive price for lumber, and are likely to see an end of some of the most important wood-consuming industries of the State. As a source of wood supply our forests touch the interests of all. We are a universally wood-consuming as well as food-consuming people.

(2) The recent floods in the river-valleys of Ohio, which have caused losses of life and of property valued at millions, have followed and will continue to follow the denudation of our hills by excessive tree-cutting, followed by fire.

(3) In many places the erosion or wash caused by the rapid run-off of the rain and melting snow is reducing the deforested hills to barren wastes, and is covering much of the fertile soil of the valleys with sterile sand and gravel.

The forest problem is the great Conservation problem in Ohio. It affects the State, because it concerns every citizen of the State, and it can only be solved by action of the State and the Nation.

2--_The Waterway Problem_

In my opinion this question comes next in importance. By waterways I mean not only navigable streams and canals, but power sites on non-navigable as well as navigable streams. If the forests are properly managed, water will be an unfailing source of power. No few men, nor any special interest, should control these sources of power, for this means a control of all industry that depends on power. Our waterways may not be so enormously valuable as those of some other States, and this is all the more reason why they should be conserved for the public good.

We shall be needlessly mortgaging the future by allowing any special class or interest to use our waterways and water-power sites without making some direct payment for these valuable privileges. This is important not only for State revenue, but as a recognition of the principle that what belongs to the people should not be absolutely surrendered to private interests. There is great value in our undeveloped water-power. An engineer's inventory of all the waters of the State, with their possibilities of power, would cause Ohio to sit up and take notice.

If forests and waterways were properly conserved, we would hear less from railroads and power companies of the enormous bill of expense from floods at one time, and loss from low water at another.

3--_The Mineral Problem_

Ohio is rich in coal, oil, gas, stone, clay, sand, and other mineral resources. These should be carefully catalogued, so that the people could know more about the material assets of the State.

Mineral lands should be sold only to those who are prepared to develop them, and under conditions that will prevent the improvident waste of reckless exploitation. For the present it is probable that the actual development or working of the mineral properties of the State can best be done by private interests acting under some public control, but the State has no moral right to permit such valuable privileges to pass from its control for nothing in return. It is only by some form of National and State Conservation that we can secure an abundant and continuous supply of such primal necessities as wood, water-power, and coal.

* * * * *

The control of animal diseases and of insect and fungus pests that are spread by interstate transportation, and the preservation of migratory birds, which are our best allies in fighting injurious insects, are vital subjects for the consideration of a National Conservation Congress. The control and destruction of enemies and the protection and multiplication of friends by the concentrated and cooperative action of the States are subjects that clearly come within the scope and interest of National Conservation.

Conservation can only be effective by good laws faithfully executed. By proper legislation we can encourage the reforestation of our denuded hillsides and stimulate the planting and care of valuable timber trees through relieving such land from undue taxation. Timber should be taxed like other property, when cut; but to tax land and its timber crop every year is manifestly unjust.

In order to rightly conserve our forests we should furnish good opportunities for young men to become well trained in forestry. For this our schools of forestry must be well equipped. I am pleased to state that Ohio has made a splendid beginning in this direction; and there is no reason, if properly supported, why this centrally located State should not have one of the best forestry schools in the country.

What is needed to properly investigate the conditions and formulate a Conservation policy for the State is a good Conservation Commission. In addition to this, we need more thought, more study, more science, on the part of the public, concerning the natural resources of the State, with less blind devotion to the old ways and means of doing things, which if ever judicious, have long ceased to be so.

REPORT FROM OKLAHOMA

BENJ. MARTIN

I have the honor to represent as a Delegate to this Congress the Muskogee Commercial Club of Muskogee, one of the leading organizations of Oklahoma, under the influence of which the city of Muskogee grew from a town of 4,000 inhabitants in 1900 to its present population of 30,000.

A distinguished citizen of a neighboring State, on a recent visit to our city, constituted himself a Grand Jury and indicted each citizen of larceny. He charges that Oklahoma for years had been stealing from the other States of the Union some of their best brain and brawn, until now we have approximately two millions of the choicest sons and daughters of the American Republic. To this indictment we now offer ourselves for arraignment before this Congress, and plead guilty, and we are ready to receive our sentence without a plea that justice be tempered with mercy. As to other charges of wrongdoing on the part of some of Oklahoma's distinguished sons, which have been much heralded in the press, I most emphatically enter a plea of "Not guilty," either in law or morals; and time will completely vindicate them.

The resources of Oklahoma are vast, far beyond the conception or knowledge of those who have resided within her borders for many years. Conservation is of particular importance to us, for yet our resources are practically in their virgin state. We heartily join hands with you of our sister States in this great movement, in my opinion due to the work and wisdom of Gifford Pinchot more than any other American citizen. However, his ideas and earnestness were very fully and heartily appreciated by that foremost American, Theodore Roosevelt, to whom for his great work in inaugurating and fostering Federal Conservation we give honor.

Chief among our resources are the vast variety of agricultural products which grow in great abundance. In the same field may be seen growing enormous yields of corn, cotton, oats, wheat, and alfalfa. No other State can excel Oklahoma in the production of these products. We join the great corn-belt of Illinois and Iowa in singing the song of Whittier--

Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard, Heap high the golden corn; No richer gift has autumn poured From out her lavish horn.

Let other lands exulting glean The apple from the pine, The orange from its glossy green, The cluster from the vine.

We better love the hardy gift Our rugged vales bestow, To cheer us when the storm shall drift Our harvest fields with snow.

The following extract is from the First Biennial Report of the Oklahoma State Board of Agriculture:

"Oklahoma is the greatest country on earth, not only because we can grow everything here that can be grown anywhere else in the United States, but because many crops we can grow here are decidedly more profitable than are crops of like character in many other sections of the country."

We join our sister States of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and others in the endeavor to conserve their vast deposits of coal, not solely from patriotic motives, but also because of our extensive coal, oil, and gas fields, only a small part of which have yet been developed. The supply of timber in the eastern and southeastern portions of our State is worthy of the consideration and protection of the Conservation movement. Particularly rich is our State in its streams of water and its water-power. The principal rivers are the Arkansas, the Grand, the Verdegris, the Canadian, the Cimarron, the Washita, and the Red, the latter forming the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas. These streams within themselves contain great resources, yet in the virgin state, awaiting but to be developed and utilized by American genius.

I know of no more appropriate way of closing my statement than in the words of Colonel John A. Joyce--

The rolling hills and mountains, Without their forest dress Will soon bring to the Nation Great hunger and distress; And if we do not listen To the scientific strain, The soil of grand Columbia Will be washed away by rain.

Brave nature in her glory Works for animated things, And tells the old, old story Of feeding serfs and kings; But man, obtuse and greedy, Will not listen in his pain To the poor, and weak, and needy, Who must live by sun and rain.

We must save the soil and water, Or a desert there will be For wife, and son, and daughter, In this land of Liberty. And the Congress of the Nation, Must now listen to the brain Of our scientific sages Who would husband soil and rain.

REPORT FROM OREGON

E. T. ALLEN

_Assistant Secretary Oregon Conservation Commission_

Oregon's chief Conservation advances of late have been the passage of progressive water laws, by the effort of the State Conservation Commission, and the progress of private timber owners in the prevention of forest fires. The most urgent task now on hand is to secure more liberal State aid in forest protection.

Immediately following the Conference of Governors at the White House in 1908, Governor Chamberlain appointed for Oregon a Conservation Commission of 15 members. This semi-official Commission was reduced to 7 members, and given statutory standing and a small appropriation, by Act of Legislature filed February 23, 1909. Its work is "To ascertain and make known the natural resources of the State of Oregon, and to cooperate with the National Conservation Commission to the end that the natural resources of the State may be conserved and put to the highest use."

No legislative session has been held since the statutory Commission was appointed. In its earlier form, however, it recommended and secured the passage, by the same Legislature which gave it official standing, of a workable law for the development of Carey act projects, and one for complete State control of waters within the State. Both have proved excellent, no defects of importance having developed.

The Oregon water law, in particular, is generally regarded as an example of good State action. It is based on the police power of the State to preserve the public peace and safety of its water users. Under this law, rights to the use of water for power development are limited to a period of 40 years. A simple and expeditious method is provided for determining early water rights, protecting existing rights, and acquiring new rights. Prior rights are determined by a Board of Control consisting of the State Engineer and the division superintendents of the two water divisions into which the State is divided. Established rights are protected by a water master in each district of a division, acting under the direction of the division superintendent. He may make arrests and compel the installment of suitable devices for controlling the use of water. New rights are granted by certificate of the Board of Control, after proof, under a system based on priority of application and beneficial use. Water for irrigation is made appurtenant to the land irrigated. Oregon also has a law providing for a State tax, on a horsepower basis, upon water-power projects.

Oregon has a non-partisan State Board of Forestry, consisting of representatives of the industries and agencies chiefly concerned in forest management and protection; also an excellent forest code, so far as punitive and regulative provisions are concerned. It lacks appropriation or machinery to make this code effective. To secure such provision by the next Legislature is the chief present work of the Commission. The Commission works under the plan of attacking one point at a time, instead of dissipating efforts among all the improvements needed. Water and water-power were felt to be the most urgent, forestry is considered next, and when the forest laws are made satisfactory, other branches of Conservation will receive concentrated effort.

There is also an Oregon Conservation Association which, under the same plan, is now chiefly devoted to carrying out the work of the State Board of Forestry for which no appropriation exists. Its secretary is secretary of the State Board, and the funds of the Association help to pay postage and clerical help derived by the State.

Under an alliance called the Oregon Forest Fire Association, affiliated in turn with the Western Forestry and Conservation Association embracing five States from Montana to California, a large number of the private forest owners of Oregon cooperate to secure better protection from forest fires. These owners spend from $50,000 a year upward for patrol and fire-fighting, their employees having authority from the State as fire wardens.

Among the Conservation problems to be taken up next in Oregon are the protection of fisheries, good roads, improvement in technical methods in irrigation and dry-land farming, topographic surveys, and inventories of State resources.

REPORT FROM RHODE ISLAND

HENRY A. BARKER

_Chairman Rhode Island Conservation Commission_

This Conservation Congress has been so very generous with its invitations that it happens that about every organization in which I am interested has been asked to send Delegates. As a result, quite a good lot of them have been so kind as to bestow this honor upon me--most of them prudently waiting until they found out that I was coming anyhow. For that reason my desk in Providence is adorned with a nice little pile of beautifully engraved cards, each telling me that this City of Saint Paul takes pleasure in extending its hospitality, etc. Along with each of them came other cards to warn me that if I wanted hotel accommodations I had better speak quick. So I spoke with reasonable speed--and eminently satisfactory results; but I am glad I did not have to find accommodations for all of the Delegates that I seem to be.

I want to say, also, that if it gives the cordial City of Saint Paul pleasure to extend this charming invitation, the pleasure is entirely mutual; I am delighted to accept the hospitality.

I am glad that I need not report at this time for anything except the State of Rhode Island, and I am sure you will be. You may ask, "What has Rhode Island to conserve?" In reply I want to tell you that no State in the Union in proportion to its population has so much that needs conserving. Some of our friends from the Far West tell us heartbreaking things about how the Government has reserved or restricted so much of the western area that there isn't enough left to make farms and villages on. I think I heard day before yesterday that in the State where I attended the First Conservation Congress last year there were Government reservations as big as Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined--though I should say these wouldn't necessarily look so very big when painted on the map of Washington, or seriously hamper the operations of its people. And we have this sad condition contrasted with that of the happy East where the Government owns no reservations at all; but back in the East we do not realize that this is a good fortune. Never having had any land in our part of New England owned either by the State or by the Nation, we have been somewhat frantically endeavoring to have them secure some for the good of our people, even though it now has to be bought. Everybody knows how earnestly we wish that the Government might have done for us at the beginning of our settlement just what the Government is able to do, and is doing, for the West today. There isn't any talk of "State rights" in the East. It is a question of the States' necessities. The Eastern States are all working to their utmost to get the Government to undertake certain enterprises like the Appalachian White Mountain reservations, that are of an interstate character; but each State expects to cooperate for as much of the remaining work as it can.

You will be glad to know that Little Rhody is trying to do its share. It always does its share. It always matches the Government, at least dollar for dollar, on any public improvement work. Just now it is spending a million dollars on the harbor of Providence to match another million that the Government appropriated last year. That is the kind of "State rights" the Government gives it. But not much compared with what the railroads are putting in.

The formal establishment of a Conservation Commission was almost the very last act of the Rhode Island Legislature at its special session, only about two weeks ago. We didn't expect, of course, to be quite so much up to date, or so early in any new field, as our brethren in Montana for example, though we have had a Conservation Commission, rather informally appointed by the Governor, ever since that notable gathering of the Governors at Washington, and work that such a commission would naturally do has been going on, under other names, longer than I can remember.

The aim of the new Commission is to secure the maximum of efficiency and the minimum of politics. I do not know what the political affiliations of its members are, or if they have any, and I do not believe the Legislature knows. It is made up of ex officio members, to bring into efficient cooperation several well-established departments that have long dealt with some phase or other of Conservation. The head of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics, which is conducting a State survey of natural resources, including soil analysis; the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture; the Director of the Experiment Station of the State College; the State Forester; and the Secretary of the Metropolitan Park Commission--these departments will now contribute their efforts to a common purpose. The State Forestry Department, with advice from the National Forest Service, has been getting some very up to date forest laws passed, and the Park Commission has made a visible beginning to secure for public use and preservation some necessary recreation places for the over-crowding population of the Providence "Metropolitan District," which has about four-fifths of the population within about four-fifths of the area of the Twin Cities combined.

The State College, assisted by the U. S. Bureau of Soils, has been showing such farmers as care to take notice that southern New England is a very different sort of place agriculturally than it has been the habit to suppose, and that at least three ears of corn may be made to grow, where, previously, one went to the dogs--or the hogs. The very fact that there are more ever-hungry mouths to feed and more manufactures to the square inch in southern New England than there are anywhere else makes this necessary. We must care for every drop of water that falls on our hillsides. The cities need it; the manufacturers need it (and can use it first); the great bleacheries--that furnish about all the textiles that all of you use and wear--need all they can have; and the people need the lakesides and the river banks for recreation as in the past.

At present our markets get most of their "fine Rhode Island turkeys" from Vermont and their "new-laid eggs" from beyond the Mississippi. A large part of the Rhode Island greenings and Massachusetts Baldwin apples come from Oregon and Washington, though not because they refuse to grow in their native habitat. But much of the soil must have put back into it those elements which previous unscientific generations robbed it of. And here is an amusing paradox: With a population growing in density faster than in any other State of the Union, and with more markets just around the corner, there are, nevertheless, more acres of forest-covered lands and more acres of unutilized lands in Rhode Island than there were 50 years ago--and more in proportion than in almost any other State in the Union.

Well, that's where Rhode Island comes in, in this Conservation movement; and it has come in none too soon. If it had only had a wise and paternal Government to help it administer and develop its natural resources a century ago, the cost of living would be less today for every one of its inhabitants.

Rhode Island has awakened to vital things, but even if it had only an indirect interest in Conservation it would still feel that it owed its moral influence to the country as a whole, and that it is not a separate selfish little two-cent republic all by its lonesome, but a part of a great Nation that prefers to be governed from Washington rather than from Wall Street: a Nation whose prosperity and power and glory need the cooperation and loyalty of every one of its citizens.

REPORT FROM SOUTH CAROLINA

E. J. WATSON

_Commissioner of Agriculture_

_Chairman State Conservation Commission_

South Carolina Commission's full report delayed, so report briefly by wire. Active work has been done. A preliminary forest survey has been made, and a complete measure for conservation of forests and protection against forest fires has been introduced in the General Assembly and will be pushed during the coming session. Active steps have been taken toward drainage and reclamation of coastal lands, and a measure to provide for a complete system under the direction of the State Commission is now being prepared for introduction in the Legislature in January next. Conservation of human resources has been greatly advanced in the past two years, following the enactment of complete factory inspection laws. No State is giving more attention to conservation of all her resources at this time than is South Carolina. I am heartily in sympathy with everything making for Conservation, and greatly regret I cannot be with you at the Congress.

REPORT FROM SOUTH DAKOTA

DOANE ROBINSON

_Secretary Conservation Commission of South Dakota_

The South Dakota Conservation Commission, consisting of Senator Robert J. Gamble (Chairman), Eben W. Martin, Samuel H. Lea, O. C. Dokken, and Doane Robinson (Secretary), was appointed by Governor Coe I. Crawford in August, 1908, and has been continued by Governor Vessey.

The Commission made a preliminary report on the resources of the State in December, 1908. It has been unprovided with funds, but the newspapers of the State and of the Northwest have been open to its use, and from the beginning the policy was adopted of furnishing a weekly letter, educational in its nature, pertaining to the State's resources and their Conservation. These articles have received very wide publicity, both within and without the State.

The Commission acted as Executive Committee of the South Dakota Conservation and Development Congress called by Governor Vessey and held at Pierre June 29-July 1, 1910. This was an exceptionally successful Congress, in which nearly two thousand citizens participated. Every county was represented, and the interest was very marked. The program consisted of addresses and papers educational in character, many speakers of national reputation participating. An annual Congress is contemplated.

REPORT FROM TEXAS

WILL L. SARGENT

_Secretary Conservation Association of Texas_

The interests of Conservation in Texas are promoted largely by a voluntary organization of citizens, the Conservation Association of Texas. The Association held a Congress at Fort Worth in April last, at which much enthusiasm was manifested, and plans and policies were adopted, largely in the form of resolutions. The substance of these resolutions forms the body of this report.

We lay especial stress on the dirt roads of our State. Considering our great farming interests and their numerous and increasing yearly output, and the impassable condition of roads during certain seasons, we urge upon our county and State authorities the immediate betterment of our Texas roads by drainage, split-log drag, top-gravel dressing, or other up-to-date methods.

As the services of a large number of experts are necessary for the intelligent guidance and direction of all plans of Conservation in all lines, and as intelligent workers are necessary for the effective carrying out of such plans, we urge upon our legislative authorities, as the necessary foundation for all Conservation the better financial support of our great public school system, the introduction of agricultural and industrial studies into these schools, and the better equipment and maintenance of our higher educational institutions, and that more substantial financial support be accorded to the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and the Department of Agriculture, and that adequate appropriation be made for those institutions and for farmers' institutes to the end that the supply of experts and leaders may be made more nearly adequate to the needs of our rapidly growing State.

We know from past experiences that the overflow of our rivers and streams have resulted in washing away not only a great deal of rich and fertile soil, thereby injuring the lands of our farmers, but that these floods have destroyed crops running into millions of dollars in value and brought destruction and ruin to hundreds of our most worthy citizens. We earnestly recommend that the Legislature shall pass such laws as will constitutionally and in practical and adequate way prevent or curtail such losses in the future, the details of which can be worked out at the proper time and in an appropriate way by the legislative body itself.

We deplore the wasteful methods of lumbering practiced in Texas and look with dismay at the early day (say fifteen years) when all our best timber will be cut and unobtainable except at great cost, when the cut-over land, littered with dead branches and decayed treetops, will be annually burned over, the humus destroyed and the soil become unfit for cultivation and washed into the streams. We also apprehend with dismay the direful effects resultant upon our Texas climate when the timber is gone and the forest area has become a grassy, burned-over waste. We urgently recommend to the people of Texas that they call upon the Legislature for the establishment of a forestry department, under charge of a trained forester, and under control of the State Agricultural Department; and it shall be the duty of said forester also to lecture in both the University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and take charge of all forestry work in the State, and his work shall be in connection with the Forest Service of the United States Government, for the saving of the forest remnant in our State and the replanting of the cut-over area on lands not suitable for agricultural purposes.

We believe in a strict conservation and preservation of the public domain of Texas in a way that will best encourage homesteaders, and that all laws made for the protection of the State and the people against fraudulent entries or the illegal acquisition of the public domain on the part of private citizens or corporations should be strictly enforced, and we recommend to the next Legislature the passage of a law making it a felony against all persons knowingly and fraudulently entering into conspiracy to acquire any portion of the public domain in violation of the laws of Texas made for the benefit of actual settlers.

Recognizing the importance of fish as a food supply for our people, we indorse such laws as have already been enacted for the purifying of our rivers and lakes and such further legislation along that line as conditions demand, and recommend that hatcheries for the propagation and protection of fish be established and maintained by the State.

We indorse the work of the Texas Audubon Society in behalf of the wild birds of Texas, and urge that the next Legislature shall enact laws for the better protection of the birds, to the end that their extermination be prevented, so that they may be allowed to increase in numbers, delighting the world with their beauty and song, and also serving the economic purpose for which they were created, namely, the protection of crops by the extermination of insect enemies.

We congratulate the farmers of Texas for adopting modern methods in tilling the soil and in a diversification of crops. The great and beneficial results that have come to them through this system have clearly demonstrated its practicality.

The Legislature is asked to pass a law covering the features now partially covered by several independent laws and providing for a State Department of Engineering, which department shall be authorized to make surveys, maps, and estimates looking to the reclamation of overflow and wet lands anywhere within the State, and further being authorized to examine and approve all the plans and estimates of such improvements before said improvements can be accomplished, by this means being empowered to mutually protect all interests involved, whether these interests are at present active or in the future probable.

In order to carry out most economically the Conservation of the wealth latent in the soil and water supply of Texas, we recommend the enactment of legislation which will provide means and instrumentalities for a soil and water survey of the State as a basis for the earliest possible development of such wealth for the common good.

We recognize in the reclamation of our arid lands one of the greatest factors in the future development of the State, because of the million acres of fertile lands that can and should be reclaimed by irrigation. Recognizing all vested rights, we encourage the conservation, storage, and equitable distribution of natural and flood waters of streams, artesian wells, springs, rainfall, and other sources of water supply. We favor a uniform system of irrigation laws that will give security for the investment of capital in the development of irrigation projects, and at the same time fully protect and safeguard the users of water and define the rights as well as the obligations of the enterprises delivering the water to them. We favor the State never parting with title to her water-power and the control of her streams to corporations or private individuals; we favor legislation that will secure the aid of the State in its conservation and reclamation work, such as the construction of reservoirs to be used for power, for irrigation, as well as for domestic and other purposes. The State is requested to enact a law creating an irrigation commission, acting under the direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture, whose duties shall be fully defined by statute.

We heartily endorse the purposes and objects of the National Conservation Association, and urge all the friends of Conservation in Texas to cooperate by becoming members of the National Conservation Association.

Recognizing that the prosperity and the happiness of our people depend on the utmost protection of their health and the protection of their domestic animals from disease, we recommend that the Legislature appropriate sufficient funds for the maintenance of the State Board of Health and the State Sanitary Board.

Recognizing the great value of the experiment stations and demonstration farms located in the various agricultural sections of our State, we indorse the work of the stations already established, and recommend that a law be passed authorizing the County Commissioners of each county to provide, at their discretion, for such stations and demonstration farms, in order that the most approved methods of agriculture may be exemplified and new facts may be determined.

We believe it would be advisable for the Congress of the United States to pass a law repealing all laws authorizing the sale of any of the public domain in the United States and its Territories, including the Philippine Islands and other possessions, and in the future only sell the surface for agriculture and stock raising purposes, and forever retain title in the people of the United States of the timber and of all minerals and all coal, oil, gases, phosphates, water and water-powers, to be worked under control of laws passed by Congress by paying a reasonable royalty to the people for the same.

REPORT FROM UTAH

O. J. SALISBURY

_Vice-President Utah State Conservation Commission_

The Utah State Conservation Commission was authorized by an Act of the State Legislature approved March 22, 1909. The Act prescribed the powers and duties of the Commission, and appropriated a certain sum annually to be expended for the purposes thereof. Pursuant to the said Act the Governor of the State duly appointed a Commission, consisting of seven members, who organized and began active operations about the first day of October, 1909.

Such legislation was called for and enacted on account of the pressing necessity of devising ways and means of preserving and protecting the abundant, varied, and valuable natural resources of our young and growing State; and it was a source of gratification to this Commission to find that such resources had suffered comparatively little waste in the years past, and that the duties required of the Commission were to ascertain the character and extent of the State's resources, and to work along lines of Conservation and protection rather than those of restoration.

The Commission prepared and issued a preliminary report on the resources of the State late in the year 1909, and 2000 copies were distributed to our State legislators, to Government departments, Conservation associations, public libraries, etc. Owing to the short time in which the Commission had to collect data and prepare the report, it was somewhat limited in its scope and general in its character.

The Commission has now in course of preparation a complete map of the State, showing the National Forests, ownership of public lands (whether Federal or State), character of the soils with analyses thereof, with other information to enable it to make an intelligent and accurate report to the Governor and State Legislature at the coming session in 1911, suggesting and recommending such legislation as will best conserve and protect the State's natural resources to the benefit and advantage of our citizens of present and future generations.

The amount of the annual appropriation for the purposes of the Commission is $3,000.00. There was expended during the year 1909 the sum of $211.55, and during the year 1910 the sum of $2,767.62.

It is the intention and purpose of the Commission to continue along the lines upon which it has started, to ascertain the extent and character and point out the location of the agricultural, mineral, power, and other natural resources of the State, and to place before the public such information concerning these resources as will enable the home-seeker, the investor, the manufacturer and all those seeking industrial pursuits adapted to our State, to secure for themselves some of the advantages which the development of such resources offers.

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT FROM UTAH

E. T. MERRITT

_Delegate from Utah_

The State of Utah has not yet undertaken any great work in the matter of Conservation of public resources, although a Commission has been created with the Governor as chairman. An office is maintained and the gentlemen of the Commission are giving earnest thought and study to the issues involved, feeling that they want to be sure they are right before they go ahead. However, the General Government has been very liberal in the attention it has given us, and we find our phosphate lands, the public coal lands, lands adjoining streams suitable for power sites, and practically every acre of our forest lands have been withdrawn from entry. And yet we feel that we have no quarrel with the Government in these matters. We believe that just as soon as equitable and reasonable methods have been devised for the sale or lease of the first three named they will be placed in such a position to be of practical use and benefit to the people, as they should be; in other words, we do not believe they will be bottled up or pickled or preserved for future generations, but under wise and equitable laws and administration will be converted to the use of the people.

The forest reserves are properly cared for in Utah, and their use and administration is equitable and fair. Mr Pinchot told us when he began his administration that while no doubt mistakes would be made and some inconvenience suffered by the people, yet he wanted it understood that the forests belonged to the people, and that the purpose of the Government was not to exploit them for revenue or for glory or for the fun there was in it, but rather to take care of them for the use and benefit of the people, especially for the people who had conquered and developed the adjoining country; to conserve the water supply, and to perpetuate and care for all the resources and homes of the people. He further told us that whenever we could suggest betterment of the Service in the interest of the people, such suggestions would be gladly welcomed. Such promises have been faithfully carried out, and we believe the Government has been a kind parent to the State of Utah. We see no reason for a quarrel as to the rights of the State and those of the Government. We think there is plenty for both to do, and at least to us there is profit and benefit for us to go hand in hand in cooperation with the Federal Government in the development of our State.

We believe that only by the General Government can the problem of water-power sites, particularly on large or interstate streams, be handled. The history of Utah shows that some years ago the adjudication of water-rights was in the courts of the several Judicial Districts of the State, and that in the course of their procedure it was a common thing for all the water of the stream to be decreed to the several owners residing within that Judicial District, absolutely without regard to the rights of other citizens using water from the same stream, although residing in some other Judicial District. We changed our laws, placing the acquirement and adjudication of water-rights in the State Engineer. We found this a big improvement, but we still find ourselves in the matter of interstate streams entirely at the mercy of the fellow above us. Of course the fellow below can take care of himself. The lesson is obvious. We maintain that only the General Government can properly and rightly hand out justice and equity in the matter of power sites and water-rights as affecting interstate streams.

We have found cooperation with the General Government immensely valuable to us in the matter of experiments in the drainage of water-logged or alkali lands, measurement and recording of the flow of our streams, the eradication of disease among our livestock, and in fact in every department where cooperation has been tried.

We are suffering today in Utah, as in many other parts of the country, from mistakes and carelessness of the general Government in the handling of the public resources, but this is also true of ourselves in our own administration; and we are very glad to see an awakening on this subject. The people of Utah, in common with all of the people of the whole country, are deeply interested in the subject of Conservation in all its phases, and believe that the great mistakes of the past, both National and in our own State, will not be repeated.

REPORT FROM VERMONT

GEORGE AITKIN

_Vermont Conservation Commission_

The Commission on the Conservation of the Natural Resources of Vermont has no statutory existence, but was originally appointed by Governor Fletcher D. Proctor in support of the general Conservation movement instituted by the Conference of Governors at Washington in May of 1908. The Commission has been continued by parole of Governor George H. Prouty.

It has recognized and been in absolute sympathy with the principles fundamental to Conservation work, namely, that conservative use and, where practicable, the intelligent maintenance and restoration of natural resources are indispensable to the continued prosperity of State and Nation and of inter-nations; that State boundaries or National boundaries do not confine and limit natural resources; that it has become the sacred duty of State and Nation to take measures for the preservation on the people's account of all the means of their life, welfare, and comfort, including soils, water, minerals, and forests; these to be safeguarded as public utilities to be used and treated in the interests of future as well as of existing generations, and to be stripped of every vestige of monopoly and trust.

Apart from the conservation of these necessary and material things, we have been interested in the advancement also of what is nearly as, if not more, important, the conservation of health, the retention and improvement of our self-governing opportunities, the equalizing and qualification of educational opportunity, and of every phase of civic, moral and social advance. Vermont is mainly interested directly in the conservation and right use of public health, of its soil, of its forests and woodlots, of its water supplies, of its quarries of granite, marble, and slate, of its game and fish, and in its steadfast attention to educational opportunity and the administration of justice. For the greater part it possesses a very widespread individual ownership and control in all its natural resources and their development and use. It has for decades prior to the so-called Conservation movement supervised and fostered all these economies through legislation; so that it may be said that the State has gradually but definitely applied the principles of Conservation to its affairs and its resources for many years prior to the existing discussion of the subject. This is true in connection with quarrying, agriculture, forestry, and water supplies, though it should be added that Conservation subjects have been much more prominently considered in recent years with increasing advantage to the farmers of the State and also with an increase in manufactures.

Our method of legislation and the machinery of our self-government represent an evolution and are the result of much and intimate public discussion, and they are working out good economic results. Perhaps this may best be indicated by a reference to the legislation passed in 1908. There was enacted a law which abolished the Board of Agriculture, and substituted in its place a Board of Agriculture and Forestry, consisting of the Governor, the director of the State Agricultural Experiment Station, and two citizens known to be interested in the advancement of agriculture and forestry. The disbursement of the appropriation under this Act was left discretionary between agriculture and forestry, and the results in the brief elapsing period since its passage have been very gratifying. In addition to this there were acts sustaining the work of the State Agricultural College, providing for increased support of agricultural fairs, for the acquisition of forest reserves, for the appointment and maintenance of a State Forester, for the more definite supervision of all agricultural interests, and for a more direct inspection of cattle and of dairies. The appropriations of 1908 included increased provision for the conservation of agricultural, forest, and dairy interests, for the care of game, for education and public health, and for the investigation of the water resources of the State. Special attention was given to amendments of the law which aim to safeguard forests from fire and game from extinction, and to prevent the loss or misuse of water for domestic, power, and transportation purposes. This, however, was not an accident of recent agitation, but more particularly an evolution; and it operates, so far as Vermont is concerned, in a true appreciation, use, and care-taking of its local resources.

There has been special consideration given of late to public health, and laws were enacted governing the inspection of animals, supervising control of contagious and infectious diseases, suppressing adulterations of foods and drugs, advancing the working plans of the State laboratory of hygiene, more closely regulating the practice of medicine and surgery, forcing more specific duties on health officers everywhere, defining the practice of optometry--in short, all the means by which a State government may advance the well-being of its citizens through the application of what has been made known in science touching all these questions.

The State also advanced the well-being of its people by conserving their natural resources, material or acquired, through the creation of a Public Utility Commission, whose work has since demonstrated the need and value of its existence by its influence in behalf of the public of their use and service. We hold here that one of the most effective Conservation measures is that which gives the people the best service at the lowest cost of all the applications of natural resources, as interpreted by science, which nature bestows in the way of power, water, light, and drainage. We wish to state positively, however, that these problems cannot be treated as accidents of public experience, but as subjects of legislation and public treatment which define themselves in their true relationship to property rights and individual rights and to public necessity by the process of evolution.

This is illustrated by the way in which forestry conservation was instituted in Vermont many years back, when a few men of foresight took an interest in the subject, formed a society, and kept bringing attention to the subject until it was made a part of the law and in equal standing with agriculture in this State, and is now apparently an assured State subject of continued standing as much as other subjects of legislation, like education, public health, the preservation of game, and the administration of justice.

The expansion of the granite and marble industries of Vermont has been so great as to give it rank among the foremost producing States of the Union, and in the art and quality of its material and work it is foremost in all respects.

In self-government, as affects all the things which make living conditions naturally satisfactory and profitable, there has been marked increase in the conservation of all the living opportunities afforded by the State; but it is again emphasized that this has been in due course of growth and not the incidental recognition of a possibility. Our people have been conservative, rational, and human in the development of their chance, their natural resources, and their duty in regard to these, and have not required either through neglect or by any lapse of their rights the service of the National Government in this regard, least of all through any material modification of the relationship defining State rights and State duties. There is a greater disposition here to accept direction as concerns the husbandry of our resources from science than from politics, and to insist that the care and supervision of such matters will best conserve our interests and our happiness if left to the judgment, regulation, and control of our own folks.

There has been in the past few years a marked increase of income per acre from cultivated land in Vermont, and a relatively greater income per acre than in the leading agricultural States, due, no doubt, to more intense farming, and there has also been an increase in the output of dairy products, while quarrying and stone-cutting manufactures have multiplied and taken a strong grasp on market opportunity. At the same time the great glory and strong defense of our State, its forests and its woodlots, have been conserved, and planting and scientific cutting have more and more become the rule. The reports from the stone industries indicate a growing demand for the manufactures of the State in granite, marble, and slate. The reports from agriculture indicate an increasing tillage and a larger financial return, an advance in the price of land, and vastly improved living conditions of the farm. The report from all the State commissions charged with the supervision of public health and the real life interests of the people supply increasing evidence of improved water supplies, of municipal lighting and power ownership, of increased transportation facilities, of reduction on accident hazards, and of steady advances in the art of and provision for public instruction.

In forestry, which is one of the greatest natural resources of Vermont apart from its vast contribution to the beauty of the State as a great natural park and game preserve, there has been the most marked advance. The office of State Forester was established in April of 1909, since which date its occupant, Mr A. F. Hawes, has made sixty-three addresses upon the subject in various parts of the State before numerous associations, agricultural societies, and forestry conventions. The State nursery under his direction has become one of the largest in the United States, today containing over 3,000,000 trees, and there have been sold within the past year--a remarkable exhibit for a State of our size--750,000 trees, distributed through every county in our State. Private timber holdings have been examined, detailed advices for handling many forests have been furnished, and in many instances trees have been marked for cutting by State advice on private lands. Besides this, there have been established two State forests of 800 acres which will be treated as subsidiary reservation nurseries to the one established at Burlington.

Attention has been and is being given to all details relating to the promotion of agriculture, forestry, dairying, minerals, and water powers, so that it is possible to advise you that Vermont is wholly alive to all natural, moral, educational, industrial, civic, and political propositions as they stand related to the Conservation of everything that will best promote the well-being and happiness of its people.

REPORT FROM WASHINGTON

E. G. GRIGGS

_Chairman Washington Delegation_

On behalf of the Washington delegation, of which I have the honor of being Chairman, I desire to congratulate this Congress and every delegate on the opportunity afforded us in hearing that grand interpretation of Conservation so ably presented by President Taft. It will live as an epic, and should be translated throughout the land.

Since that opening day I have been thrilled and electrified by this theme of Conservation, which is but another name for Patriotism, the husbanding of the Nation's resources.

The country is stirred by that same feeling which I sometimes think aroused our Fathers before the Civil War. Let us profit by the great forward steps they made in the determination of State and Federal rights. To us it has fallen to solve these patriotic, philanthropic, and commercial questions of the day.

I deplore the interjection of demagoguery and personal political advancement. I believe there is a sane, safe and sound Conservation that we can all practice. Above all things, let us eschew politics and throw a little more of that unselfish, self-sacrificing effort into this great fight for the Nation that characterizes our friend and collaborator, Gifford Pinchot.

We should leave this Congress united in this one idea at least, that we will stop the Nation's waste and encourage its development, so far as it lies within our power.

Eighteen years ago I left the State of Minnesota and this delightful city which was my home, to do my share in the development of the Pacific Slope--"I love its rocks and rills, its woods and templed hills." Wild horses could not drag me back to Minnesota, where fifty years ago my father pioneered, and is yet interested--not that I love Minnesota less, but only that I love Washington more. You have grown and developed great cities. Do not forget to let us do likewise.

We no longer say, with Greeley, "Go West;" we say, Come West. Under the classic shades of our noble forests and within easy access of the snow-capped peak of Mount Tacoma--that mother of water-powers and protector of forests--we are solving _our_ pioneer problems, and we are not lagging behind in the race.

Our citizenship is of the highest type and from all of your States, for it is composed of that progressive element that first made your own cities famous--and did not back out of big problems. We are no longer savages devastating the frontier and Uncle Sam's patrimony. He is no longer "rich enough to give us all a farm;" but we are citizens alive to the big problems of the day--and we are the virgin State in which Conservation and common sense can be practiced before it is too late. I predict for the State of Washington--with wise Federal and State legislation--a shining example of what horse-sense and Conservation will bring about.

If we sell our common lumber at the mills on Puget Sound for $8 to $10 a thousand, which is two to three dollars less than we got 15 years ago, and have to pay $600 to $700 for a team of horses in Minnesota today that 15 years ago we could buy for $200 to $300, is it any wonder that we lumbermen of the West are interested in Conservation?

Rich beyond measure in timber, coal, fish, mines, and agricultural lands, the great State of Washington is with you and your commissions that must finally work out and crystallize wise and patriotic legislation. Let us Nationally inventory our stocks and resources, unify and codify our laws affecting taxation and irrigation, liability and responsibility--develop our interstate commerce, and promote the general welfare.

REPORT FROM WEST VIRGINIA

HU MAXWELL

_Chairman State Conservation Commission_

Near the close of 1908 Honorable W. M. O. Dawson, then Governor of West Virginia, appointed a commission of three members, Neil Robinson, James H. Stewart, and Hu Maxwell, to prepare a report for the guidance of the Legislature in framing laws for the Conservation of the State's resources. The report was ready for the Legislature when it convened in January, 1909. It recommended a number of changes in existing laws, and the enactment of several new ones. Its principal recommendations were as follows:

1--A forest law providing for the prevention and suppression of fire, and for the care of woodlands and watercourses. A draft of the proposed law was included in the report.

2--A law to lessen the waste of natural gas, by requiring the plugging of wells when not in use, and saving the gas from others instead of permitting it to blow into the air. It was urged that effort be made to check the leak from gas mains.

3--For the purpose of checking the tremendous loss of by-products in coke making a law was recommended, to take effect five years from its passage, prohibiting the erection of any other than by-product ovens, but placing no restrictions on any ovens then in use, so long as they might last.

4--The State was urged to cooperate with the Federal Government in all reasonable ways for the improvement of navigable rivers in the State, and in the protection of mountain forests and the building of storage reservoirs to check the rush of floods and improve low-water conditions.

5--The establishment of an engineering school was recommended for the special purpose of educating men to develop and conserve the State's resources. It was pointed out that much of the practical work of Conservation does not depend so much on the enactment of laws as on the training of men to do the work. In this connection it was shown that vast quantities of low grade coal, which is now unmarketable, is thrown away or left in the mines, though it would be sufficient, if manufactured into producer gas, to furnish power to drive much of the machinery in the State and in surrounding regions. If the State's water-power were fully developed it would be sufficient to turn every wheel in the State, but this development cannot be brought about by laws alone; it must depend largely on trained men.

6--Better game and fish laws were recommended to take the place of the old laws which had failed to produce the desired results.

7--It was urged that prompt investigation be made of the question of municipal water supply in the State with the view to the prevention of pollution of the running streams.

8--It appearing probable that certain valleys in West Virginia would respond in a satisfactory way to irrigation, it was recommended that experiments be carried out to test the matter.

9--The State's natural scenery is such that it might be made a valuable asset, in connection with the protection of forests and streams, and the Commission recommended that the fact be borne in mind in laying out new roads, so that full advantage be taken of all scenic possibilities.

10--An immigration agency was recommended for the purpose of bringing into the State desirable immigrants who will cultivate the farms which suffer from neglect in many parts of the State.

11--Changes in road laws were urged which would make possible the building of permanent, durable, desirable highways in place of the gullies and precipitous paths which in many parts have been tolerated as roads from the earliest settlement of the region down to the present.

12--The purchase of land by the State in each of the congressional districts was recommended for farms to serve as models and object lessons for the surrounding farmers; their management to be in the hands of trained agriculturists.

* * * * *

The Legislature which convened in January, 1909, considered one or two of the recommendations of the Commission. A forest and game law was enacted, though it was not the measure which the Commission recommended. The law, however, is a good one so far as it goes, and if its provisions shall be carried out, much good may be expected.

No steps were taken by the Legislature to lessen the waste of natural gas or to save the by-products in coke making. A new highway law was enacted, and a State commission was appointed to study the road problem.

REPORT FROM WISCONSIN

E. M. GRIFFITH

_State Forester_

Governor James O. Davison appointed the Wisconsin State Conservation Commission July 24, 1908. The seven members appointed were men whose positions gave them a considerable knowledge as to the natural resources of the State, and the Governor gave the Commission full authority to call upon any State department for detailed information.

During the summer of 1908 the Commission held several meetings in the Capitol, and reports were prepared on the three most important and pressing Conservation problems in Wisconsin, viz: water-powers, forests, and soils. A full report covering these three subjects was then made to the Governor, and this the Governor transmitted to the Legislature in February, 1909. The Commission made the following recommendations:

WATER-POWERS. 1--That franchises for water-powers be granted under a general statute.

2--That the issuing of such franchises be placed in the hands of the railroad rate commission, or similar board, under conditions to be provided by a general statute.

3--That such franchises be in the nature of leases for a long term of years. Such leases should be renewable on equitable terms. Rentals should be low, and should be applied to the extension of the State forest reserve.

4--That a reasonable Conservation charge be levied on all developed water-powers on rivers of which the headwaters are protected by forest reserve lands, the income from such charge to be applied to the extension of the State forest reserve.

5--That the survey of the water-powers of the State be completed in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey.

FORESTS. 1--The State Conservation Commission regard it of the utmost importance that the State forest reserve, located about the headwaters of the more important streams of the State, be greatly extended. At the present time the opportunities to make such extensions are much more favorable than they will be in the future, and therefore the Commission recommend that immediate action be taken to secure such extensions.

2--The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that, in view of the large increase in area of the forest reserves since the last session of the Legislature and the probability that in the future such holdings will be materially added to, the annual appropriation of the State board of forestry for administrative purposes should be largely increased.

3--The State Conservation Commission also approved the following principles as adopted at the Lake States Forestry Conference, held at Madison, December 10, 1908:

"_Resolved_, That forest fires being one of the greatest enemies of the State, and thus akin to riot and invasion, the Executive power of the State should be employed to the utmost limit in emergencies in their suppression and control for the protection of the lives and property of the people.

"_Resolved_, That we advocate the patrol system as the only satisfactory method of preventing forest fires, and the commanding factor in fighting them.

"_Resolved_, That we recommend the retention of the fire warden system with the county, rather than the town, as the unit, as being essential in securing interest and responsibility among the people most affected.

"_Resolved_, That in all districts covered by State fire patrol a reasonable portion of the expense for such patrol should be placed upon the unoccupied, unimproved, or wild lands, whether forest or cut-over land, preferably in the form of an acreage tax.

"_Resolved_, That the expense of the local fire warden service, and the help called out for the suppression of fires, should be borne wholly or in part by the county or town, but the payment should first be made by the State to insure promptness.

"_Resolved_, That all officials, including public prosecutors, charged with the enforcement of fire-protective measures, should be subject to severe penalty or removal from office for non-performance of duty.

"_Resolved_, That the successful prosecution and a commensurate punishment in case of conviction often cannot be secured in the locality where the offense has been committed, and in order that the law shall be enforced, in the interest of justice, and under authority of the attorney general, a change of venue should be permitted.

"_Resolved_, That it is the sense of this meeting that lands containing forests should be taxed in the usual manner so far as the land is concerned, said land to be assessed as if it contained no timber; but the forest products should be assessed and taxed only when they are cut and removed, and then in an appropriate manner; that the harvest timber tax should be based on a stumpage value determined by the value of the forest product at the place where it is assessed, less the cost of placing it there."

SOILS. The State Conservation Commission recommend to the Governor that a soil survey of the State be undertaken and carried on at such a rate as will give a general view of the soils of the State in about five years. The Commission call especial attention to the immediate need of such a survey in the central and northern parts of the State, the soils of which are now coming rapidly into agricultural use; and also to its necessity on lands which may be included in a forest reserve and which should be devoted to forestry or agriculture according to the nature of their soil.

* * * * *

Let us see what were the results of these recommendations. A number of bills were introduced in the Legislature of 1909, seeking franchises to dam navigable streams and to create reservoirs and reservoir systems; but acting upon the recommendations of the Conservation Commission, all such bills were referred to a special committee of the Legislature on "Water-powers, Forestry, and Drainage" which has carefully investigated the development of the water-powers of the State and will report either to a special session of the Legislature or to the regular session in 1911. Undoubtedly the issuing of such franchises will be placed in the hands of a competent board or commission. All forestry bills introduced in 1909 were referred to the same special committee of the Legislature. Two members of this committee have made their report, and include the following recommendations in regard to the forestry work of the State:

1--An act to provide a State tax of two-tenths of one mill for each dollar of the assessed valuation of the taxable property in the State, to be collected annually for a period of twenty years, the tax when levied and collected to constitute "a forestry investment fund" to be used for the purchase, improvement, and protection of the forest reserve lands.

2--An act to provide for the piling and burning of white Norway and jack pine slash.

3--An act to provide for the employment of an efficient fire patrol by the State board of forestry.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Conservation Commission, the Legislature in 1909 passed an Act providing for a soil survey of the State, and this work is being done by the Geological Survey and College of Agriculture, for the purpose of ascertaining the character and fertility of the developed and undeveloped soils of the State, the extent and practicability of drainage of the swamp and wet lands of the State, and the means for properly conserving and increasing the fertility of the soil of the State.

It will be seen from the above that the work of the State Conservation Commission has already shown important results, and it is believed that the Legislature and people of Wisconsin have now begun to realize clearly the urgent need and also the means which should be taken to conserve the great natural resources.

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

The Conservation of natural resources is a subject in which an American academy of political and social science must necessarily have a keen interest. The primary purpose of the American Academy being to assist in the right solution of the political and economic problems confronting the people of the United States, it has actively cooperated with those individuals and organizations that have done most to give impetus to the Conservation movement.

At the White House Conference called by President Roosevelt in May, 1908, the American Academy was one of the National organizations represented. The following November, the Academy devoted one of its regular scientific sessions to Conservation, the chief address of the session being delivered by Mr Gifford Pinchot, the Chairman of the National Conservation Commission. The Academy was also represented at the Conference which met in Washington in December, 1908, upon the invitation of the National Conservation Commission.

The most valuable aid the American Academy has given the Conservation movement was rendered by the publication, in May, 1909, of a comprehensive volume containing eighteen papers especially prepared by men prominent in the Conservation movement. The scope and character of this volume are indicated by the following list of papers and contributors:

_Forestry on Private Lands_--Honorable Gifford Pinchot, U. S. Forester, and Chairman National Conservation Commission.

_Public Regulation of Private Forests_--Professor Henry Solon Graves, Director Forest School, Yale University.

_Can the States Regulate Private Forests?_--F. C. Zacharie, Esq., of the Louisiana Bar, New Orleans.

_Water as a Resource_--W J McGee, LL.D., U. S. Inland Waterways Commission; Member National Conservation Commission.

_Water Power in the United States_--M. O. Leighton, Chief Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey.

_The Scope of State and Federal Legislation Concerning the Use of Waters_--Charles Edward Wright, Assistant Attorney to the Secretary of the Interior.

_The Necessity for State or Federal Regulation of Water-power Development_--Charles Whiting Baker, C. E., Editor-in-Chief Engineering News, New York.

_Federal Control of Water Power in Switzerland_--Treadwell Cleveland, Jr., U. S. Forest Service.

_Classification of Public Lands_--George W. Woodruff, Assistant Attorney-General for the Department of the Interior.

_A Summary of our Most Important Land Laws_--Honorable Knute Nelson, U. S. Senator from Minnesota; Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Lands, and Chairman of Committee on Lands, National Conservation Commission.

_Indian Lands: Their Administration with Reference to Present and Future Use_--Honorable Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

_The Conservation and Preservation of Soil Fertility_--Cyril G. Hopkins, Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry, University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Urbana.

_Farm Tenure in the United States_--Henry Gannett, Geographer U. S. Geological Survey.

_What may be Accomplished by Reclamation_--Honorable Frederick H. Newell, Director U. S. Reclamation Service.

_The Legal Problems of Reclamation of Lands by Means of Irrigation_--Morris Bien, Supervising Engineer, U. S. Reclamation Service.

_Our Mineral Resources_--Honorable George Otis Smith, Director U. S. Geological Survey.

_The Production and Waste of Mineral Resources and their Bearing on Conservation_--J. A. Holmes, Chief, Technologic Branch U. S. Geological Survey; Member National Conservation Commission.

_Preservation of the Phosphates and the Conservation of the Soil_--Charles Richard Van Hise, President of the University of Wisconsin.

There were 5500 copies of this volume published, and its wide distribution at a most opportune time caused it to have an exceptionally effective influence. By the end of 1909 the edition was practically exhausted, and a new edition became necessary. The Canadian members of the American Academy, it is interesting to note, were particularly pleased to receive this publication.

It is the belief of those most active in the work of the American Academy that the question of the Conservation of American resources outranks all other economic questions now before the people of the United States. It is especially important that National and local organizations should cooperate as fully as possible in educating the public as to the present condition of our resources, the manner in which they are being used, and the measures that should be taken to make these resources of permanent as well as of present value to the American people.

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] EMORY R. JOHNSON, _Chairman_ FREDERICK C. STEVENS WM. B. DEAN W. A. FLEMING JONES WM. L. WEST CHARLES W. AMES _Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION

When the American Automobile Association was originally honored with an invitation to the National Conservation Congress it promptly accepted with two objects in view; _first_, to influence, if possible, the advocacy of a good highway construction and maintenance policy throughout the United States--National, State, and local--in its program in order to broaden and help the movement itself, and _second_, to enlist the friends of Conservation in advancing highway construction; in other words, to make the theory of Conservation cover not only the care and perpetuation of natural resources, but all broad economic activities, throughout the length and breadth of the country, concerning the care and betterment of property, whether natural or artificial. The resident in the East must feel that only by bringing within the scope of the Conservation movement these somewhat narrower and more artificial economic measures can any wide and deeply interested following be secured in the more thickly settled eastern States, as most questions of bulk ownership and management of natural property in this section have long since been settled in law and in fact. If you adopt this theory and definition of Conservation, and thereupon, among other efforts, give your help to advance the matter of good roads, then the advocates of good roads all over the country will have gained an ally, and you will have secured new friends.

The American Automobile Association is devoting the major part of its time, means, and enthusiasm to advancing and coordinating the activity of good highway construction and maintenance, and to the preparation and enactment of good National, State, and local legislation regulating traffic on these highways all over the country. The Association is organized in the large majority of all our States, with a large local following in every center, and with an effective central management cooperating with the most important like bodies abroad and with such associations at home as the U. S. Office of Good Roads; National Grange, Patrons of Husbandry; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union; and League of American Wheelmen. It consists of State organizations in most of the States, comprising approximately 250 local clubs and over 30,000 members. It is an active force engaged in useful educational and constructive work to better our National life by improving in an intelligent and public spirited manner a very important branch of transportation. It is and has been for some years the leading spirit in this work, as witness the organization of the National Good Roads Convention with the above-mentioned cooperating associations to be held in Saint Louis toward the end of this month.

Transportation, broadly considered, has been the greatest ruling economic force in every civilization created by man. Its absence or limitation ever makes for barbarism or the decadence of the people so confined. It is the pioneer and prime moving force in the creation of progress and enlightenment. Each stage of the world's history that has witnessed some pronounced advance in transportation methods has been swiftly followed by a more than proportionate advance in progress, in wealth, and in happiness of the people affected. Witness the march of wealth and education following the practical operation of the steam railway in the later half of the last century, and the further advance following the practical perfection of electrical transportation during the last quarter of the same century. Steam has provided transportation for the great bulk of world life; electricity opened the way for relatively lighter and cheaper transport, thus opening sections otherwise not accessible for economic reasons. The motor-car and the public highway have crowned these achievements by providing a means for speedy, cheap, safe, and agreeable transport to any corner of the country, the qualities just described constituting the essence of what is best in transportation.

The public highways in the country, however, which premise the reasonable use of motor transportation, have not advanced either in quality or quantity with the means of transport itself during the past fifteen years. The very existence of steam transport when this country was young and sparsely settled and poor and badly developed, and even of electrical transport at a later day, had in themselves limited the development of a reasonable highway system, when comparison is made with other older countries of like wealth, population, and civilization. In earlier days military necessity did not compel this Government to build National highways for the movement of troops--the railroads did that. Economy of transport did not compel the several States to build highways--the railway, the steamboat, the electric tram cared for that. It was not until the advent of the practical modern motor-car that the almost savage condition of this country with respect to highways became apparent. Since then, say within the past ten years, the force moving all over the country toward reasonable highway development, maintenance, and regulation (which had its great inspiration in the army of motor-car tourists acquiring a knowledge of the geography and the beauties of this country by a new and independent method of travel, and which has more recently turned into a flood of growing purpose and organization for better highways because of the conviction of the farmer and the business man of the United States of their economic value in reducing the cost of ton-mile detail haulage to the lines of bulk transportation), as well as toward the moral uplift of the entire farming and country life, due to releasing the country resident from the unhealthy isolation of former times--this force must now be recognized and satisfied, and this Conservation Congress is a logical forum for exploiting and advancing these aspirations.

A recent phase of this great new interest and industry has been the abuse heaped upon it by certain special interests that have been touched by the change the motor-car has wrought over the country. The Reverend Sam Small once remarked that if you threw a brick in the dark and heard a dog howl you knew that you had hit him. The misrepresentation and denunciation and apparent lack of understanding of the true meaning of this new interest seems to come near those financial and bulk transportation interests--with their affected fear of largely mythological mortgages--from which the motor-car user in the aggregate has detached some profit either in transport or in investment. It needs no fine intelligence in these times to understand the weight and purpose of this opposition which has assumed an almost proscriptive right to the collection and handling of the loose money of the unorganized individual all over the country. What is this doctrine that the banker has become the censor of the individual's needs and actions with his own money? Have the farmer and the business man of this country recently become so poor or reckless or so much in debt as to apologize to their fiscal agents for the purchase of a motor-car with their own money or lose credit? Does this not logically lead to an equal apology and loss of credit for owning a decent home instead of a miserable one, or wearing good clothing, or eating good food, or getting a good education, or buying a carpet, a piano, or any of the other things which in the sum constitute the high environment of American life? The tens of thousands of users of motor-cars that are today deriving health and pleasure and, in a far greater number of cases than generally known, profit from the purchase and use of motor-cars, are deflecting interest and capital from channels which have long enjoyed them to their great benefit. That is the origin of the detraction of the motor-car industry and the individuals who created it and who are enjoying it today.

Fair and intelligent consideration is not generally given to the fact that speedier transportation wherever possible is inevitable in human history; that, when a farmer or a doctor or a real estate agent, or a business man of any sort, finds that, at the same cost, he can do, with the same personal effort per day, four times more work in a motor-car than with a pair of horses, provided decent roads exist--when this fundamental economic fact reaches the masses, then good roads teeming with motor-cars and trucks and reasonable universal legislation will be demanded and gotten. When added to this, the same investment provides the means of winging off where fancy leads on a healthful and charming tour or visit, who shall deny that the individual is wise to avail himself of this new facility?

Finally, sufficient weight is not given to the fact that every ton of freight in this broad country must be carried from its primal source, not once but several times, to a railroad or steamboat or tram, before it reaches the goal of the final user. The perfected motor-wagon and truck made in quantity at reasonable cost, provided the good highway exists everywhere, is the inevitable source of such reasonable transport: and, from the standpoint of utility, or effectiveness, or congestion of street areas, or speed--from any standpoint whatsoever--it is as distinct an advance over animal traction as was the electric tram thirty years ago over animal traction in that field of enterprise. The millions of dollars going into this industry spread out through the people, irrigating the total prosperity of the country through its appropriate channels, just as money spent on everything else the individual buys throughout the country, adds its appropriate quota to our National prosperity, and should be quite as immune from attack and misrepresentation.

Good highways and highway legislation are today a generally recognized National necessity. If this country were now through concerted action, Nationally, in States, in counties, and in cities, to spend enough money to put its streets and highways in a comparable condition with those of England or France, and to replace the great percentage of animal traction and motor-cars as now made, to carry the bulk of detail tonnage on these highways, it could not in any other manner or with any better advantage to the coming generation, as concerns its wealth, happiness, and profit, invest this enormous sum or, in any other manner, not only add to the value of country property but influence so positively and so speedily an increase in the happiness and general content of country life in the United States.

In conclusion, it is respectfully urged that the project of good highways and reasonable uniform State and National legislation governing their use should be incorporated in detail in the program of this National Conservation Congress and every kindred association throughout the length and breadth of the land.

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] POWELL EVANS _Chairman, A. A. A. Conservation Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION

I have already had the honor of presenting some statement of Rhode Island's interest in the Conservation movement, and of the ways in which she proposes to demonstrate it. But I also bear messages from the American Civic Association and other organizations. Perhaps one might think, on first consideration, that there was nothing very closely related, or perhaps related at all, in the purposes of the Conservation Commission of the State of Rhode Island and those of the American Civic Association, the Providence Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Park Commission of Providence Plantations, the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, and the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; yet I bring you greetings from all of these. I want to tell you that they are all working with all the enthusiasm there is in them for some phase or other of the mighty movement for Conservation.

Some people have said--half contemptuously perhaps (I am afraid so)--that Conservation is made to cover about every kind of a movement there is on this great footstool, but perhaps the statement is about true so far as these movements are concerned with the preservation and development of any of the great assets of nature or artificial achievements of man that are necessary or useful to the well-being of our own or future generations. Whether we are considering the forests upon the mountain sides that control the floods and affect the farms and the water-powers and the navigable streams below, or are thinking how to plan and lay out and construct our towns and cities so that they shall most worthily and efficiently fulfill their two great purposes as places (1) to live happily in and (2) to work most successfully in, we find their principles overlapping and leading from one end of the line clear to the other. You cannot separate them, and it is not worth while to try.

The interests of the American Civic Association, of course, are not restricted to any State or section. Its activities are Nation-wide. "For a Better and More Beautiful America" is its motto, and it believes that a more beautiful America is bound to be a better and more prosperous America. It believes also that the Conservation of beauty means the Conservation of patriotism; and its distinguished president has paraphrased a well-known utterance of Ex-Mayor McClellan to the effect that "The country healthy, the country wealthy, and the country wise, may excite satisfaction, complaisance, and pride: but it is the country beautiful that compels and retains the love of its citizens." It is the love of country that lights and keeps glowing the holy fire of patriotism, and this love is excited primarily by the beauty of the country and the environments of the citizens.

The American Institute of Architects believes that when a thing is most usefully done it is most beautifully done. It believes that Conservation deals with two great departments closely related in human endeavor, and that you cannot divorce the necessity of city planning from the development of the resources of nations. A properly planned structure, whether it be of a single building or of a whole city, with all its homes and shops and streets, means the Conservation of the people's efficiency through all the generations that shall ever come to dwell therein. Similarly, the park movement, as we see it scientifically promoted, is almost wholly a measure of Conservation. It is not, as the previous generation believed, primarily to tack on ornate luxuries to the urban fabric, but to preserve the necessary recreation places that would otherwise be obliterated, but without which the race of city-bred dwellers cannot survive. It is to safeguard human efficiency and happiness.

The Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, whose president, Honorable J. Hampton Moore, has bidden me extend his greetings, calls for things that mean much Conservation of effort. Its project would remove much of the material burden of unnecessary cost. There is Conservation of vast energy and the saving of huge National burdens in the present eastern ambition for the fuller improvement of harbors and development of connecting inland waterways. Let me tell you how the improvement of the harbors related to the handling of at least 80 percent of the $1,500,000,000 worth of all our imports, for this is the proportion that comes into the eastern harbors of the Nation. It relates to the transportation of products of the eastern States worth over $14,000,000,000 a year--of 85 percent of all the cotton that the Nation raises, and 58 percent of all our manufactures; to the 765,000,000 tons of merchandise that has to be transported through these States in which more than 50 percent of all our people dwell, and then transferred in various ways for the equal benefit of the other 50 percent. No item in the cost of our existence is of more importance than that of transportation.

Well, of course, the Board of Trade is interested in all these things, though it looks upon them primarily as they bear upon the up-building of a city. It believes that it is working to assist the logical development of a city of glorious possibilities where certain services to the Nation may best be performed. If there were not sound economic reasons for the up-building of a great city at any given place, it would be foolish and wicked to attempt by artificial means to talk it into being, or try to force it by the hothouse method of overheated air. But if you have the necessary natural assets and opportunities that but await intelligent handling, why here comes the need of Conservation as a vital obligation.

[Signed] HENRY A. BARKER _Delegate_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION

No organization can more appropriately than the American Forestry Association make its statement and its appeal to this Congress; for it is the first of our Conservation organizations. It has a past of nearly thirty years to which it can point with pride of real achievement; an active and efficient, though not a noisy, present; and a future of ever enlarging opportunity.

In a very real sense we may say that the work of this Association, through years of much misunderstood effort, under the able guidance of the great leaders of the American forestry movement, made this Congress possible; for it was through the study of forestry and its relation to the country that the whole problem of our National resources came to be understood. The man who has given the Conservation of natural resources its impetus, with the help of his distinguished chief, then President of the United States, was the recognized leader, the apostle and evangelist, of the forestry movement; and today no portion of our natural resources holds a more important place than the forests. They are inseparably linked with soils and waters, both of which depend on them in great measure; and as a product of the soil, nothing exceeds the forests in value and in necessity to human welfare. Forests, like agricultural crops, belong to the renewable class of products, and their maintenance involves much more complicated and permanent problems than the non-renewable products like metals, coal, oil, and gas. Therefore we conceive the field of our Association to be vital and lasting, and so broad, many-sided, and far-reaching as to amply justify the existence of an organization dedicated to the advancement of scientific forestry for the best utilization of our forest lands for all time.

Our appeal is to the citizen who desires to promote the economic and moral welfare of the Nation, for moral welfare comes only through good economics and such management of natural resources as makes for prosperity; to the lumbermen and to all manufacturers who use forest products, for to them this is a subject that touches the permanence of their industries; to the educator who looks beyond mere culture and believes that our education must more and more fit men and women to cope with the complex problems of modern life. In this last connection we shall soon announce plans, recently set on foot, for giving practical and definite assistance to those teachers who wish to bring the fundamental principles of forestry into their work, but who do not know how. We shall try to show them how in a systematic and practical way.

Our work is independent of that of the Government, but is conducted in close touch with it. As an independent body of citizens we can do and say what Government officials cannot do and say. Our program embodies: (1) An equitable system of taxation which shall not unduly burden the growing crop; (2) adequate protection against fire, which will reduce this greatest of forest perils to a minimum; (3) the practice of scientific management upon all existing forests; (4) the planting of all unoccupied lands which can be utilized more profitably for forestry than for any other purpose; and, (5) the whole to be brought about through harmonious adjustment of functions between the three classes of owners--National, State, and private. We do not believe that either one of these agencies is to be relied on alone. Each has its place. I say this because our position in this regard is often misconceived. I may add (to correct another misapprehension) that we do not believe in putting under forest land more valuable for agriculture. Forestry and agriculture are not rivals. They go hand in hand.

One specific object to which we have given much effort for several years is the establishment of National Forests on the great interstate water-sheds of the Northern and Southern Appalachians. The conditions, which are acute for the thickly populated East, can only be handled by the united action of the National and State governments and private owners. The central cores of the White Mountains and the Southern Appalachians clearly require National care and management. With this and cooperation of the States and private owners with the National Government, we can save a rare country of beauty, health, and productiveness from being made a depopulated waste. We begin to see the light. In the House of the last two Congresses we have passed a bill, after fighting to a finish the reactionary element which has controlled that body and throttled legislation framed in the public interest. In the Senate we have a strong working majority which can only be beaten, as in the Sixtieth and Sixty-first Congresses, by filibustering in the last hours of the session. If we are not cheated of our reward next winter we shall mark a new step in the progress of American forestry by making the National Forest system really National.

The Association now has about 6600 members; it maintains an office in Washington, where a close watch is kept upon National legislation, and through its correspondents, upon State legislation. It provides lectures, issues bulletins on important subjects, conducts a correspondence bureau, and publishes a monthly magazine, _American Forestry_, which is contributed to by the best authorities in the country, and is the only popular magazine of its class of National scope. We enjoy the cordial cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service and of the various State forest bureaus.

We look forward confidently to a future in which the practice of scientific forestry will become general throughout the United States, when our forest lands will be clearly defined and permanently maintained in productive growth, when waste lands will cease to play so large a part in our National statistics, when the production of the forests will cease to be so much less than the consumption of forest products, and when the National wealth will be contributed to largely each year from this source. But even with this hopeful outlook we cannot see that our work will ever be done, and we welcome the assistance which this Conservation Congress can give us.

[Signed] EDWIN A. START _Executive Secretary_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION

The Committee on Conservation of National Animal Resources (the same being a sub-committee of the National Conservation Commission of the Federal Government) have the honor to report as follows:

The animal resources of the United States constitute a large proportion of its natural productive energy. This country has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens. These constitute natural resources which are producing a larger percentage of wealth and a larger proportionate return for capital invested than almost any one other resource. Furthermore, the actual means of sustaining life is more dependent on these resources than on all others combined, for aside from the food value of the cattle, hogs, sheep, and chickens, and also aside from the other products which are received from them, agricultural operations would be rendered largely inoperative if the assistance of the larger animals were withdrawn. In this way the products of the soil upon which man is so largely dependent for sustenance would be materially affected, and without the assistance of these animals the supply would diminish to the extent of actual starvation for vast numbers of the world's populace. Even if mechanical contrivances should replace the labor of beasts, the cost would be enormously increased; and the natural fertilizing products being removed, the productive value of the soil would also be progressively decreased.

From whatever point we look at this important question, the value of our animal resources is so great and so fundamental that the Nation may well give its best energies and most discriminating intelligence to their protection and conservation. It has been estimated that through the humane treatment and care of horses the average life of these useful creatures can be easily increased from 20 to 25 percent. This likewise means a proportionate increase in the results derived from their labor, which in the aggregate would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The same is also largely true of the increased value of other domestic animals as the result of humane and considerate treatment, which in all instances would greatly prolong their lives.

The American Humane Association has been greatly interested in promoting the more merciful treatment of range stock, which in the past have been largely left to shift for themselves during the cold, bleak winters of the Northwestern ranges. This has resulted in the death of vast numbers of livestock. A recent report of the Department of Agriculture indicates that over 1,000,000 domestic animals die in the United States each year from hunger and exposure.

Another department in which the humanitarian societies of the United States have been largely interested which bears directly on the conservation of a great natural resource, has been the protection of the fur seals. These interesting and valuable animals, through piratical efforts employed in their destruction, have become partially exterminated, and a great source of National wealth has been almost annihilated. From vast herds, numbering a great many hundreds of thousands, the seals have been reduced until their rookeries in the islands of the northern Pacific belonging to the United States have been almost depopulated. Friends of the Conservation policy have earnestly protested in Congress against this inhumane and economically unwise course, and during the last session legislation was passed and signed by President Taft, which would insure the ample protection of the seals. Grave fears are expressed at the present time lest this result should be endangered by unwise administrative measures which are threatened. I earnestly hope that the second National Conservation Congress will speak in no uncertain terms in regard to this important question, so that the seals may be restored once more to their original numbers and productive value.

This Committee will not undertake to present all the activities in which we have been interested which bear upon this subject, but content ourselves with showing the great importance of this particular phase of Conservation. We trust that this Committee will continue for another year, and that the results of this Congress will be felt in every portion of the United States.

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] WILLIAM O. STILLMAN, _Chairman_ M. RICHARD MUCKLE ALFRED WAGSTAFF JOHN PARTRIDGE SAMUEL WEIS JOHN L. SHORTALL GUY RICHARDSON _Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

The Committee of the American Institute of Architects on the Conservation of Natural Resources has the honor to report as follows:

A wide and increasingly active interest in the subject exists among the officers and members of the Institute. The Committee believes that few, if any, of the great National organizations touch the subject of Conservation at so many points, or are more vitally interested in its wise and efficient progress, or can be more directly helpful in the application of the principles of Conservation in a great series of important industries.

The construction of modern buildings, either for residential or business purposes, involves the use in one form or another of practically the entire list of materials included under the general meaning of the term the "natural resources" of the country, excepting only agricultural land and foodstuffs; and in common with all other thinking citizens, the architects realize that the continued prosperity of the building interests is in the long run dependent on the wise use of these resources. Exact statistics of the great building industry of the country are not obtainable; but a somewhat extended inquiry recently made led to an approximate estimate of the amount of money expended upon buildings in the United States per annum at an average of not less than $1,000,000,000, practically all of which passes under the hands of the architects in the specifications of materials to be used and in certification as to quality and cost.

Among the materials used are metals, including iron and its various products in rolled steel, sheet metal, pipe, castings, and machinery, with copper, lead, graphite, zinc, nickel, silver, and even gold; lumber in enormous quantities and of all kinds; clay products, such as brick, terra cotta, roofing tiles, drain tiles, floor tiles, and porcelain; stone, including granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, and other quarry products; cement, lime, sand, glass, oils, gums, hemp, bitumen, asphalt, asbestos, barytes, and many other minerals; woven cotton, linen, wool, and other fibres. There are also used coal and water-power, and above all that greatest of all resources of the Nation, the labor of Man, both skilled and unskilled. This but briefly suggests the variety and extent of the interests represented in modern building. Therefore the profession of architecture, represented by the American Institute of Architects, has a most real interest in this great topic, and can and does wield a very potent influence upon the use of the products of mine, quarry, factory, and field.

It has been stated, with a large measure of truth, that if the architects will study the economic use of lumber and specify or permit the use of short lengths (such as 2-foot and 4-foot lengths as against 12-foot and 14-foot lengths) where such are structurally permissible, that a quarter of the lumber cut per annum could be saved without lessening the amount of lumber used in building. If the architects specify concrete to the exclusion of steel, the steel market is affected; if brick or clay products, the cement market is affected; if copper or sheet iron, or lead, or tile, or slate, or pitch, or even thatched straw, for roofing instead of shingles, the number of shingles used is correspondingly reduced. It is obvious that if the architects will substitute clay products or concrete or steel for lumber now used in building, no more effective method of conserving our lumber supply could be devised.

Materials used in buildings are not necessarily lost to the future, however. On the contrary, a certain class of materials, such as steel and other metals, are thus preserved, though temporarily withdrawn from use. Who shall say that other needs and other customs of building of a future time will not be as different from ours as ours are from those of former times? Indeed it is not wholly fantastic to prophesy that the skyscrapers of today may become the iron mines of tomorrow.

The architects are only indirectly employers of labor, but as such they can, more fairly and with less self-interest than any other class, observe the conditions under which labor in the building trades is employed. Your Committee believes that the great annual losses by reason of accidents to men engaged in the building trades are largely preventable; that laws governing the construction of scaffolding, hoisting apparatus, derricks, and other machinery used in quarrying or manufacturing and building, should be passed where they do not already exist, and should be rigorously enforced everywhere; that mechanics and laborers should be taught not to take unnecessary risks but should suffer their fair share of blame if they do, and that they should be encouraged by the public authorities in all reasonable demands for the opportunity to pursue their avocations without unnecessary hazard of life and limb.

The architects believe in the Conservation of buildings once they are erected, and to this end that fire-proof construction should be adopted wherever possible. In all American cities today fire is a constant menace, and the annual loss from this cause both in life and property is appalling. The strict enforcement of wise building laws will largely prevent this loss; but some concession in taxation to those erecting fire-proof buildings might be found feasible, whereby a premium would be given to those owners of buildings who contribute to the greater safety of life and property by erecting fire-proof structures--or on the other hand an increase of taxation might be made on those erecting buildings which endanger the lives and property of their neighbors and whose flimsy structures make necessary the present large public expenditure for fire-department service in our cities.

This Committee, in common with those who have from the beginning promoted the cause of Conservation, believes in the _use_ of our natural resources, not in their _abuse_--in their equitable distribution and development in the hands of the people or in the hands of the Government, not in locking them up in the hands of a few; and that if corporate capital can develop them better than individual capital, then that it should be so done only under restrictions that will safeguard the interests of the people and be subject to Governmental control and limitation, while at the same time giving the capital engaged absolute assurance of protection, security, and reasonable profit. This Committee believes that _use_ does not mean _waste_ or loss, nor does it mean that reckless spendthrift policy which would squander in a generation, or less, the vast natural resources of this Nation, or permit these resources to be monopolized.

The American Institute of Architects is heartily in sympathy with the principles of the Conservation of our natural resources--and will do its part to advance those principles.

[Signed] CASS GILBERT _Chairman_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN PAPER AND PULP ASSOCIATION

As long ago as 1898 the officers of the American Paper and Pulp Association, realizing the importance of maintaining a perpetual supply of pulpwood, devoted the annual meeting of that year principally to a discussion of the science and practice of forestry, then almost unknown in the United States. At that meeting addresses were delivered by Doctor Fernow, then Chief of the Government Forestry Bureau, by Mr Gifford Pinchot, his successor, and by Mr Austin Carey, now connected with the Forestry Department of the State of New York. Mr Hugh J. Chisholm, then President of the Association, in his annual message said:

"Those among us who have weighed the matter carefully are well aware that if we as a Nation are to take and permanently hold the foremost place in paper making, we must begin at once to husband our resources. Fortunately, the science of forestry, until recently but little known and heeded less, is ready to point out the way, and we shall learn from three of the best authorities of the country, not only why we should, but how we may, put in practice the principles of forestry. I hope that everyone will go away resolved directly or indirectly to do what he can to secure a rational use of this mainstay of our business."

The attitude of the Association, in the past twelve years, has been to exert its influence in every way possible in the encouragement of forest Conservation. Every year resolutions have been adopted urging timber land owners in the paper industry to practice conservative methods; and at the same time attention has been called to the vital importance of preventing forest fires, and in more recent years the subject of taxation of timber lands has also received attention.

Not only has a universal sentiment in favor of Conservation been created in the industry, but practical results have been accomplished. It is not too much to say that our timber land owners, with possibly here and there an exception, have been for a number of years all conducting their operations so as not to impair the reproductive capacity of their lands. In the first place, they have carefully studied their holdings, in many instances being assisted by the Forest Service at Washington; they have thus become enlightened as to how far cutting timber can go without jeopardizing the future. In the next place, they have voluntarily limited the size, or the diameter of trees, below which no cutting shall be done. They have very generally, although to just what extent cannot be definitely estimated, adopted the method of felling trees with the saw instead of the axe, and have in other ways sought to bring the waste down to a minimum. But perhaps in no way have they done better service than by encouraging legislation and the enforcement of it for the prevention of fires.

It is roughly estimated that the paper makers own in the United States about 5,000,000 acres, consisting mostly of spruce timber lands. While this is insufficient to afford a natural growth equal to the demands, the deficit is made up by purchases in the United States and by importations from Canada, and the use of other kinds of wood. There is still much more spruce cut for lumber than for pulpwood, but the paper makers are continually adding to their holdings, and there appears to be a readjustment of prices going on which is leading to the substitution of pulpwood production for lumber production.

The example set by paper makers is being followed by other timber land owners, so that we may confidently say that no timber lands of any moment are in any sense being denuded for the production of pulpwood. Less than 2 percent of the consumption of wood in this country is domestic pulpwood, and with a continuation of the conservative methods now in vogue, there need be no fear of diminution of our forests by the paper industry. In fact the perpetuation of the industry in the United States depends largely on the perpetuation of the forests of the United States, so that the paper manufacturers have every incentive to maintain them. The use of hemlock and other kinds of wood for pulp making has greatly increased, thus tending to relieve any drain there might be on the supply of spruce. As most of the paper mills are dependent on water-power, the manufacturers have still further incentive to protect the water-sheds. The Forest Commissioner of Maine has stated--

"Since the advent of the pulp and paper industry in Maine, covering a period of less than twenty years, the system of handling our forest lands has been completely revolutionized. Prior to ten years ago, in cutting logs in the woods, it has been demonstrated by actual tests and measurements that only from 60 to 65 percent of the volume of the lumber trees actually cut was saved and utilized for lumber purposes, while since that period on account of the paper industry it has been demonstrated by later measurements and experiments that from 80 to 85 percent of the volume of lumber trees is actually utilized, and what is of far greater importance is the fact that crooked, seamy and defective trees, as well as all of the undersized trees formerly cut and destroyed in swamping and in making yards and landings are now utilized. * * * Fully one-half of the whole territory of Maine has never as yet produced one single log for pulp and paper production. I refer to Saint John River drainage, where the same wanton system of lumbering, although possibly in a somewhat lesser degree, is being followed as was followed through the long period from 1860 to 1900. Were this territory fully developed for lumbering by means of proper railroad connections or water facilities, it is safe to assert that conservatively managed, as the paper companies are endeavoring to do today with the best knowledge obtainable, it would supply the entire demand for all the mills now located in Maine indefinitely."

In the State of New York all the paper makers who own lands in the Adirondacks have an Association, including many other lumbermen, which has cooperated with the State authorities in securing legislation which would foster conservative cutting and the prevention of fires.

The International Paper Company, owning nearly a million acres of forest lands in New England, New York State, and elsewhere in the United States, has always conducted its operations with a view to the future supply. In eleven years this company has cut less than two-tenths of a cord per year per acre, which is believed to be less than the natural growth. Two years ago this company started a nursery in Vermont, and each year it has been putting in transplants in increasing quantities in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York State, supplementing its own supply by purchases of seedlings and transplants at home and abroad. This replanting is being done on abandoned farms, pasture lands and burns. On their other holdings no replanting is necessary, as there is always sufficient growth left for reproduction. Some other companies have done replanting, but in general conservative cutting and protection from fire render extensive planting unnecessary.

The paper industry has acted on its own initiative, and while self-interest may have actuated it the result is none the less beneficial from the public point of view, and the policy is more apt to be followed permanently than if impractical law, attempting to make Conservation compulsory, were passed.

[Signed] E. W. BACKUS _Delegate_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

The most important interest which this Nation has to guard is human life and health. The conservation of National vitality is fundamental to all plans for the conservation of property and material welfare. As the life is more than meat and the body more than raiment, so is the preservation of health and the avoidance of unnecessary sickness and death of far greater importance than any other interests. Realizing this, the American Medical Association, the National organization of the American medical profession, has been in hearty sympathy with the Conservation movement from its inception. Composed of 52 State and Territorial associations and 1997 local branches with over 70,000 members, this Association has for years advocated the conservation of human life through the abolition of preventable diseases and the betterment of sanitary and hygienic conditions with a view to making the future work of the profession prevention rather than cure. For the accomplishment of these purposes it is today carrying out a number of important lines of work:

1--The American Medical Association has, since its organization in 1847, labored constantly for the elevation of medical schools and of the standard of medical education. Especially during the last five years it has, through its Council on Medical Education, carried on a system of inspection of medical schools with the publication of reports thereon, which has materially raised the standard of medical education and has eliminated a considerable number of low-grade institutions. It is obvious that any increase in efficiency of the medical profession of the present or of the future cannot but result in increased economy of health. The Association is glad to report that medical education in the United States is today upon a higher plane than ever before, and that the public is coming more and more to realize the value of a thorough scientific training for those who undertake the care of the sick.

2--Through its publication, _The Journal of the American Medical Association_, it is constantly laboring to improve the economic condition of the profession, recognizing as a general principle the fact that a poverty-stricken doctor is a dangerous doctor, both to the profession and to the community. The physician who is not able to procure proper instruments and drugs, or who through poverty cannot keep up with the progress of the profession or secure the necessary books and medical journals for his instruction, may and often does become an actual danger to his patients. Proper efforts on the part of the profession for its own material well-being will result in a better class of physicians and consequently in better medical services to patients.

3--One of the most important activities of the Association in the past five years has been the work of our Chemical Laboratory established for the investigation of pharmaceutical preparations offered to physicians for administration to patients, and for the analysis of so-called patent medicines sold directly to the public. This work has been carried on through the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry supported by the Association, and has resulted in a much-needed reform in pharmaceutical products. Many preparations which were carelessly, ignorantly, or fraudulently compounded, as well as many others which were sold under false representations, have been investigated and the results published to the medical profession. Although much yet remains to be accomplished, the reform in pharmaceutical preparations has already resulted in an enormous amount of benefit to the people through the enlightenment and education of the profession on this important question. An investigation of "patent medicines" has also been carried on, and many of the preparations offered to the public have been shown, by chemical analysis, to be fraudulent; some are positively harmful, some are harmless but are not as represented; while extravagant, absurd, and impossible claims, false testimonials, and misleading advertisements, are common to many of these preparations. The Association, by its work, has exposed many swindlers and fakirs, and as a result has earned their bitter antagonism.

4--In addition to investigating and exposing frauds in pharmaceutical preparations, the Association has also established a bureau for the collection and preservation of material regarding medical frauds and fakes--including fraudulent "cures" for tuberculosis, cancer, paralysis, locomotor ataxia, and other diseases--which are advertised to the public through false representation, leading not only to an enormous loss to the people through money paid to the swindlers without any beneficial results, but also to great loss of life and economic loss through illness owing to the victims of these frauds being deprived of proper treatment. The Association is cooperating with other organizations and with the proper authorities for the detection and punishment of these frauds and for the suppression of this most despicable kind of swindlers--those who prey upon the sick and, as a means of extorting a few dollars of blood money, take advantage of the natural desire of the sick or dying to recover health. It has been estimated by the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis that the money loss alone to the people of the United States through fake consumption cures amounts to $15,000,000 annually. Probably the loss to sufferers from cancer and other incurable diseases is as great. This robbery of the sick and helpless should no longer be tolerated in any civilized country.

5--The Association has maintained a committee for the past four years on the prevention of ophthalmia neonatorum or blindness in infants due to gonorrheal infections, a preventable cause of a large percentage of existing blindness. The United States Census for the blind and deaf taken in 1900 states that 11 percent of the total number of blind lost their sight before the completion of the first year of life, and that in 25 percent the cause of blindness was due to this form of infection. The committee of the Association has been laboring for four years past, and is still at work, endeavoring to educate the public so as to secure proper legislation for the prevention of this form of blindness.

6--Through its State and county branches, as well as through its official publications and its connection with State boards of health and other agencies, the Association has been endeavoring to educate the public on the importance of better hygienic and sanitary conditions and laws, with special reference to pure food and water; proper ventilation of houses, stores, schools, factories, and work-shops; the prevention of avoidable accidents; the development of parks and playgrounds; and the avoidance of the evils of intemperance and excesses. Realizing the importance of this work and the inadequacy of existing methods for bringing practical instruction on sanitary and hygienic questions before the public, the Association at its last annual session established a Council on Health and Public Instruction, the special function of which shall be to place before the people, through the public press, magazines, pamphlets, public meetings, addresses, moving pictures, and every other available means, the best information obtainable as to the preservation of life and the avoidance of disease. The significance and importance of this action on the part of the organized medical profession of the country can hardly be overestimated. It means that physicians as a class have taken up seriously and systematically the prevention of disease and the education of the public as to how the elimination of avoidable diseases can be secured. With the cooperation of the newspapers and of the people many preventable diseases which have for centuries claimed a fixed toll of human life can be practically eliminated, and hundreds of thousands of lives saved each year.

7--While the Association has labored for the enactment of any laws, either State or National, which were for the benefit of the public health, it stands particularly committed to legislation on three subjects. These are: (_a_) Adequate State laws insuring purity of the food supply, (_b_) such State laws as will increase the efficiency of State boards of health and enable them to combat and suppress unnecessary and controllable diseases, and (_c_) such legislation as will provide an adequate plan for the collection and preservation of vital statistics, in order that proper data for the study and prevention of diseases may be available. It is not to the credit of this country that in half of our States human beings are born and die without any legal recognition of the fact, that not even as much attention is paid to the birth of a human infant as is given to the birth of a race-horse, a pedigreed bull, a blooded dog, or even an Angora kitten. It is not to our credit as a civilized Nation that human beings die and are buried without any legal recognition or record being made of the cause or manner of their death. It is in no sense to our credit that in many communities diphtheria, scarlet fever, and cerebro-spinal meningitis decimate the infant population yet no one knows, nor is it anyone's business to find out, how many deaths result from these epidemics, or how many persons die from various diseases in the course of a year. Proper birth registration lies at the basis of social organization, and has been so recognized for years by European nations, yet it does not exist today in this country. Vital statistics, showing the relative health, morbidity, and mortality of various sections, are of the utmost importance, since healthfulness is recognized as one of the best business assets which a town and county or a State can possess. Yet through lack of proper laws we have today death registration alone in only half of the Nation, and practically no registration of births whatever. This disgrace on our civilization, which is the wonder and amazement of European nations, should be at once removed by the passage and enforcement of uniform laws in all of the States.

8--The following resolutions were adopted by the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association, June 7, 1910:

"_Resolved_, That the principles of the Owen Bill, having for its object the creation of a National Department of Health, now pending in the Senate, and similar bills introduced in the House by Representatives Simmons, Creager, and Hanna, be, and are hereby, heartily approved by this Association, and the cordial thanks of the medical profession of the United States, officially represented, are hereby tendered to Senator Robert L. Owen, Irving Fisher, and their co-workers for their able and unselfish efforts to conserve and promote the most important asset of the Nation--the health and lives of its women, its children and its men--properly understood the greatest economic question now confronting our people.

"The members of this Association stand for pure food, pure drugs, better doctors, the promotion of cleaner and healthier homes, and cleaner living for individuals, for the State and for the Nation. We believe this to be held as equally true by the reputable and informed physicians of all schools or systems of practice.

"We welcome the opposition of the venal classes, long and profitably engaged in the manufacture of adulterated foods, habit-producing nostrums, and other impositions on the people, to the extent of hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and express our sympathy for the well-meaning men and women who have been misled and worked into hysterics by the monstrously wicked misrepresentations of a corrupt and noisy band of conspirators, who are being used as blind instruments to enable them to continue to defraud and debauch the American people.

"Medical science is advancing, especially on its life-saving side, with a rapidity unknown to any other branch of human knowledge. It is known of all men that our members in every community in the United States are unselfishly working day and night, instructing the people how to prevent tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and the other diseases from which physicians earn their livelihood. Therefore, we welcome and will wear as a badge of honor the slanders of these unholy interests and their hirelings."

* * * * *

The American Medical Association, representing as it does the medical profession of the country, stands pledged and committed to any measure which will improve the public health and preserve the lives of our people. Believing as it does that health and life is our greatest National asset, and that no nation is truly great whatever its material possessions that cannot boast of strong and healthy citizens, we ask the support and approval of the American public and of this Congress in the efforts which are being made for the preservation of human life.

[Signed] J. T. PRIESTLY, Des Moines F. F. WESBROOK, Minneapolis A. R. MITCHELL, Lincoln CHAS. S. SHELDON, Madison F. R. GREEN, Chicago _Committee_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY ENGINEERING AND MAINTENANCE OF WAY ASSOCIATION

In October, 1908, the National Conservation Commission invited the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, in connection with other technical bodies of this country, to be represented at the Conference in Washington, and to assist the National Conservation Commission with suggestions concerning advisable lines of inquiry, nature of report to be made, and possibilities of accomplishment on the part of the Commission. Acting upon this invitation, the Board of Directors of the Association appointed a Special Committee to cooperate with the Commission. This Committee consisted of eight members of the Association, selected from widely separated sections of the country.

The Association, through its Committee, was represented at the joint Conservation Conference held in Washington beginning December 8, 1908; and the Committee has been keeping in touch with the Conservation Commission through Mr Pinchot and the Secretary, Mr Thomas R. Shipp. Several meetings of the Committee have been held, and in March, 1909, the Committee was addressed by Dr Joseph A. Holmes, of the Commission.

In March, 1909, the Committee, through its Chairman, requested Mr Pinchot to furnish, through cooperation with the Forest Service, suggestions as to the best methods to be pursued by the railroad companies for the prevention and control of forest fires, with statistics of the loss from such cause, and urged upon the Commission the importance of endeavoring to effect reduction in the tariff on cross-ties and in lumber rates, in order to make it possible for the railroad companies to import ties and save thereby the home supply. The cooperation of the Committee was offered with the forest-products laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, or with any of the National or State organizations.

On May 13, 1909, an elaborate report was transmitted to the Committee by the National Conservation Commission, through Secretary Shipp, containing valuable suggestions as to the possibilities of railroad companies assisting the work of Conservation by thorough methods of prevention and control of forest fires and the cultivation of timber for railroad purposes, by the use of sawed instead of hewed ties, the use of treated timber and the extension of the supply of creosote, and other features, many relating to timber resources. This report was transmitted by the Committee to the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, published by the Association, and distributed throughout the country in one of its bulletins. Dealing directly, as it does, with those features of Conservation that affect the railroad companies and their patrons, and having a circulation among railroad officers covering the United States, as well as large portions of Canada and Mexico, the results should be exceedingly beneficial to the cause of Conservation.

In March of this year the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, recognizing the growing importance of the Conservation movement, established the Special Committee as one of the Standing Committees of the Association, at the same time largely increasing its personnel and bringing into membership a number of prominent railroad officers of this country and Canada.

The work of the Committee has been divided into sub-committees for the purpose of specialization; these, with an outline for investigation are as follows:

_No. 1--Tree planting and general reforestation_

_a_--Extent of existing forests considered in connection with increase of growth and consumption

_b_--Judicious selection of tree varieties for planting, and locality and soil conditions considered; possibility of value from growth on cut-over land

_c_--Methods of planting and cultivation, with cost of same, considering possibilities from cut-over lands

_d_--Anticipated results at maturity from trees so produced

_e_--Methods and costs of caring for and protecting existing forests

_No. 2--Coal and fuel-oil resources_

_a_--Extent of existing supplies, considered in connection with consumption

_b_--Extent of waste in production

_c_--Economic consumption, giving consideration to practical use of by-products

_No. 3--Iron and steel resources_

_a_--Supplies of raw material, considered in connection with consumption

_b_--Waste in production

_c_--Best methods of protecting finished products from destructive influences

The Committee will continue on the lines of investigation as shown, and holds itself in readiness to cooperate with the National Conservation Commission and its kindred and subsidiary organizations, as well as other National societies, for the furtherance of the great principles of Conservation of the Nation's resources.

The Committee:

A. S. BALDWIN, Chief Engineer Illinois Central R. R. Co. (_Chairman_) MOSES BURPEE, Chief Engineer Bangor and Aroostook Railroad W. A. BOSTWICK, Metallurgical Engineer Carnegie Steel Company E. F. BUSTEED, General Superintendent Canadian Pacific Railway E. B. CUSHING, Southern Pacific Company E. O. FAULKNER, Manager Tie and Timber Department, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe System W. F. H. FINKE, Tie and Timber Agent Southern Railway J. W. KENDRICK, Vice-President Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe System A. L. KUEHN, General Superintendent American Creosoting Company G. A. MOUNTAIN, Chief Engineer Canadian Railway Commission WM. MCNAB, Principal Asst. Engineer Grand Trunk Railway C. L. RANSOM, Resident Engineer Chicago and Northwestern Railway

[Signed] A. S. BALDWIN _Chairman_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN RAILWAY MASTER MECHANICS' ASSOCIATION

In behalf of the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association I wish to thank the officers of the National Conservation Congress for the courtesy shown our Association by inviting our President, Mr C. E. Fuller, to attend this Congress. Mr Fuller was unable to be present, and it was therefore my good fortune, as First Vice-President, to take his place.

As you no doubt are aware, the membership of the A. R. M. M. Asso. is composed of the heads of the mechanical departments of practically every railroad in the United States and a large number from Canada, and all of us are heartily in sympathy with the Conservation movement that has had such wonderful growth during the five years it has been before the public. The enormous amount of lumber, coal, etc., that is used by the railways makes it imperative for them to use it as economically as possible, and great efforts are being made, by education, to use a pound or a ton of coal so that the greatest efficiency may be obtained therefrom. During the calendar year ending December 30, 1909, the company I am connected with used 4,193,617 tons of coal in its locomotives and power plants; we have a large force of instructors, including master mechanics, road foremen of engines, and traveling firemen who are continually riding the engines and giving the enginemen the benefit of their experience in the proper method of handling the locomotive so that steam will not be wasted, and that only the proper amount of coal will be shovelled into the firebox to produce the desired results. The use of feed-water heaters, superheaters, and compound locomotives has been hastened by the desire to get as much use out of the heat in the coal as possible; the feed-water heater and superheater promising the best field for economy in locomotive practice. The lignite fields of Wyoming are being opened by using this kind of coal in locomotives that have been specially designed to burn it. Heretofore it was necessary to haul coal from southern Iowa to Wyoming, a distance of about 800 miles, which was a very wasteful operation; a good deal of this will be dispensed with by using lignite coal in the territory near which it is mined. So that a comparatively poor grade of coal can be made better, a washery, with a capacity of about 1800 tons per day has been erected and put in operation, which washes out a large percentage of the slate and other impurities in the coal; this means that a ton of washed coal has a greater heat value than the same amount of unwashed coal would have.

The question of conserving the life of the ties used has had due consideration, and a treating plant has been in use for nearly six years which is expected to increase, by treatment, the life of ties about 40 percent, besides enabling us to use an inferior kind of timber as ties, that before was considered impractical; the importance of thus prolonging the life of ties will be appreciated when I say that for the calendar year ending December 30, 1909, we used 2,996,957 ties. Other wood was used in the same period as follows: piles, 83,201; posts, 382,556; lumber, 56,172,000 board feet. It therefore makes it very necessary on account of the constantly increasing price of lumber to reduce the amount used and wasted. The use of concrete has enabled us to make things of that material, which a few years ago would have seemed impossible; floors in roundhouses and shops, which rapidly deteriorate (when made of wood), on account of moisture, are now made of concrete, which stands up admirably in that service.

We are enormous consumers of oil, and the same care is exercised in its use as with coal and lumber--in fact, under present conditions, it is absolutely necessary that the greatest economy be instituted in the use of all kinds of material as a matter of self-preservation.

During the time I have spent at your meetings, it has been quite a revelation to notice the intense interest that has been manifested by everybody on the subject of Conservation; and as the representative of the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association I wish to assure you of our heartiest cooperation in the work. Again I thank you for the opportunity of being present.

[Signed] H. T. BENTLEY _First Vice-President_

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN SCENIC AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION SOCIETY

The suggestions of the Committee of this Society appointed to cooperate with the National Conservation Association must naturally be determined by the objects for which the Society exists. It is the aim of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society to protect the interesting features of the natural landscape, to save from obliteration all historic places and objects, to erect suitable historical memorials where they are needed, to promote the beautification of cities and villages, and otherwise to develop in the people a regard for the beautiful in nature and for the historic in human institutions, cultivating this general field by means of free lectures, literature, prize competitions, correspondence, and other educational means as well as by using influence to have places and scenery preserved as parks and reservations. The interest of this Society, therefore, lies not so much in the fields of economic production as in the less definite regions of historic appreciation and artistic sensitiveness to surroundings. The report of its Committee on Conservation will naturally not deal with the direct economic questions with which most other cooperating societies and organizations would naturally be concerned.

The Committee desires first to express its appreciation of the work of the National Conservation Association and to pledge itself to cooperate with that Association in the furthering of its work. The Committee holds itself in readiness to cooperate in the enterprises originating from the National Conservation Congress and the National Conservation Association so far as they are within the proper province of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. The Committee feels that the establishing of the National Conservation Commission, and its successor, the National Conservation Association, marks a distinct advance in utilizing for the good of all the people the resources which really belong to all the people, and which should be used for their welfare, rather than exploited for the interest and gain of a few persons or wasted and despoiled by the thoughtlessness of the people themselves.

The Committee holds that all natural resources should be protected and utilized in a scientific and unselfish way, and that the heritage of the earth should be passed over to our descendants with the least possible loss consistent with wise use in the present generation. Its special interest in the question, however, lies in the belief that all this effort should harmonize with the preservation of the beauty of the natural landscape and with the Conservation of all places and scenes of historic interest.

It is too little appreciated that every natural object makes a two-fold appeal to the human mind: its appeal in the terms of its physical or material uses, and its appeal to our sense of beauty and of personal satisfaction. As the people progresses in civilization, the public mind becomes constantly more sensitive to the conditions in which we live, and the appeal to the spiritual satisfaction of life constantly becomes stronger. It is, therefore, of the very first importance that whatever is done by the National Conservation Association shall be executed in the feeling that not only shall the physical needs of life be met, but that the earth will constantly be made a more satisfactory place in which to live, and that the lessons of history must exercise an increasing influence.

It is important that we not only save our forests in order that they may yield timber and conserve our water supplies, but also that they may adorn and dominate the landscape and contribute to the meaning of scenery. It is important that our coal supplies be not only conserved for their use in manufacture and the arts, but also that smoke does not vitiate the atmosphere and render it unhealthful, and discolor the objects in the landscape. It is of the greatest importance that water supplies be conserved by storage reservoirs and other means, but this Conservation should be accomplished in such a way as not to menace health or offend the eye or destroy the beauty of contiguous landscape; the impounding of waters without regard to preserving natural water-falls, streams, and other scenery, is a mark of a commercial and selfish age, and is a procedure that cannot be tolerated in a highly developed society. It is important that regulations be enacted regarding the operation of steam roads through wooded districts not only that the timber may be saved, but also that the natural beauty of the landscape may be protected from fire and other forms of destruction. The fertility of the soil must be saved not only that products may be raised with which to feed and clothe the people, but also that the beauty of thrifty and productive farms may be saved to the landscape. The property-right in natural scenery is an asset to the people, and the best Conservation of natural resources is impossible until this fact is recognized.

On this point we call attention to the following paragraph in the report of the Commission on Country Life: "In estimating our natural resources, we must not forget the value of scenery. This is a distinct asset, and it will be more recognized as time goes on. It will be impossible to develop a satisfactory country life without conserving all the beauty of landscape and developing the people to the point of appreciating it. In parts of the East a regular system of parking the open country of the entire State is already begun, constructing the roads, preserving the natural features, and developing the latent beauty in such a way that the whole country becomes part of one continuing landscape treatment. This in no way interferes with the agricultural utilization of the land, but rather increases it. The scenery is, in fact, capitalized, so that it adds to the property values and contributes to local patriotism and to the thrift of the commonwealth."

It is especially important, in the opinion of this Committee, that the National Conservation Congress and the National Conservation Association lend their influence to the establishment of reserves in all parts of the country for the preservation of natural features of great scenic interest, for the protection of birds, animals, and native plants, and also for the Conservation of the lessons of history. The Committee earnestly requests that in the program of the activities of the National Association these questions may be given their due consideration.

_What the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society has Accomplished_

Having now stated its general position and its outlook on the subject of the Conservation of our natural resources, the Committee cites, by way of illustration, a few of the things that the Society has accomplished.

The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society is the medium through which Honorable Wm. Pryor Letchworth, of Portage, gave to the State of New York a superb tract of 1000 acres of land embracing the famous Portage Gorge of Genesee River, including the three picturesque Portage Falls. This property, which cost the owner about half a million dollars, will pass into the official custody of the Society, as Trustees for the State of New York, on Mr Letchworth's decease. Letchworth Park, as it has been named by the Legislature, possesses not only remarkable scenic beauty, but also high scientific and educational value. The geological strata here exposed have given the name to that extensive formation of rocks known as the Portage Group, and the vegetal and bird life of this reservation is remarkably varied and of the greatest interest to students of natural history.

The Society also secured the purchase by the State of New York, and is official custodian of, the famous Watkins Glen at the head of Seneca Lake. This property embraces about 105 acres of land, and includes rock exposures that have received the attention of the United States Geological Survey and prominent geologists for many years. It presents one of the most remarkable examples of stream erosion in the eastern States.

Through the intercession of the Society, the State of New York has purchased and committed to the care of the Society 35 acres of land on the promontory of Stony Point on the Hudson River. Here, in addition to an interesting exposure of primitive rocks and varied flora, are the historical associations of General Anthony Wayne's exploit during the Revolutionary War, which evoked the admiration of the leading military men of America and Europe. In like manner the State has purchased and committed to the Society's care a small reservation on Oneida Lake embracing the remains of Fort Brewerton.

Ten years ago, Governor Roosevelt requested the Society to represent the State of New York in concerted measures with the State of New Jersey for the Conservation of the Palisades of the Hudson. As the result of this initiative, the State of New York appropriated about $450,000, the State of New Jersey about $50,000, and the Honorary President of this Society, Mr J. P. Morgan, gave $125,000, and today the picturesque cliffs on the western side of the lower Hudson for a distance of thirteen miles have been rescued from defacement and are in the care of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. As a sequence to this work, and a result of the general sentiment developed in favor of scenic and historic preservation, Mrs Edward Harriman recently gave to the State of New York 10,000 acres of land on the western side of the Hudson for a State Park, and she, together with Mr Morgan, Mr John D. Rockefeller, Mrs Sage, and others, have supplemented the gift with over $2,500,000 of money.

Ten years ago, the Society secured legislation by means of which a reservation of 35 acres at the head of Lake George was made by the State, for the purpose of preserving scenery and the ground made historic by events in the Colonial and Revolutionary Wars.

The long and difficult campaign for the preservation of Niagara Falls, in which the Society had an honorable part, is familiar to all, and need not be repeated here.

Many other instances could be cited in different parts of the country, some connected directly with the Society's work, and all the result of the general sentiment which has been developed during the past 25 years in favor of conserving natural scenery and creating urban and extra-urban parks for the benefit of mankind. Not the least important of these in their bearing on conditions of life are the city parks. In New York City, for example, the Washington Headquarters Park and Joseph Rodman Drake Park were created at the direct instance of the Society; and the famous Central Park, in the creation of which our late President Andrew H. Green, as Controller of the Park, was an important factor, has been protected against invasion by race tracks and many other artificial encroachments by the vigilance of the Society. Among the gifts of city parks by private individuals stimulated by the sentiment created by the Society's work may be cited a series of parks embracing about 500 acres and costing with their improvements a quarter of a million dollars or more presented in 1907 to the city of Utica by Mr Thomas R. Proctor, a Trustee of the Society. In 1909, another member of the Society, Mr Henry H. Loomis, gave to the city of Geneva (New York) about 26 acres of woodland for a city park. In Jamestown (New York) a park system has been developed largely under the influence of a Trustee of this Society. In Colorado Springs, within two years, there have been two remarkable expressions of this general sentiment which has now become so general that no one Society can claim direct connection with its results. We refer to the series of completed parks, boulevards, and paths, embracing over 1500 acres of superb scenery, given to that city by General W. J. Palmer; and the gift of the famous Garden of the Gods to the same city by the heirs of the late Charles W. Perkins, of Iowa. These two gifts have placed Colorado Springs in possession of what is probably the most remarkable series of city parks of the kind in the United States. The sentiment created by this Society has also expressed itself in the beautifying of many cities by the improvement of open spaces, public greens, and church yards, and by the erection of monuments and drinking fountains.

Of State parks as distinguished from city parks, those which have received the most attention from this Society, outside of the five reservations under its immediate control and the Palisades Interstate Park, have been the State Park at Niagara Falls and the Adirondack State Park. The State Reservation at Niagara Falls, comprising 112 acres of land and 300 acres of land under water, and including the American Fall and half of the Canadian Fall, was created in 1885; and it was partly on account of the lessons taught by that reservation that the President of the Niagara Commission, the late Honorable Andrew H. Green, ten years later founded the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. In the long campaign for the protection of Niagara Falls from the inordinate diversion of their waters and the disfigurement of their environment the Society has taken a leading part. The Adirondack Park now comprises over 1,500,000 acres. Here, also, it has been necessary to maintain a constant campaign to protect the forests from destruction by fire, artificial flooding, and the illicit removal of timber.

In the far Southwest the efforts of the Society have been directed chiefly to the extension of the Grand Canyon preserve, and the protection of the Hetchhetchy valley--a part of Yosemite National Park--from what we believe to be an unnecessary project for flooding a part of the National Park for the purpose of supplying water to San Francisco.

In conclusion, we may say of the movement at large for the preservation of remarkable works of nature for the instruction and enjoyment of the people, that it is older than the organized movement for the Conservation of the material resources of the country; and if it cannot be said that one is the outgrowth of the other, it is true that both are necessarily closely inter-related and that each should proceed with full regard for the other's welfare.

The Conservation Committee:

L. H. BAILEY (_Chairman_), Ithaca CHARLES M. DOW, Jamestown HENRY E. GREGORY, New York City EDWARD HAGAMAN HALL, L.H.D., New York City SAMUEL V. HOFFMAN, New York City THOMAS P. KINSFORD, Oswego GEO. FREDERICK KUNZ, PH.D., SC.D., New York City WILLIAM P. LETCHWORTH, LL.D., Portage THOMAS R. PROCTOR, Utica COLONEL HENRY W. SACKETT, New York City CHARLES DELAMATER VAIL, L.H.D., Hobart College, Geneva

[Signed] L. H. BAILEY, _Chairman_

REPORT OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ADIRONDACKS

The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, with headquarters in New York City, was formed ten years ago before the word "Conservation" as now used had acquired its present meaning. In the light of the present use of that word the object of this Association might properly be expressed in the title "Association for the Conservation of the Natural Resources of the Adirondacks."

"The Adirondacks," in a general way, is the term used to describe a region of about 12,500 square miles in northern New York, lying between Lake Champlain on the east, Lake Ontario on the west, Saint Lawrence river on the north, and the Mohawk on the south. In the heart of this region the State has, by statute, delimited an area of about 3,300,000 acres, or 5,156 square miles, under the title of the "Adirondack Park." Within this more restricted area lie the principal mountains and the principal forests of the State. The State owns about one-half of the area of Adirondack Park, and its policy is progressively to acquire the remainder.

The work of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks for the past decade has been directed toward the preservation of the natural conditions and the material resources of Adirondack Park for the benefit of all the people of the State. During this period, what is now known as the movement for the Conservation of natural resources has developed, although "Conservation" in fact, if not under that name, was well begun in New York State a quarter-century ago when, in 1885, the Legislature established the Forest Preserve.

In the State of New York, the natural resources, as that term is commonly understood, to the conserving of which public attention is now chiefly directed, are the forests and the waters. While the forests lie chiefly in the Adirondacks, the streams and water-power sites lie chiefly outside of Adirondack Park; but in the protection of the Adirondacks is involved the water question as well as the forest question, for three reasons: _First_, because many streams take their rise in the Adirondacks; _second_, because of the intimate relation between the forest covering of water-sheds and stream-flow; and _third_, because there are a few possible reservoir sites situated on State lands in Adirondack Park which are coveted ardently by private interests strongly represented in the State Legislature.

The natural resources of the Adirondacks, however, are not limited to the forests and streams. In a State embracing a tenth of the population of the United States, including a city embracing a twentieth of the population of the Union--a State and a city in which the vocations of life are pursued under the highest nervous tension--the Adirondacks possess natural resources for the conservation of human vitality (for the recuperation of health and the recreation of personal energy) which are no less important to the welfare and prosperity of our people than the cultivation of a timber supply or the development of hydraulic power. In addition to these considerations, two other elements enter into the question of Conservation in the Adirondacks: One is the preservation, for purposes of science and sportsmanship, of the natural wild species of animal life which have become extinct not only in other parts of New York, but also generally throughout the eastern States; the other is the preservation of the scenic beauty of this great mountain resort, which is seriously threatened in ways hereinafter to be mentioned.

These latter considerations of health, recreation, and esthetic delight are not less entitled to recognition because they cannot be measured in terms of board feet or amperes convertible into dollars and cents. Rest and recuperation are not the exclusive needs of men of large expenditure of brain and nerve force, nor is actual positive pleasure conceded to be the exclusive privilege of men of large means. The principle contained in the ancient command to do upon six days all that thou hast to do and to rest upon the seventh day is receiving a wider application in modern industrial conditions which constantly tend to shortened hours of labor on the six days and a larger recognition of every man's right to a measure of the possible joys as well as the inevitable labors of living.

Therefore, to conserve the Adirondacks as a health and pleasure resort for the people at large as well as for a source of a timber supply and the fountain head of important water supplies is the object of our Association.

_Forest Conservation_

Without entering into statistics of the relative area of forested and denuded lands in New York, or the relative rate of forest removal and forest growth which is so disproportionate as to threaten the complete denudation of the State within 20 or 25 years, we may mention something of what has been done in the way of practical forest Conservation in the State, partly by the aid of this Association.

There are six principal ways in which the forests can be conserved:

1--By restriction of commercial lumbering 2--By prevention of timber stealing 3--By control of forest fires 4--By building good roads 5--By replanting 6--By prevention of flooding

_1--Commercial Lumbering._ There appear to be three ways of reducing the danger of the denudation of private forest lands, namely, (_a_) to educate the owners as to the unwisdom of indiscriminate and wholesale cutting; (_b_) to convert private lands into State lands by purchase, and thus bring them under the protection of the Constitution which forbids the cutting of trees on State land; and (_c_) the passage of laws offering inducements to, or imposing some restrictions on, private owners for the purpose of reducing their cut. Of these three methods, good progress has been made with the first two; the third has been attempted only in a mild way and without effect.

In the past dozen years, the private owners of forests in New York have awakened to a lively sense of the shortsightedness of the policy of cutting everything in sight. Prior to about 1890, roughly speaking, lumbermen as a usual thing took nothing less than two-log trees, leaving all that were under 12 inches in diameter on the stump. But with the improvements in machinery and processes for the manufacture of wood pulp, not only was the range of cutting extended from poplar to spruce, hemlock, pine, and balsam, but the lumbermen also disregarded size limits and cut all the trees of certain species, large and small. This close cutting was disastrous in both its primary and secondary effects; it left no provision for future growth, and it thinned the forests so much in places that further damage was inflicted by wind and ice storms. In the closing years of the last century signs of an awakening to the dangers of this policy appeared. In 1898 the Division of Forestry of the United States Department of Agriculture issued Circular 21 entitled "Practical Assistance to Farmers, Lumbermen, and Others in Handling Forest Lands," conveying an offer to cooperate with owners in the preparation of working plans for forest lands which presented conditions favorable for systematic and conservative management. One of the first private owners to appreciate the wisdom of adopting the more conservative course recommended by the Government was the late Honorable William C. Whitney, owner of a tract of 70,000 acres in Hamilton County. Prior to 1898 he had been cutting down to a diameter of 8 inches three feet from the ground; but in 1898, after securing expert advice, he raised the limit to 10 inches, which was maintained until last spring, when lumbering on that preserve was finished. The result of this judicious policy has been that there is now a fine growth of young trees on the property, which in a few years will come to merchantable size. In 1900 the State of New York appropriated $2,000 to enable the Forest, Fish, and Game Commission to take advantage of the Government offer to the extent of working out the theory of conservative forest management on a selected tract of land known as "Township 40 of the Totten and Crossfield Purchase," embracing Raquette Lake in Hamilton County. This could be only a theoretical demonstration as applied to State forest land, because (for very excellent reasons) the State adopted a Constitutional Amendment in 1894 which provides that--"The lands of the State now owned or hereafter acquired constituting the Forest Preserve as now fixed by law shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed" (article VII, section 7). But while only a demonstration on paper of a theory and not a demonstration in fact, the result of the practical study on the ground and the consequent publicity of the conclusions was of value, for it attracted the attention of lumbermen to the diameter limits below which it is wasteful in the long run to cut. Township 40 is a virgin forest, and taking into consideration all the conditions of that particular tract--character and density of growth, rate of reproduction, proximity to outlets, cost of logging roads, camps, and stream improvements--it was calculated that 12 inches was the most advantageous minimum diameter to be used. In the following year a forest working plan for townships 5, 6, and 41 was worked out with a similar result, namely, the recommendation of a 12-inch minimum limit. Since that time conservative lumbering has been adopted on several private properties other than the Whitney preserve. One of the most notable cases is that of the International Paper Company, the owner of very extensive woodlands, which for sometime past has not cut trees less than 10 inches in diameter.

It may be said with confidence, therefore, that the campaign of education in forest matters during the past ten years in this State, and the mathematical demonstration of the wisdom, from the practical business standpoint, of placing limitations on the cut, are bearing fruit. Not only is the system of culling or selection tending to supersede wholesale tree-cutting of all sizes, but there is also reason to believe, from the latest available statistics, that in 1908 there was an actual change in favor of a reduced cut.

In the past decade there has been material progress in forest conservation by the enlargement of the forest land holdings of the State. During this period, the State has purchased about half a million acres of forest land, and its Forest Preserve, on January 1, 1910, embraced 1,641,523 acres, of which 1,530,559 were in the Adirondack mountains and 110,964 were in the Catskill mountains. Much of the land acquired during the past decade has been lumbered land, and has contained little merchantable timber. The purchases have had the advantage, however, of increasing the area of wild land which, so long as the present forestry section of the State Constitution shall stand, will at least have the chance to produce a new forest without risk of destruction. In pursuing the policy of building up its Forest Preserve, the State has shown in times past regrettable and costly procrastination, with the result that it has bought denuded land at twice the price at which it could have bought forested land. In this respect, the State still lags behind what many believe to be the rate at which the State's holdings should be increased. The signs of encouragement under this head are evident not only in the increased aggregate area of the State Forest Preserve, but also in the improved methods of administration. In times past, the forest administration has been so lax, not to characterize it more strongly, that while with one hand it was spending large sums in purchasing land, with the other it was parting with State property on flimsy pretexts, with the result that in some years, while purchases were being made, the State's holdings were actually decreasing instead of increasing. Weak compromises, by which the State parted with its timber and retained the land, involved transactions in which the State apparently bought a second time land which it already owned; and the purchase of land at exorbitant prices from favored friends, were practices of the past, the abatement or abolition of which is not the least encouraging evidence of the Conservation movement in this State.

In legislation, little has been attempted in the way of offering inducements to lumbermen to restrict their cut, and nothing has been done in the way of compulsion. In 1893 and again in 1894 Honorable Roswell P. Flower, then Governor, in a message to the Legislature recommended the enactment of a law which would provide for some reasonable compensation to such owners of private forests as should consent to cut no trees except under conditions imposed by the State; and a Law was enacted embodying that idea, and it now forms section 43 of the consolidated Forest, Fish and Game Law of 1909. This section provides that the Forest, Fish and Game Commission may "contract that lands within the Adirondack Park not owned by the State shall, in consideration of exemption from taxation for State and county purposes, become public as part of the park in like manner as State lands. Such a contract must provide against the removal of live timber except spruce, tamarack, or poplar, more than twelve inches in diameter three feet from the ground, and may reserve to the owner the right to clear not more than one acre within each hundred acres of land, and may contain such other reservations for occupancy as may be agreed upon. The approval of the commissioners of the land office must appear on any such contract by the certificate of their clerk. Such contract shall be recorded in like manner as conveyances made by commissioners of the land office." This law has proved no inducement to forest owners, and has been ineffective in limiting their cuttings.

Our Association has considered the subject of legislation providing for some discrimination in the taxation of forest lands which, by lowering the rate of taxation on immature forests, should offer an inducement to forest owners to allow their young timber to stand and grow; but as yet no satisfactory plan has been worked out. There is another phase of this question, however, which is attracting increasing attention in neighboring States, but which as yet has received little consideration in New York, namely, the compulsory restriction of timber cutting by legislation. Two recent judicial decisions on the power of a State to regulate the use of the natural resources of private land bear with much force on this subject. The Senate of Maine requested the Supreme Court of that State to give, for its guidance, an opinion upon the following question:

In order to promote the common welfare of the people of Maine by preventing or diminishing injurious droughts and freshets, and by protecting, preserving, and maintaining the natural water supply of the springs, streams, ponds, and lakes of the land, and by preventing or diminishing injurious erosion of the land and the filling up of the rivers, ponds, and lakes, and as an efficient means necessary to this end, has the Legislature power under the Constitution, by public general law, to regulate or restrict the cutting or destruction of trees growing on wild or uncultivated land, by the owner thereof, without compensation therefor to such owner?

With the exception of one justice, who declined to give an opinion for constitutional reasons, the opinion of the Court was unanimously in the affirmative (Opinion of the Justices, 103 Me. 506).

The other decision referred to was in the case of Hathorn vs. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., involving the use of the mineral waters at Saratoga Springs. The State of New York passed a law entitled "An act for the protection of the natural mineral springs of the State and to prevent waste and impairment of its natural mineral waters." The object of this law was to prevent the practice of artificially accelerating the natural flow of mineral waters for the purpose of extracting the carbonic acid gas for commercial uses. In the case in question, the Court of Appeals, with one dissenting voice, decided that the part of the statute in question was constitutional, and affirmed an order of the lower court restraining the defendant from doing what the law forbade. Judge Haight, the dissenting justice, differed from the majority, though not on the general proposition of the State's right to regulate the use of the springs; he based his objection on the ground that the statute in question did not attempt to regulate the production of the mineral waters in order that the public might enjoy the medicinal properties contained therein, but absolutely prohibited the pumping of carbonated waters throughout the State for the purpose of extracting carbonic acid gas. On the general question of the police powers and the conclusion that the Legislature may by statute regulate the use of the waters, Judge Haight was in full accord with the majority. "Surely," he said, "the State, under its police powers, may, in the interests of the people, protect such great gifts of nature to mankind."

Decisions like these would seem to be finger-boards pointing in the direction of compulsory Conservation if an enlightened self-interest or public spirit on the part of private forest owners do not accomplish the same purpose.

_2--Timber Stealing._ A very practical form of Conservation in which this Association has had a leading part has been the prevention of the unlawful removal of timber from State land. In 1905 reports reached us to the effect that in the face of the plain prohibition by the Constitution private parties had made deliberate arrangements with contractors to lumber on State land, and that these operations were being carried on with the ample knowledge if not actual collusion of the then Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner and his subordinates. To verify these rumors, the Association sent to the Adirondacks in the dead of winter a representative, who, using snow-shoes when other modes of travel were impossible, penetrated into the depths of the forests, and found the lumber men in active operation on State lands. As the investigation progressed, it developed that between 15,000,000 and 16,000,000 board feet of timber had been removed unlawfully from State land during the preceding year, with the knowledge of the authorities whose duty it was to prevent it; and that it was done under a well-understood system of friendly cooperation by which the timber thieves, technically called "trespassers," were permitted to go through a form of confessing judgment and paying for the timber at a rate so low as to make the transactions profitable for the trespassers. Not only was the mandatory legal penalty not exacted, but the so-called confessions of judgment were allowed to be made before country justices of the peace in amounts greatly exceeding their jurisdiction, and the timber was permitted to be removed from the State land in direct contravention of the Constitution. From the perfection with which the system was then working it was apparent that the illicit practices were of long standing; but the exposure by this Association resulted in the retirement from office of the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner and the Chief Game Protector, and the effectual stopping of this form of depredation.

_3--Forest Fires._ Substantial progress has also been made in the direction of Conservation by fire prevention. The history of forest fires in this State may well prove of interest to other States having virgin forests. The most prolific source of forest fires in New York hitherto has been the steam locomotive. Before the introduction of the steam railroad in the Adirondacks, forest fires were infrequent and of small extent. With the construction of every new railroad using coal or wood for fuel, fires became more numerous. The danger from this direction was apparent 30 years ago, but with an indifference for which a costly penalty has been paid, the State failed to find a remedy until within the past two years. In the tenth United States Census, Professor Charles S. Sargent, speaking of the forest fires in the United States during the year 1880, said: "In the State of New York, the total area burned was, in acres, 149,491; and the value of the property destroyed, $1,210,785. Of the causes to which these fires were attributed, 37 cases were reported as originating from clearing land; 43 cases as originating from sparks from locomotives; 22 cases as originating from hunters." The "First Annual Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York for the Year 1885" said: "The statistics show that in New York State at least, more forest fires are traced to railroads than to any other cause." Three years later (1888) the State Forest Commission was so alarmed at the danger of fires from railroads that it formally declared the extension of railroads into the forests to be a calamity. It declared--

The extension of railways into the Forest Preserve proper cannot but be regarded as a calamity, and it is respectfully submitted that it would be most expedient to put a check upon their further encroachment by proper legislation. * * * A further extension of 'better means of transportation' by railway or steamboat threatens more danger to the forest than it promises benefit to the public. * * * Complaints are loud against all railroads as being instrumental in scattering fire.

These warnings are cited not so much as an argument against the introduction of railroads into forest lands--which can now be done with safety by the use of oil fuel or electric power--as to show how early was the realization of the danger of forest fires from railroads.

About 1892 another railroad, the Mohawk and Malone, was built through the heart of the forests, and the testimony taken from old woodsmen in the fire investigation in 1908 showed that the building of the road was followed by the inevitable train of fire. The annual fire area in the Adirondacks which had previously ranged from a few hundred acres up to 25 square miles, increased to 80 square miles in 1899 and to 940 square miles in 1903. In 1908 an area of 277 square miles was burned over in the Adirondacks alone. The maps of the large fires of 1903 and 1908, showing the burned areas chiefly bordering the lines of railroads, were strong object lessons as to the principal source of the fires, however the railroad companies might attempt to disguise them. In 1908 public sentiment on this subject became aroused as never before. It was felt that whatever may have been the excuse for permitting the advent of coal-burning or wood-burning locomotives in the forests 30 or more years ago, the further toleration of these fire-spreading agents was little short of criminal since electricity and oil fuel had been developed as practical agencies for developing power. In the year last mentioned, therefore, the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner, backed up by the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, applied to the Public Service Commission for an order to compel the railroads running through the Forest Preserve to use oil-burning locomotives during the fire danger season. The railroads, as was to be expected, earnestly protested against the innovation; but the evidence was so convincingly against them that the Public Service Commission ordered the use of oil fuel, and the installation of oil-burners has made an encouraging beginning.

With the removal of this prolific cause of forest fires, the enforcement of salutary laws which had practically been a dead letter, the enactment of certain new laws providing for toplopping by lumbermen, etc, and the organization of an improved fire-fighting system by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, it is believed that New York has taken a long step forward in the direction of conserving her forests from fire.

_4--Forest Conservation by Good Roads._ The natural conditions in the Adirondacks which for so many years made the mountain wilderness impregnable by civilization and to a great extent preserved that region from the denudation which has characterized the more thickly populated parts of the State have also retarded the development of road building. The road system of the Adirondacks is therefore rudimentary. Avenues of communication are comparatively few, and such as exist are not systematically connected and are generally of poor quality. Until recently, this comparative impenetrability of the forests has doubtless tended toward their preservation; but conditions have changed to such a degree in recent years that the construction of good roads in the Adirondacks seems to be desirable both for the greater enjoyment of the Forest Preserve as a health and pleasure resort and for the greater safety of the forests themselves. The increased appreciation of the Forest Preserve as a refuge in summer time, the great progress made in methods of highway travel, and the increased facility which good roads would afford for visiting the woods, are in themselves strong reasons for the extension of the present highway system in that region. When, to the foregoing considerations, are added the very practical value of roads as fire lanes and the advantage which they would afford in reaching forest fires, the argument for their construction becomes very strong.

The attitude of this Association with reference to the bearing of the Constitution on the subject of roads in the Forest Preserve is that if good roads be necessary to keep the forest lands as "wild forest lands," in the words of the Constitution, they should be allowed. An opinion of Attorney General O'Malley, given to the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner on or about June 22, 1910, however, has been interpreted to mean that no roads can be built on Forest Preserve land under the Constitution. The question was raised by the Superintendent of Roads in Franklin County, who asked permission to use stone from a ledge of rocks on neighboring State land for road purposes, promising not to cut away any timber or otherwise damage the land. In his opinion, the Attorney General said in part, "It was clearly the intent of the framers of the Constitution to preserve the lands constituting the forest preserve in their natural state, and therefore you have no authority to permit county officials to use the stone in the ledge referred to." In order, however, plainly to authorize the construction of highways in the Adirondacks, our Association caused two alternative propositions to be introduced in the Legislature of 1910. One was in the form of a bill providing that when validated by an amendment to the Constitution it should be lawful to construct upon State lands in the Forest Preserve any of the State highways described in section 120 of Chapter 330 of the Laws of 1908, and any of the county highways designated upon a map already prepared by the State Engineer and Surveyor, as provided by law and approved by the Legislature by Chapter 715 of the Laws of 1907. The bill limited such highways to a width of 4 rods, provided that they should be built and maintained under the supervision of the State Highway Commission, and imposed certain other conditions with reference to keeping the highways clean, removing inflammable material, the exclusion of railroads, the public inspection of maps of routes, etc. This bill, if enacted, was not to become effective until validated by an amendment to section 7 of Article VII of the Constitution specifically referring to it by chapter number and year.

After that bill was introduced it appeared that the same end might be attained, without becoming complicated with other questions relating to section 7 of Article VII, by amending section 12 of the same article referring to Highways. We therefore caused to be introduced a Concurrent Resolution to amend section 12 of Article VII of the Constitution by inserting after the first sentence these words: "Any county having part of the forest preserve therein shall receive its equitable apportionment of highways. Highways within the forest preserve shall be opened or improved in the same manner as other highways in the State, except that they shall not be laid out to a greater width than 100 feet or improved for a greater width than other highways in the State under similar conditions." But this proposition, so highly desired by the State Highway Commissioners, by the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, by the local communities in the Adirondacks, and by the visitors to the Adirondacks, was smothered in the Ways and Means Committee through the opposition of the Chairman, who was also the majority leader in the Assembly, who is financially interested in water-storage, and who was evidently determined that no legislation beneficial to the Adirondacks should be passed until the private interests which he represented had secured what they wanted in the way of permission to build storage reservoirs on State lands. For this reason, then, forest conservation by road building is at a standstill.

_5--Replanting of Denuded Areas._ Constructive forest conservation, that is to say, the building up of new forests to take the place of those removed, has made some progress in New York, but not so rapid as could be wished. The fault has not been that of the Forest, Fish and Game Department, but of the Legislature which has not furnished the means for the liberal prosecution of this work. The State has good nurseries and expert help, but lacks means to prosecute this branch of its work in the manner which its importance warrants. Fortunately, private owners are taking up the subject of replanting effectively. The International Paper Company, for instance, has adopted the policy of tree-planting to renew its crops, and has a large nursery at Randolph, Vermont, from which it is distributing young plants to different sections of the country, including the Adirondacks, where it owns and controls lands. Within the limits of the Adirondack Park there are about 120,000 acres of State land which should be replanted, and in the Catskill Park about 30,000 acres. As to the cost of replanting: last year the Forest, Fish and Game Commission sold about 1,000,000 trees to 180 private parties for reforesting, and a careful analysis and average of their reports by the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner indicate that reforesting cost these parties, including cost of stock, expressage, and labor, $8.50 an acre. We are informed that the State could reforest to advantage from 2,000 to 2,500 acres a year, and could supply material for planting at least 30,000 acres a year on private land.

The importance of conservation by reforestation becomes apparent when one takes into consideration the relative rates of forest removal and forest reproduction. In the United States at large, we take from our forests each year, not counting the loss by fire, three times their yearly growth. We take 36 cubic feet per acre for each 12 cubic feet grown. We take 230 cubic feet per capita, while Germany uses 37 cubic feet and France 25 cubic feet. In the State of New York we are cutting away our trees five times as fast as they grow, and at the present rate of denudation, the State will be rendered practically barren of forest growth--except in the Forest Preserve--within 20 years, unless there is a decided change in the proportion between tree-cutting and tree-planting.

_6--Tree Destruction by Flooding._ A source of tree destruction of no inconsiderable extent in the Adirondacks in years gone by has been flooding by lumbermen's dams. The seriousness of this phase of the forest question has been greater than the area of destruction might indicate, for the reason that, in addition to the loss of the trees killed, unsightly and unhealthy conditions have been produced which have robbed certain regions of important elements of value. Prior to the adoption of the Constitutional Amendment of 1894, which prohibited the removal or destruction of timber upon the lands of the Forest Preserve, it had been the practice for nearly fifty years to build dams in the Adirondack region either for the purpose of driving logs or in connection with canal feeders. Those were days of prodigality, when the great North Woods stood in almost their pristine condition, and when the lumbermen, in the presence of thousands of square miles of luxuriant forests, thought nothing of killing thousands of trees by drowning. Almost every dam, therefore, that was built in the woods, set back the water upon forest land and killed trees. A dam built at Forestport in 1848 and subsequently enlarged killed so many trees that the State had to appropriate thousands of dollars simply to remove the dead trunks. About 1879 the State built a dam at Old Forge on Moose river, which is the outlet of the famous Fulton Chain of lakes, and subsequently built a dam at the outlet of the Sixth lake of the chain. These dams raised the water in the various lakes from one to six feet, blighting the adjacent timber and producing a scene of desolation the vestiges of which are still evident after a lapse of thirty years. In 1886 and 1887 the State built a dam on Beaver river at Stillwater, raising the water 9 feet. Great areas of timber land for a distance of 20 miles were flooded and the trees killed. The whole basin became filled with a tangle of drift-wood; great swamps were created beyond the flow line, springs were covered up and polluted, and the region rendered so unhealthy that land became unsalable. Lovely lakes and ponds were submerged, and favorite camp-sites obliterated; feeding grounds for game were destroyed; and hunting in that vicinity was ruined. The magnitude of the damage may be judged from the fact that one of the adjacent property owners, Mr Wm. Seward Webb, sued the State for $184,350 damages. The claim was settled by the State buying from the claimant 75,377 acres, including the damaged area, for $600,000. In 1865 the building of a dam was authorized on Oswegatchie river at the mouth of Cranberry lake; this dam created a reservoir of 13 square miles flooding thousands of acres of land, destroying large quantities of timber, and creating unsightly and unsanitary conditions. About 1882 a dam was built on Raquette river below the Tupper lake outlet, with the result that soon the region between Big Tupper and Little Tupper lakes looked as if some terrible blight had fallen upon it. The scene in 1893 is thus described in the Forest Commission's report:

The serious and extensive damage caused by the dam arrests the eye, presenting one of the saddest and most desolate pictures of destruction ever witnessed. No forest fire or devastating cyclone or ruthless axe of the charcoal burner ever wrought such ruin or left such a blasted scene as this. For ten miles the lands along the Raquette river are covered with the white and ghastly skeletons of the noble trees which once made this spot a sylvan paradise. The bare trunks, bleached by the sun and storm, the gnarled roots and gray, scrawny limbs thrust sharply forth, recall to mind one of Dore's pictures in the "Inferno." The traveler gazes on it all with amazement, and then gives vent to the strongest words that a righteous indignation can supply. And this was once one of the most beautiful rivers in all the wilderness.

Illustrations of this sort could be multiplied to show the spirit of indifference to tree destruction in the past, and conditions which are now forbidden to be repeated upon State land. The Constitutional Amendment adopted in 1894, prohibiting the destruction of trees in the Forest Preserve, was aimed at this evil among others, and has been one of the most valuable instruments in this State for forest conservation.

_Water Conservation_

The subject of water conservation in the State of New York presents five different aspects:

1--The development of hydraulic or electric power, 2--The improvement of commercial waterways, 3--Flood prevention, 4--Sanitation, 5--Domestic use.

As might be expected in the largest manufacturing State in the Union, there is in New York a very general appreciation of the importance of water storage for the development of power for industrial use; therefore, of the different phases of the water-storage question now pressed upon public notice, that one probably commands the most attention at the present time.

_1--Power Development._ The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks is chiefly concerned with this question as it bears on the Adirondacks; but owing to the fact that waters originating in part in the Adirondacks flow in many cases to great distances beyond that region, it is impossible to treat the subject as one of purely localized interest. The question naturally arises, What proportion of importance is there between the question of water storage in the Adirondacks and water storage in the State at large? On the face of things, the proportion seems small. The water-sheds of the whole State aggregate 30,476,800 acres, while the State lands within the Adirondack Preserve with which we are chiefly concerned comprise only 1,530,559 acres, or less than 5 percent. A comparison of possible water-power developments shows a similar disproportion. The Fourth Annual Report of the State Water Supply Commission says that "With the complete utilization of all storage possibilities an eventual development amounting to not less than 1,500,000 horsepower, exclusive of Niagara and Saint Lawrence rivers, is possible for the entire State." If, to this estimate be added the existing 200,000 horsepower development at Niagara Falls, 100,000 horsepower as the resource of the lower Niagara, and 400,000 horsepower for the Saint Lawrence, an eventual total of 2,200,000 horsepower for the whole State does not seem to be beyond the range of possibility. From figures derived from the various sources it would appear that about 7-1/2 percent of this development would require encroachment upon State land in the Adirondack Park, which is now forbidden by the Constitution. When it is considered that attention has been concentrated for several years on the resources of the principal Adirondack streams, while the possibilities of the rivers outside of the Adirondacks have not yet been completely explored, there is much reason to believe that were the census of the hydraulic resources of the State complete it would be found that the ratio of the power possibilities of State Forest lands to the power possibilities of the whole State is about the same as the ratio of the respective water-sheds, or about 5 percent. There are two or three reasons, however, why the question of water storage in the Adirondacks assumes an importance quite out of proportion to this ratio. One is the acknowledged fact that the majority leader of the larger house of the State Legislature is personally interested in water-power developed from Adirondack waters, and desires to have the Constitution amended so that State lands may be flooded for the benefit of his own as well as other private corporations. This powerful member of the Legislature has the sympathetic support of the Speaker of the Assembly, who stands sponsor for a power corporation on Genesee river, on the banks of which the Speaker lives. With the water-power interests thus strongly represented in the Legislature, and with some of them casting covetous eyes on State land from which they are restrained only by the Constitution, it is not surprising, perhaps, that in the public agitation of the water-storage question such statements should be made as that "the most important single obstacle to the carrying out by the State of this conservation policy" is "the necessity of amending the Constitution" so as to permit the flooding of State land.

Now the attitude of this Association--and this may be of interest to other States where the same question may arise--is as follows: At the outset, the Association opposed amending the Constitution for the purpose of permitting the flooding of State lands on two grounds; _first_, on account of the disastrous consequences to the forests which have invariably followed the construction of reservoirs in the past, and _second_, because it involved the principle of using public lands for private purposes without any guarantee of proportionate returns to the people whose domain was thus used. For several years the Association, with the unquestionable support of public opinion, maintained that position for the reason that there appeared to be no safe way of compromise.

During the past year, however, as the result of painstaking study of the problem by the New York Board of Trade and Transportation and our Association, a plan of legislation was evolved which it is believed may safely be adopted, and which, while conserving the public interests in the Adirondacks, will permit a reasonable use of State land for the purpose desired by the water storage people. The first problem encountered in working out this plan was presented by the fact that if the Constitution were amended generally so as to permit the flooding of State land, nobody could foretell to what extent or in what manner the lands might be flooded. It was therefore decided to prepare a law which should prescribe all the limitations and regulations in advance, and which should contain a provision that it should not become effective until validated by a constitutional amendment. Then, after this law had been enacted, it was proposed to adopt an amendment to the Constitution referring to the law specifically by chapter number and year, and permitting what was provided therein and nothing more. In pursuance of this plan, such a bill was drafted and introduced in the Legislature at its session which closed in May, 1910. It provided that storage reservoirs might be built upon State lands in certain specified water-sheds at certain specified points; that the flow-lines should be accurately surveyed and permanently monumented; that the total area of State land flooded should not exceed certain stated amounts--approximately 3 percent of the total area of the Forest Preserve; that all trees, stumps, and other organic material should be removed from within the flow-line; and certain other conditions designed to protect the public interests in the construction, maintenance and use of the reservoirs and the water-power developed therefrom. The law was not to become effective until validated by an amendment to the Constitution, and the constitutional amendment was to consist simply of an addition to the present section 7 of Article VII to the effect that "The provisions of this section may be modified as provided in chapter ---- of the laws of 1910, but in no other respect whatever." By this plan it was believed that the safeguards would be erected in advance, and in voting for a constitutional amendment our citizens would know exactly what they were voting for. The bill, however, was defeated through the influence of the majority leader of the Assembly, and instead a concurrent resolution to amend the Constitution, proposed by him, passed the first of three requisite stages of adoption. The provisions of this amendment and the utterances of its author clearly reveal the attitude of the water-power interests represented by him, and present an issue of importance to every State in which the question of Conservation under State auspices may arise. This issue, in brief, is whether, after the State has granted the use of land already belonging to the people and has acquired additional land in the exercise of its power of eminent domain; after it has furnished the capital for building storage reservoirs and for managing them when built, the profits shall accrue only to the private individuals or corporations benefited thereby, or whether the State itself shall derive a reasonable revenue from its lands and reservoirs for the relief of taxation, or for public improvements, to the consequent benefit of all the people?

The Constitutional Amendment proposed by the water-power interests in the last Legislature provides only that the actual cost of the water storage shall be paid by the private beneficiaries, leaving to them all of the profits and advantages; and the author of the amendment publicly declared himself as opposed to the periodical regulation of charges for the use of water thus conserved, or to paying anything more than the bare cost of construction and administration. On the other hand, the proposition of this Association left the question of State revenue open for future legislation without any inflexible constitutional provision one way or the other. There the matter rests at the present moment. The issue remains to be fought out in the future, possibly in the Legislature of 1911, possibly at the polls the following November, and possibly later. At present the signs of the times are not encouraging to the belief that private interests will be given such valuable privileges without some reasonable return to the people from whom they are derived.

_2--Improvement of Waterways._ Water conservation for the improvement of commercial waterways has little connection with the Adirondacks. The principal waterway improvement now in progress in New York State is the enlargement of Erie Canal at a cost of $101,000,000. Very little of the water for the canal comes from the Adirondacks, and the construction of reservoirs on State forest land is not required to augment the supply.

_3--Flood Prevention._ The three principal streams within the borders of New York--the Genesee, Mohawk, and Hudson--are subject at times to disastrous floods. These are in no small part the result of human folly. In the first place, the indiscriminate denudation of forests of the greater part of the State has removed one of the most valuable natural regulators; and it is the universal complaint that such denudation has resulted in the spasmodic flow of streams which are dry or low at one season and raging torrents at another. In other cases, as for instance at Rochester, on the Genesee, the river has been obstructed by bridge piers unscientifically placed, which obstruct the flow of water and cause great damage. The Hudson, from the confluence of the Mohawk to Albany, is also subject to floods, and as the headwaters of the Hudson rise in the Adirondacks it has been argued by those who desire to have storage reservoirs for power purposes in Adirondack Park that the Constitution should be amended so as to permit the building of reservoirs in the Adirondacks to control the floods of the Hudson. As a matter of fact, the statistics furnished by competent engineers show that 75 percent of the floods at Troy and Albany are due to waters which do not originate in the Adirondacks, but can be controlled along the Mohawk; and that of the remaining 25 percent over half (say 15 percent) are due to water originating along the Hudson and its tributaries outside of Adirondack Park. So far, then, as flood control is concerned, it has little bearing on Conservation in the Adirondacks.

_4--Sanitation._ Except as a subterfuge, there is practically no connection between the subject of water conservation in the Adirondacks and sanitation. The Hudson is so polluted from Troy southward with sewage that the fish have been almost exterminated, and the industry of fishing on the Hudson which thrived within the memory of living men has almost disappeared. Sanitation of the Hudson from the head of navigation southward cannot be effected by storage reservoirs in the Adirondacks. The only prominence which the question of sanitation ever had in connection with water conservation in the Adirondacks was from five to ten years ago when persons who desired to build storage reservoirs on State lands, for the purpose of driving logs or developing power, used the plea of "public health and safety" in petitions presented to the River Improvement Commission to disguise their real purpose.

_5--Domestic Use._ There are those who think that in time the Adirondacks may be drawn upon for municipal water supplies for cities in the Hudson valley. The extent to which New York City has reached out for her water supply during the past 70 years would seem to lend color to such prophecies. In 1842 New York City introduced a water supply from the Croton Reservoir 40 miles distant; at the present time it is building a great reservoir in the Catskill Mountains 90 miles distant. Many people believe that eventually New York will be forced to go to the Adirondacks 200 miles away for a pure water supply, and that the resources of the Adirondacks should be preserved against that need and should not now be parted with for private use when there is the possibility that in the future they will be required for all the multifarious uses of human existence in the great metropolis. Water conservation in the Adirondacks for municipal use, therefore, is important chiefly with reference to the future.

_Scientific Forestry on State Lands_

As persons unfamiliar with the history of the Forest Preserve in New York may wonder why the State does not utilize commercially the timber growing on State lands, it may not be inappropriate to conclude this report with a brief explanation of the reasons for the iron-clad restriction placed by the Constitution on the removal of State timber. The reason for this restriction is two-fold: First, it is not apparent that there are enough trained foresters yet available or that the problem of the conservative handling of State forest lands for commercial purposes is yet sufficiently understood to warrant the State in undertaking scientific forestry; and second, the citizens of the State are not confident that if the removal of timber were permitted, the people at large would derive any benefit from it.

_1--Lack of Practical Men._ At a public meeting held in the American Museum of Natural History in New York under the auspices of this Association on April 25, 1907, Professor Henry S. Graves, then Director of the School of Forestry at Yale University and now Chief Forester of the United States, speaking on the subject of scientific forestry on the State lands in New York, said: "It would be exceedingly difficult at the present time to secure trained men with adequate experience to carry out a plan of successful forestry." That situation with respect to the dearth of practical foresters still exists and promises to continue until relieved either by the more general teaching of forestry in colleges and schools or by a more general training in the field, or both. Another drawback is the lack of systematic study and knowledge of our Forest Preserve. With the exception of Township 40 and adjacent territory, and possibly a few other tracts, little has been done in the direction of examining the land to determine its value, the amount and character of timber, the growth of trees, and the local conditions which are factors in the profitable management of the forests; nor has anything yet been done toward preparing a comprehensive plan for the whole Preserve.

A concrete illustration of the impracticability of scientific forestry under existing conditions is afforded by the experimental forest in Franklin County established under an act of 1898. The hopes entertained in regard to this experiment were well set forth in the message of Governor Black to the Legislature on January 5, 1898. The Governor pictured in graphic terms the desirability of enlarging the Forest Preserve as a health resort and a conserver of the northern New York water-sheds, and referred to the rapid inroads made upon the forests by commercial lumbering, and to the protection which the Constitution extended to State lands. He argued that, properly managed, the State forests might be made productive of a substantial revenue; but, he said, "The Constitution should not be amended until the people have learned prudence instead of waste, and have equipped themselves with knowledge and experience adequate to the care of this great domain. Our conditions here are not like those in Germany and France, but in what respects they differ, few can tell." Then, with a view to the acquisition of this necessary knowledge and experience, he recommended the following plan:

There are students here who have made a careful study of the forests, their capacities and their needs. The number of these gentlemen I understand to be increasing, for through the labors of several of our citizens of great generosity and public spirit, the subject has been studied and discussed, and upon the general ignorance relating to this question there is beginning to be some light. The knowledge necessary to the proper treatment of the woods must come largely through experiment. It cannot be had unless the means of acquiring it are provided. I believe the means can be secured best through the purchase by the State of a tract of ground covered with those trees which are to be the subject of experiment. Such a tract the State could set apart and gain from it the knowledge which will enable it by and by to deal with the millions of acres it has already and will in the meantime acquire. The time will come when the State will sell timber to the lumbermen, spruce to the pulp mills, reap a large revenue for itself and still retain the woods, open to the public, protecting the sources of water, growing and yielding under intelligent cultivation. The management of this experiment should not be subject to the vicissitudes of politics. It should be placed in charge of the Regents, or of the Trustees of Cornell University, or of some similar body not subject to political change. The State should pay such reasonable sum as may be needed to administer the plan. Reports should be made to the Governor and the Legislature annually of progress and results. The income from the tract so acquired should be paid to the State and the land itself should become the absolute property of the State, and a part of the Forest Preserve at the expiration of a period named. I believe such a plan would be soon, if not at once, self-sustaining, for the trees now ready to be cut would produce immediate revenue, and such revenue would be repeated at short intervals. The benefits could be hardly overstated, and in this direction, as in many others, the wisdom of New York entering upon a comparatively new and untried field would be finally approved.

Following Governor Black's recommendation, the Legislature of 1898 enacted a law pursuant to which 30,000 acres of forest land in Townships 23 and 26 in Franklin County were purchased for $165,000 and conveyed to Cornell University for the purposes of a "New York State College of Forestry;" and in the years 1898 to 1902 sums aggregating $110,000 more were appropriated for salaries of the Director and instructors in the College of Forestry and for working capital for improving, maintaining, and administering the College forest. With a view to making the forest self-sustaining, the University on May 5, 1900, made a fifteen-year contract with the Brooklyn Cooperage Company by which it agreed to deliver to the company annually one-fifteenth of the wood and timber standing in the College forest. The details of this contract and the litigation which ensued are not essential to the present statement, but the results of the experiment were highly important; instead of yielding the State a revenue, all of the moneys appropriated were used up except about $9,000 of working capital, while about 3,100 acres of forest land were denuded and only about 440 acres replanted. The results were so obviously disappointing that in 1903 Governor Odell vetoed the appropriation of $10,000 for that year, and since then no appropriation for the College of Forestry has been made except one of $5,000 in 1903, exclusively for the purpose of removing the underbrush and for replanting trees. Soon thereafter (June, 1903) Cornell University discontinued the College of Forestry. In his message to the Legislature in 1904, Governor Odell, speaking of the School of Forestry, said: "Its operations had for their object the substitution of valuable growths for so-called worthless timber, but this has resulted in the practical destruction of all trees upon the lands where the experiment was in progress. No compensating benefits seem possible to the present generation. The preservation of the forests is primarily for the protection of the water supply, and this is not possible through the denudation of the lands. Therefore this school failed of its object, as understood by its founders--a failure which was not due, however, to the work of the University, which followed out the letter and the spirit of the law."

Mr Justice Chester, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in his opinion rendered in June, 1910, in the case of the People of the State of New York against the Brooklyn Cooperage Company and Cornell University,[6] said that there could be no net revenues from the College Forest, as the expenses exceeded the income. He also pointed out how, under the operation of the contract, practically the entire College Forest would be denuded for the benefit of a private industry and not for the promotion of education in forestry. "There is proof in the case," he said, "that 500 acres were sufficient for conducting experiments on the 'clear cutting' system of forestry as distinguished from the 'selection' system."

Notwithstanding the failure of the forest experiment, Governor Odell in 1904 hoped that the Forest School would be continued: "Because," he said in his message, "with the lapse of years, a proper understanding of scientific forestry will become more and more a necessity." What Governor Odell said remains true. But what is needed is not only scientific knowledge but also knowledge of local conditions. A high order of theoretical knowledge was brought to the management of the Cornell tract, but the experiment failed for lack of knowledge of local conditions and business prudence.

_2--Lack of Confidence that Benefits will Accrue._ The second obstacle to the introduction of scientific forestry upon State lands is the lack of confidence that if the forest products were utilized any benefit would accrue to the people generally. The feeling may be understood in the light of the history of the Forest Preserve. In its beginnings, this was not a deliberately planned institution, but grew up in haphazard fashion, without forethought or system. Once the State owned nearly all the land within the Adirondack wilderness, but prior to 1883 there were no laws which prevented the State from parting with its lands, and large areas were sold to private parties for almost a song--lands which the State has gradually been buying back ever since at constantly increasing prices.[7] In a message to the Legislature in 1882, Governor Cornell called attention to the shortsightedness of this policy, in these words:

By far the greater quantity of land within the Adirondack wilderness proper belongs to the State. Individual ownership is now confined to a few hundred thousand acres. Heretofore it has been the practice of the State, with questionable policy, to sell its wild lands at nominal prices to private parties, who have gone on, in most cases, and cut off the marketable timber where accessible, and then abandoned to the State the clearings, worthless generally for agricultural purposes, thereby escaping the payment of taxes. Forest fires have followed and raged with destructive fury, denuding the mountains and checking the flow of springs and streams that supply the navigable waters to the north and the Hudson river to the southward. Furthermore, many of the lakes, the natural reservoirs of the mountain courses, have been damaged by dams and overflow, so that the shores of those lying within the working timber limits present the effects of irreparable injury.

In 1883 a law was enacted which prohibited the sale of any State lands in the counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saratoga, Saint Lawrence, and Warren, and by subsequent acts the counties of Oneida, Washington, Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster were added to the list. Prior to that year the State had recovered about 800,000 acres of land which the owners had permitted to be sold for taxes--patches of land scattered here and there without any system or studied continuity. After the passage of the laws forbidding the sale of State lands the value of the lands began rapidly to appreciate, and private parties, desiring to acquire it endeavored to circumvent the law prohibiting the sale by attacking the State's tax titles. With the aid of pliant State officials, these efforts in many cases were successful, the State either parting entirely with its title or, retaining the title to the soil, parting with the title to the timber. In this manner the State lost about 100,000 acres of land. A report made to the Comptroller in 1895 showed that these cancellations were made with disregard of the law and the rights of the State. As the result of all the tax-sale transactions of the State, it has acquired about one-half of its present forest-preserve holdings in the Adirondacks. The other half was acquired by purchase. The first actual appropriation of money for the purchase of land for forest purposes was $10,000 appropriated in 1883 during Grover Cleveland's administration. In 1885 the Forest Preserve was established by law, and since then the building up of the Forest Preserve has proceeded with more intelligence and upon a more definite policy. Up to the present time, the State has spent about $3,800,000 on the purchase of lands for the Adirondack and Catskill forests.

While the Forest Preserve was thus being evolved, other evils than the illegal cancellation of State titles developed. While the statutes--subject to change at any time at the wish of the Legislature--forbade the sale of State lands, there was nothing, to prevent the sale of the timber on the land. In 1893 Governor Flower, whose friendship for the forests was unquestionable, recommended to the Legislature that "the State could acquire considerable revenue by granting permission to fell trees above a certain diameter on State land." But the policy thus proposed with the best of intentions was a disastrous one, for the reason that with the reckless lumbering methods employed the lumbermen would destroy fifty trees while taking out one.[8] By 1894, with the juggling in titles to State lands, the destruction of trees in lumbering operations, the killing of trees by flooding, the creation of unsanitary conditions by dams, and the general misuse and mismanagement of the State forests, conditions became intolerable, and the Constitutional Convention of that year adopted the stringent section before quoted (page 399). Every word was carefully weighed, and designed to meet some phase of the situation. The necessity was so obvious that it was adopted without a dissenting vote by the Convention, and subsequently was overwhelmingly ratified by the people.

Since then, persistent efforts have been made by the lumber and water-power interests to impair this safeguard, but without success. We do not believe that the time has yet come to relax this section of the Constitution with respect to timber cutting; for while it is true that during the past few years conditions in the management of the Adirondack Forest Preserve have greatly improved and the public confidence in the possibility of the proper utilization of our forests had begun to take root, it is an unfortunate fact that that confidence has received a severe set-back by the course of legislation in 1910 with reference to the use of Adirondack waters. When the controlling powers in the Legislature are hostile to the idea that the State shall derive a revenue from its waters, it cannot be said that the auspices are propitious for the State's deriving any revenue from its timber. We do not believe that the people of the State are prepared to part with their forests upon the terms upon which they are asked to build storage reservoirs and furnish water-power to private interests, that is to say, for the bare original cost of the timber.

It therefore appears to be the part of wisdom for the people to defer scientific forestry on State lands while the present attitude of the legislative mind continues, and to preserve their forests intact until the prospect of deriving a revenue from them is better.

[Signed] WARREN HIGLEY, _First Vice-President_ EDWARD HAGAMAN HALL, _Secretary_

REPORT OF THE CARRIAGE BUILDERS' NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Soon after the Conference of Governors called by President Roosevelt in the White House, May 3-15, 1908, the Carriage Builders' National Association appointed a Committee on National Conservation, which has submitted two reports adopted by the Association. The last report, recently adopted, covers the items in which the carriage trade is most vitally interested. In addition to data taken from the Report of the National Conservation Commission, it summarizes the work and opinion of our Association on the important subject of Conservation.

A late census report showed in its lumber cut a total of 203,211,000 board feet of hickory as compared with 9,255,000,000 feet for all hardwoods. This would indicate that the hardwood forest at present contains a little over 2 percent of hickory; probably as much as 4 percent for the entire hardwood area. The forest of the eastern half of Kentucky has been estimated recently to contain about 5 percent of hickory. The lumber cut does not show the large quantity of hickory which is cut and shipped in the form of round billets, rived or split spoke stock, etc. This form of material is frequently culled from the forest ahead of the lumberman, and tends to cause the low percentage of hickory in the lumber cut before noted. Including this with the 203,000,000 feet of hickory lumber would raise the total cut to at least 350,000,000 feet per year.

Add to this hickory cut for fuel in localities with no transportation facilities, and the heart, pecky, and other portions wasted, and the total soon amounts to 400,000,000 feet. If hickory forms 3 percent of this forest (much of which is culled already for hickory--the lumber cut alone showing a little over 2 percent) there would be a total stand of 12,000,000,000 feet of hickory. Much of this is mature timber, with an annual growth of less than 1-1/2 percent. Hence there may be figured a growth of less than 180,000,000 feet against a consumption of about 400,000,000 feet. Though this is to some extent speculation, when supported by increasing difficulty in getting hickory timber and with rising prices, it is nevertheless sufficient to indicate that a thorough study of the growth of hickory is one of the important steps in attempting to plan relief measures.

The report made to President Roosevelt was enthusiastically received, and an organization was formed to bring about a campaign of education among the people of the United States on National Conservation of our resources. In turning over the office of President to William H. Taft, Theodore Roosevelt recommended to him strongly the work of National Conservation, and reports through the press have shown that he is very enthusiastic and is taking a live interest, notwithstanding some of the newspaper reports regarding the controversy between some of the members connected with the Association, which, in our judgment, has been a splendid advertisement for the cause.

We are also pleased to report that the National Hickory Association of the United States (whose membership is composed largely of the members of our Association) have taken a great interest in this work of Conservation, and have taken an active interest with the National Conservation Commission appointed by President Roosevelt in making up their report. They also held an enthusiastic meeting in Cincinnati last April, passing resolutions to work toward the end of having a permanent National Conservation Committee appointed by the Government, and also in the various States.

Your committee recommended that all our members take an active interest and cooperate with the members of the National Hickory Association and the National Conservation Association, and offered the following resolutions which were adopted:

"_Resolved_, That we heartily endorse the work of the National Hickory Association and assure them of our hearty cooperation.

"_Resolved_, That we favor the maintenance of Conservation Commissions in every State, to the end that each commonwealth may be aided and guided in making the best use of those abundant resources with which it has been blessed.

"_Resolved_, That we also especially urge on the Congress of the United States the high desirability of maintaining a National Commission on the Conservation of the Resources of the Country, empowered to cooperate with State commissions, to the end that every sovereign commonwealth and every section of the country may attain the high degree of prosperity and the sureness of perpetuity naturally arising in the abundant resources and the vigor and intelligence and patriotism of our people.

"_Resolved_, That a joint committee be appointed by our chairman, to consist of six members of our Association, whose duty it shall be to work in harmony with the State and National Commissions and the National Hickory Association."

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] H. RATTERMANN, Cincinnati, Ohio _Chairman_ J. D. DORT, Flint, Mich. DANIEL T. WILSON, New York City E. W. M. BAILEY, Amesbury, Mass. GEORGE H. BABCOCK, Watertown, N. Y. WILLIAM A. SNYDER, Piqua, Ohio W. P. CHAMPNEY, Cleveland, Ohio D. M. PARRY, Indianapolis, Ind. MAURICE CONNOLLY, Dubuque, Iowa LUCIUS GREGORY, Chase City, Va. _Committee_

REPORT OF THE DELAWARE STATE FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS

As the one Delegate from the State of Delaware, I feel that I must speak a word for her. Delaware has an enviable list of great names, from Caesar Rodney, whose memorable ride turned the scale in the vote for liberty, with Thomas F. Bayard and John Clayton, down to the present time, when we have a man like Judge George Gray to be proud of.

The Delaware State Federation of Women's Clubs, which I represent, goes hand in hand with the women of sister States in this great movement. Our Legislature has appointed a State Forester--and the Granges and our Agricultural College at Newark are working to improve our soil and crops, while our women are supplementing their efforts wherever they can. We are cooperating with the Red Cross in the fight against the White Plague, and have succeeded in having a child labor law enacted, and are now working for a juvenile court. We have offered prizes to the public school children for the best essay on waterways; and we are beautifying our waterfronts and securing pure water. We have no great forests, but we raise the best peaches in the world and are rapidly coming to the front in apple culture, and we are going to keep up a ceaseless educational campaign, so that our people will realize the importance of conserving our natural resources.

I consider it a great honor and privilege to represent the women of Delaware at this great Congress, and thank you for your attention.

[Signed] CORNELIA R. HOLLIDAY

REPORT OF THE FARMERS' UNION OF AMERICA

It is a matter of great regret to me that the National Convention of the Farmers' Union occurs almost simultaneously with the gathering of the Second National Conservation Congress.

I regard the question of Conservation as one of the very greatest now before this country. I regard Gifford Pinchot as the father of the Conservation idea in America. I believe that future generations will credit his activity in awakening the American conscience to almost criminal extravagance in exploiting our resources as one of the most practical displays of patriotism in National history.

I trust that the deliberations at Saint Paul will be attended by much progress and profit. Let me beg also that while you concentrate on resources, you do not overlook the conserving of that greatest of our resources--the American Farmer. I regard his uplift of first importance to the present welfare and destiny of America.

I shall hope that such steps as you take during the current session will be of far-reaching influence in directing the vital thought of an aroused people.

[Signed] C. S. BARRETT _President_

REPORT OF THE GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS

It gives me great pleasure to report to this Congress the work undertaken and accomplished by the Waterway Committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs during the sixteen months of its existence.

Every State federation in the Union was asked to assist in this movement by adding to their standing committees one called Waterways; and ready responses came from many States. The work as outlined for each State falls under three departments, Civic, Educational, and Publicity. In this way the work can be systematized and developed along the lines to meet the needs of each locality.

We have been told that our country stands foremost in waterway richness; with its many splendid rivers and great lakes, as it is well nigh girdled by oceans. Plans are rapidly maturing for the celebration of the short route to the East through Panama in 1915. From the dawn of history to the present time, civilization has followed the water routes; all the great cities are on, or in close proximity to, waterways. The date of the rapid reaching of railroads in every direction throughout our land was the signal for the neglect and non-use of water highways, until in the majority of cases the river fronts have been absorbed for railroad ways. There are now scarcely any good terminal facilities to be found for water transportation. To meet the problems confronting us in regard to our waterways, women resolved that there must be instituted a campaign for education, such an education that the awakening resulting therefrom shall become a force of tremendous energy.

Man must know that in giving development to a stream it must be improved from its source to its mouth, and for its every use. Storage dams should be built at every available point. The fish raised in the reservoirs thereby created will soon pay for the outlay in construction. It is estimated that by fully conserving the waters and utilizing the water-power developed in connection with storage and other works, three times as much land can be reclaimed in the western half of the United States. Such dams will decrease largely the annual damage from flood waters, with which we are so familiar, as well as regulate a more even stream-flow. A larger and purer water supply will be assured; water for irrigation in the more accessible regions will be afforded. An improved stream provides cheaper power for manufacturing purposes, stimulates various industries, and thereby furnishes larger fields of employment. If the limitation of streams as self-clarifiers were better understood there would be such protection given to them and their water-sheds that there would be no more refuse, laden with typhoid, cholera and inflammatory intestinal germs given to them, especially if the great distances these germs travel and their tenacity of life were better known. The developed stream affords water for transportation when the stream is navigable, which affects both the producer and consumer from the remotest section to the heart of the Nation.

It costs no more to develop the average stream than to build a railroad of the same mileage, but the improved stream carries 125 times as much freight per year as can be carried by rails, and at one-sixth the cost. Some 75 percent of the total freight commodities originating on the traffic lines in the United States consist of heavy raw materials, the staple productions of the farms, the forests, the mines, and the live stock ranges of the interior. These are commodities where economy of transportation is a prime essential to production. The even stream-flow which comes from improvement gives moisture to the agricultural lands along the banks; the trees at the head waters and outlining its meanderings testify to the interdependence of forests and streams. An improved river system as outlined in these suggestions also necessitates drainage of all lowlands, save those suffering from the encroachments of the sea.

At a glance we readily see that the development of waterways affects the Nation at large and man individually in a more vital way than any other of the natural resources. The idea is generally prevalent that the development of our Nation's waterways is pre-eminently man's work, and that there is nothing for the women to do. Yet there is not one phase of waterway development that does not directly or indirectly touch every home of this Nation. Who is there, then, to say that it is not the duty of every woman as mother and citizen to inform herself thoroughly on so vital a subject that she may be among the most active educators in this great campaign? In almost every great sociological and reform movement, women have been the originators; and today they are the dynamic forces which destroy the evils that are opposing civic righteousness. Shall the homemaker refuse to protect her household from one of the greatest sources of physical infection which follows in the wake of modern indifference to pure water supply? Purity in water means health, impurity means sickness and death.

Every year millions of dollars are spent by Americans in travel in the older countries. We read beautiful descriptions of voyages down the Rhine. Along the Thames the Victorian embankment adds glory to London. The little River Seine with its many canals, making Paris, though inland, one of the greatest ports in France, remains beautiful throughout its length; flowing through the center of Paris, it has been kept decorative, banked with foliage and flowers, skirted by long lines of graceful masonry, with pleasure promenades, bordered on either side with beautiful statuary and sparkling fountains. Does it not fill your heart with a sense of mortification to compare these water fronts of European cities with the water fronts of our American cities? Public beauty excites that love of country which is at the very foundation of true patriotism. Let us resolve within ourselves to reverse these conditions, and bend our energies to improve and make of our waterways the most beautiful in the world.

Reports from the 39 States now in active work along these lines have shown great returns from the efforts put forth. We have 619 federated clubs showing definite results of their undertakings. In one State a splendid reference library on "Waterways" has been established; in another a great warfare was waged for pure drinking-water, the women going to the polls and making a fight for the sand filtration plan. Sixty-three clubs have reported making sanitary and parking water fronts as their especial work with splendid results. Prizes have been offered in many States to school children for the best essay on "Inland Waterways": over 5000 children in one State alone entered this contest. Placing Conservation in the public schools has been accomplished in several States; in every State great work is being done along educational lines, with the hearty cooperation and support of the superintendents and teachers. This subject has been given place on 150 programs of State, district, and local meetings of various organizations; and many speakers have addressed schools and club assemblies. The press has been most courteous in every State in its cooperation with this Committee; 101 different articles have been published in all the prominent newspapers throughout the States. The Waterway Committee of the General Federation have sent delegates to waterway conventions in a number of States. There is scarcely a club in the Federation that has not given at least one number on its program, if not the entire program, to the Conservation of our natural resources.

Fifty thousand circulars and pamphlets have been sent from the Chairman's office and distributed throughout the States by the different chairmen. The great demand for waterway literature from every quarter convinces us of the growing interest in this subject. Thus we stand as strong allies in this great Conservation movement.

[Signed] Mrs J. D. WILKINSON, _Chairman Waterways Committee_ (Reported through Mrs G. B. SNEATH)

REPORT OF THE LAKES TO GULF DEEP WATERWAY ASSOCIATION

I bring greetings from three different bodies allied in this work: the Business Men's League of Saint Louis; the Missouri Waterways Commission, of which I have the honor to be Chairman; and the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association, of which I have the honor to be President. On behalf of Governor Hadley and the State of Missouri, I wish to extend to this Congress the assurance that Missouri is for the policy of Conservation of natural resources in the way in which it is understood by most of you; that is to say, she is for the economical development of her resources in the highest degree, and at the same time for the preservation of the rights of the people in the control of those resources.

Some time ago, following out the policy advocated by Mr Gifford Pinchot and by President Roosevelt, Governor Hadley appointed the Missouri Waterways Commission to examine and report upon the water resources of the State. In this department, Missouri is richer than many other States in the Union. Located in the center of the most fertile valley in America, she possesses two great rivers; the Mississippi, forming her entire eastern border, and the Missouri, exactly bisecting the State, connecting her two great principal cities. In addition to these there come down out of the Ozark Mountain region a series of smaller navigable rivers, the Osage, the Gasconade, the Big Piney, the Current, the Black, the White, and many smaller streams flowing into the great rivers and enabling boats to reach almost every part of the interior. In the course of time all of these rivers will be very much improved, and many of them made navigable. The sources of these streams are in the Ozarks, and they are fed by the most beautiful springs which are known to exist in America; one of these springs, named after our Governor, discharges, it is estimated, 50,000,000 gallons a day, even in the driest season--an amount equal to the entire consumption of a city of probably 50,000 inhabitants. There are many more which flow from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 gallons a day. You cannot go a quarter of a mile along any valley road in the Ozark region without coming upon a spring oozing out of the limestone or sandstone cliffs, and adding its limpid waters to some brook or river. The crest of the Ozarks is 2,000 feet above the sea, more than 1,500 feet above Saint Louis, and all of these streams flow pell-mell down the hills to their navigable portions; so that the State has a very large amount of latent water-power. It is well to remember that the Ozarks remain forested, and that it is in the shelter of these forests that the waters gather to form the abundant springs and streams.

The Missouri Waterways Commission has employed one of the best-known hydraulic engineers in America, Mr M. L. Holman, to make a preliminary survey of these and other resources; and on this he is now engaged. When this has been completed, a report will be made to Governor Hadley embodying a policy for the control and development of this power, and this policy, it is expected, will be recommended to the next State Legislature by the Governor with the view of securing legislation conserving at the same time the water resources and the people's rights in them.

This is not, of course, the full extent of the Waterway Commission's work, for we have also to consider the use of the streams for navigation, a department in which the State is as much interested as the Federal Government, although we are not allowed to tamper with the navigable rivers themselves. We are also to consider the reclamation of swamp lands, the preservation of soil, and the general use of water, which is today the Nation's greatest asset. In the last Congress an appropriation of $1,300,000 was made for Missouri river, which means as much to Missouri as a part of its Conservation work as it does to the cities and the Nation for its value to navigation. Both the Missouri and the Mississippi are great devourers of soil. The Missouri will tear out an entire farm and ruin a farmer in an incredibly short space of time when it is changing its bed. The application of revetment to the banks and the contraction system in the effort, certain of success, to obtain a 6-foot permanent channel between Kansas City and Saint Louis, will return to the farmer, it is estimated, more than the entire outlay in additional capital wealth represented by the rich accretions of the Missouri bottoms. The securing of this appropriation and the very large appropriations also for the Mississippi fronting the State and leading from this beautiful city of Saint Paul all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, has been largely stimulated by the work and activity of the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Water Association; and many of you will remember how much that organization has had to do with the doctrines of Conservation.

This reference to the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association may be pardoned, when it is remembered that this Association has always stood for the complete utilization of the waterways for all purposes for which they are available, and that it has thereby become one of the most effective Conservation agencies in the world. It may interest you to know that we of the Lakes to the Gulf Waterway Association played an historic part in the early history of Conservation in this country. In October, 1907, the Association chartered a fleet of steamers and carried President Theodore Roosevelt from Saint Louis to Memphis to show a President of the United States for the first time the necessity of improving the inland waters. One of the steamboats which made that trip was the General McKenzie, and the passengers on the McKenzie were the Inland Waterways Commission appointed by President Roosevelt, upon the suggestion of our Association, to examine the question in hand. One of the members of this Commission was Gifford Pinchot; another was Mr Frederick H. Newell, head of the Reclamation Service; another was Dr W J McGee, Secretary of the Commission; another was Herbert Knox Smith, head of the Bureau of Corporations; and another was Alexander McKenzie, always a friend of the waterways. On the steamer Alton, escorting the President, were the Governors of 22 States; and still another vessel bore about 75 members of the Federal Congress.

The second night out from Saint Louis was a stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, and the vessels made their way with great difficulty through the intricate channel of Point Pleasant reached from New Madrid southward. On that memorable night Gifford Pinchot and his associates in the Inland Waterways Commission came aboard the steamer Alton, and on the deck of that steamboat, protected from the storm by canvas awnings, held the historic meeting that gave birth to two great movements: Conservation, and the House of Governors. As a result of that meeting, where the policy of Conservation was fully laid out, President Roosevelt announced in his speech at the Lakes to the Gulf convention in Memphis that he would call a meeting of the Governors, and did call this memorable meeting of May 15-18, 1908, at which public sanction was given to the Conservation movement, and the House of Governors became an established organization. We have always felt that the place of the Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association in bringing about this meeting is one of the proudest achievements that the Association has on its records, and will live in history.

The Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway Association has always felt the necessity of allying itself with the Upper Mississippi River Improvement Association, the Ohio River Improvement Association, and the general Conservation movement for the best development of all river channels. The Mississippi today has the largest storage reservoirs in the world, although they are almost equaled now by the storage in the Salt River Irrigation Project in Arizona. But because of the cutting and burning of the forests, and the failure of the Government to complete the reservoirs, the Mississippi this year has been unnavigable above Saint Louis through the whole summer season. Nothing but conservation of the head-waters--and it must be remembered that adequate attention should be given to the forests about the head-waters--can prevent a recurrence of that circumstance in the next drought. The reservoirs which are now established should be supplemented by others on the Wisconsin, the Flambeau, the Chippewa, the Minnesota, and all the other streams flowing into the upper river, and some scheme for conserving the waters of the Ohio, although it will come at great expense; and the Tennessee also must be dammed and reservoired, both to withhold the floods and to conserve the water for dry-season navigation. Costly as these reservoir systems may be, it will require but little figuring to show that, again in league with the Conservation policy and a light charge by the Government on the water-power in these navigable streams, they will return interest and sinking fund on the cost of the improvements. Here in Saint Paul, and between here and Minneapolis, we have an illustration of the great lack of proper development in the series of falls and rapids--not half of which is properly utilized--on which the Government has spent much money and for which the people receive no return whatever.

But the Lakes to the Gulf channel is a magnificent illustration of Conservation. It requires, as in Illinois, the cutting of 100 miles of canal through rock and riverbed, and the building of dams which will develop 150,000 horsepower; and the use of the money from that power now going to waste will pay the entire cost of this expensive rock channel (this in itself is an ideal example of Conservation). In the Mississippi reach between Grafton and Cairo, which is to be deepened to 14 feet or more by three large dams, will be developed more than 600,000 horsepower, and this in return will also pay for the cost of the work and a surplus besides. Below Cairo the improvement of the river contemplates--and the present appropriations are carrying this out--the revetment of the banks in every bend, which will save to the Nation in soil an amount every year which it is impossible to calculate, but which is worth many millions of dollars; will allow the building of levees close to the waterfront without danger of their caving in, and so reclaim possibly 100 square miles of additional land in the Delta; and will make a permanent and safe drainage system for the great swamps along the river, from which a few years' crops will more than pay for the entire Lakes to the Gulf Deep Waterway.

Swamp drainage, storage to prevent floods, storage to provide water-power and better channels, the establishment of suitable banks and good levees--all of these are a part of the Conservation policy that was launched on that memorable trip on which Theodore Roosevelt inspected the Mississippi.

[Signed] W. K. KAVANAUGH, _President_

REPORT OF THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN

The Committee appointed by the League of American Sportsmen to make recommendations to the National Conservation Congress beg leave to report briefly as follows:

_Federal Laws_

The United States should enact laws so that in addition to those now in force, the following will be possible:

The protection by the United States Government of migratory birds and fishes.

The setting apart and protection of game refuges, parks, and breeding grounds, and scientifically caring for same. Some of these should be established in the forest reserves now existing that are suitable for this purpose, and competent caretakers put in charge. The Wichita Reserve is a good example to follow. Marsh lands and water should not be forgotten, as all bird and forest life must be considered.

Trained Government game-keepers or experts should be provided, that can be furnished upon applications received from State or private game parks--same to be paid by the applicant served.

_The States_

The States should each and all set apart game refuges and parks and care for them practically. Competent care-takers and trained game-keepers should be put in charge. These game refuges for wild life should be distributed as generally in each State and cover as wide an area as possible; for it must not be forgotten that the song and insectivorous birds are as important to save and find refuges for, as is what is usually denominated "game."

The game laws of the States should be as nearly the same as geographical and local conditions will permit.

The enforcement of the game, bird, and fish laws, together with the care of game preserves, should be divorced from politics. At present in most of the States the selection of a game warden is based not upon training or fitness for the position, but is the reward of party or personal political fealty. Should by chance the appointee show adaptability and really study the subject of game protection, by the time his education is well under way and he has become valuable to the State, the political wheel turns again and some one else is to be rewarded.

So-called game laws to be enforcible must be practical and have the sympathy of the people. Therefore, the work of education must be continued and amplified by both the State and Federal powers to show, _first_, the value of bird life to the farmer and all the people as insect and weed-seed destroyers; _second_, the value of game and fish as food products; _third_, their value as an incentive to a life out-of-doors and health; _fourth_, the value to the State because of the tourist and sportsmen's travel attracted thereby (statistics on this subject should be gathered by both Federal and State authorities, and given constant and wide publicity); _fifth_, the non-resident hunting and fishing license should be made as nearly alike in the several States as possible, and a reasonable amount of fish or game allowed to be taken home by the terms of said license; _sixth_, resident licenses issued by the State should furnish funds for carrying on the work of game, bird, and fish protection and propagation, and we recommend a careful consideration of this subject by those States that have not already such laws in force; and _seventh_, the so-called spring shooting of water-fowl should be stopped.

All of which is respectfully submitted:

[Signed] WM. B. MERSHON, Saginaw, Mich. _Chairman_ JNO. F. LACEY, Oskaloosa, Iowa F. SHAROIR, Stamford, Conn. J. H. MCDERMOTT, Morgantown, W. Va. J. ADAMS BROWN, New York City R. D. EVANS, Washington, D. C. _Conservation Committee_

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF FIRE UNDERWRITERS

Since the commencement of the Conservation movement, the National Board of Fire Underwriters has been deeply interested in the governmental and associational activities aiming to foster and protect the natural resources with which our country has been so bountifully blessed. Our representation at the Washington Conferences of 1908 indicated our sympathy with the propositions presented, and the continuance of our Conservation Committee is a manifestation that we have been and are ever ready to cooperate in a furtherance of those principles which you as an organization stand pledged to advance. We believe that unless there is an intelligent development and utilization of our natural resources, the comfort, prosperity, and happiness of future generations will be seriously impaired, and we are in hearty accord with all legislation having for its object the preservation from destruction of Nature's gifts and Man's handiwork.

The address which this Committee presented to the Joint Conservation Conference sought to set forth some very important facts concerning the excessive fire waste which persists in the United States and suggested remedial measures, which we still firmly believe, if adopted, would materially diminish the grievous loss of life and the tremendous and unnecessary destruction of created values by fire. We therefore beg to reaffirm those suggestions at this time, as follows:

The present fire waste in this country is an unnecessary National calamity, and to reduce it it is essential--

_First_--That the public should be brought to understand that property destroyed by fire is gone forever, and is not replaced by the distribution of insurance, which is a tax collected for the purpose.

_Second_--That the States severally adopt and enforce a building code which shall require a high type of safe construction, essentially following the code of the National Board of Fire Underwriters.

_Third_--That municipalities adopt ordinances governing the use and keeping of explosives, especially inflammable commodities, and other special hazards, such as electric wiring, the storing of refuse, waste, packing materials, etc. in buildings, yards, or areaways, and see to the enforcement of such ordinances.

_Fourth_--That the States severally establish and support the office of fire marshal, and confer on the Fire Marshal by law the right to examine under oath and enter premises and to make arrests, making it the duty of such officer to examine into the cause and origin of all fires, and when crime has been committed requiring the facts to be submitted to the grand jury or proper indicting body.

_Fifth_--That in all cities there be a paid, well disciplined, non-political fire department adequately equipped with modern apparatus.

_Sixth_--That an adequate water system with proper distribution and pressure be installed and maintained. In the larger cities, a separate high pressure water system for fire extinguishment is an absolute necessity, to diminish the extreme imminence of general conflagrations.

The publication by the U. S. Geological Survey of Bulletin 418, known as "The Fire Tax and Waste of Structural Materials in the United States," is worthy of high commendation, and we believe a wider distribution of this pamphlet and the preparation and dissemination annually of similar information, will materially serve to awaken the public to a realization of the enormous values in utilized resources which are destroyed by fire beyond recall, and cause action to be taken by States, municipalities and individuals to enact such laws and regulations as will make for the exercise of greater care and forethought in the preservation of materials produced from our natural resources. It must be evident that the conservation of our forests and mines will fail of its full results if the utilized products therefrom are to continue to be unnecessarily destroyed by fire to a degree that is a National disgrace.

We share the pride of all our fellow citizens in the remarkable growth and prosperity of this country, in the extensive building operations, and in the increased commercial values; but, if we would conserve those natural resources which have been the principal foundations of our success, we submit that it is equally important to adopt and enforce such measures as will lessen the steadily and rapidly increasing fire waste of our utilized resources.

The National Board of Fire Underwriters has for years devoted its energies and activities principally to the reduction of the fire waste and the safeguarding of life and property. Standard rules and lists of hazardous and protective devices and materials are distributed free of charge, the results of the tests conducted at the Underwriters' Laboratories are made known to anyone evincing an interest, a model Building Code, prepared under the advice of experts in construction and engineering, has been urged for adoption in every municipality of the country, and as a result our advice and cooperation are sought in the revision and adoption of the building laws of our cities. Under the immediate direction of our Committee on Fire Prevention, expert engineers investigate the fire-fighting facilities and structural conditions of our cities, submitting copies of the reports, with suggestions for improvements, to the officials of the city visited and to the press; the expense of the work of this Committee alone, for the last six years, has amounted to $432,742.

We have persistently endeavored to influence the introduction of improved and safe methods of building construction, to encourage the adoption of better fire protective measures, to secure efficient organization and equipment of fire departments with adequate and improved water systems, and to have adopted rules regulating the storage and handling of explosives and inflammable products; and we contend that successful efforts along these lines will very largely lessen the fire waste of the utilized resources, the destruction of which at the rate of over $216,000,000 annually (1900-1909, inclusive) is one of the greatest drains upon our natural resources and one which can be corrected, if the Nation, State, city, and citizen will cooperate along the lines indicated above.

The destruction of our utilized resources by fire is increasing at such a rapid rate that the subject of its reduction should be very prominent in the minds of the people. Losses recorded for the past thirty-five years, not including forests, mine or marine fires, total the enormous sum of $4,906,619,240. Unrecorded losses, if obtainable, would materially increase these figures. These annual fire losses run from $64,000,000 in 1876 to $518,000,000 in 1906. In 1907, a normal year, our recorded losses were $215,084,709, and our estimated fire defense cost $241,401,191, or a total amount equaling about 50 percent of the value of the new buildings erected that year in the entire country. In 1908, also a normal year, our ash-heap cost $217,885,850, and the relations of defense-cost and fire loss to new buildings remained about the same. Our contributions to fire that year were over $1,250,000 each day of the year, a sum equal to the operating expenses of our Government, including those of our army and navy, for the same year; and in 1909 we gave to fire over $25,000,000, more than was spent in that year for the same governmental functions.

No one organization can effect the needed reform. Since 1880 the population has increased 73 percent, while the fire loss for the same period increased 134 percent. The National Fire Protection Association and the National Credit Men's Association are spreading the doctrine of reform in the recklessness with which our utilized resources are destroyed by fire. Each organization should be encouraged. Membership is open to all in the former, and in the latter to the business men and merchants of our cities. The work, however, is carried on without State or municipal cooperation and therein lies the chief reason of delayed success.

If the office of State Fire Marshal were created by every commonwealth, and that official and his deputies were given power to enforce good fire-prevention laws, to investigate and if necessary prosecute cases of arson or criminal carelessness in the starting or spreading of fires, to ascertain the cause of every fire, and by the distribution of literature to educate the citizen to the need of care and forethought in the protection of his property, a distinct conserving of the utilized resources in that State would follow.

If our municipalities will enact and enforce improved and safe methods of building construction and cause the removal or reconstruction of existing structures which constitute, because of their construction, a menace to adjoining properties, our cities will be freer from the imminent conflagration which now threatens them. Eliminate defective chimney flues, unprotected external and internal openings, excessive areas, weak walls, and combustible roofs; prohibit the storage of rubbish, and demand the safe use and handling of dangerous inflammable liquids and oils; regulate the use of explosives; and the destruction of our values, created from the natural resources but enriched many-fold by human toil, industry, and skill, will be materially diminished.

If the citizens of a community, as members of their local civic bodies and boards of trade, will create in such organizations a Committee on Fire Prevention, whose duty it shall be to study the subject and awaken among their associates a realization of individual and communal responsibility, and if our boards of education will emulate the action of the State of Ohio in prescribing primary education of the school children as to the chemistry of fire, the causes of fires in our homes and how to guard against them, and how to extinguish incipient fires or hold them in check while awaiting the response of the fire department, a preparation will be made in that community which will check the constantly increasing fire waste.

And so while this Congress discusses and formulates policies for the Conservation of our natural resources, it should, at least, as representing the official, professional, commercial, and industrial life of the Nation, distinctly and emphatically advocate such regulation as will preserve those resources which are the embodiment of the thrift and industry of our people--the utilized resources--from unnecessary and wasteful destruction by fire.

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] A. W. DAMON, Springfield _Chairman_ GEO. W. BABB, New York C. G. SMITH, New York W. N. KREMER, New York R. M. BISSELL, Hartford R. DALE BENSON, Philadelphia R. EMORY WARFIELD, New York _Committee_

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF TRADE

In response to the invitation of this Congress, the National Board of Trade, which participated in the Conference of Governors at the White House in 1908, is permitted to take part in its deliberations. The National Board of Trade, as its name implies, is National in character, and is composed of a large number of Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce, and other organized bodies representing many of the large commercial and industrial centers of the entire United States. It was organized 42 years ago for the purpose indicated in the following declaration: "The National Board of Trade was formed for the purpose of promoting the efficiency and extending the usefulness of the various Commercial and manufacturing organizations of the United States of America, securing unity and harmony of action with reference to business usages and laws, and especially the proper consideration of and concentration of opinion upon questions affecting the financial, commercial, and industrial interests of the country at large, and to provide a concerted action regarding National legislative measures and Governmental department affairs."

It will be seen from this declaration that the object of the National Board of Trade is to attempt to harmonize public opinion on National questions. About 15 years ago it became impressed with the wanton wastefulness and public neglect of our National forests, and resolutions were adopted inviting public attention to and legislation for the preservation and conservation of the timber resources of the United States. In a very short time it became evident there were other important questions involved in the regulating of forests, primarily the grave necessity of creating forest reserves and protecting them from depreciation by Government control and administration; and the establishment of a Bureau of Forestry was advocated. The National Board of Trade was also a pioneer in advocating the reclamation of arid lands and the drainage of swamp and overflow lands and practical reforestation, and adopted resolutions urging legislation to this end.

The activity of the National Board of Trade in promoting the measures it has advocated consists of the printing and the distribution of many thousands of copies of reports of committees and resolutions, as well as large numbers of its annual report in permanent book form, which of itself constitutes a valuable commercial library of reference; these publications have been sent to Members of Congress and the officials of the National Government, to State officials and members of State Legislatures, and to mayors and other officials of many cities having more than ordinary interest in public-welfare questions. The dissemination of this information has required a great deal of time and the expenditure of no small sum of money, and the National Board of Trade and its constituent members, together with all others interested in its work, appreciate the patriotism and generosity of its President, who has done so much to carry on its work.

The commercial interests of the entire country are thoroughly alive to the merits of, and are earnestly championing, the cause of Conservation of all our natural resources. Economic use that does not destroy, but protects and fosters reproduction where reproduction is possible, prolongs and perpetuates the industries dependent on natural products for their maintenance; and these compose the larger part of all our manufactures. The National Board of Trade in its 42 years of existence has been the exponent of the principles upon which alone permanent trade and commerce can be maintained and extended--high standards of commercial honor and integrity, and doing unto others as we would that others should do unto us.

There are in this Congress, on the invitation of its officers, Delegates from National organizations which have contributed greatly to various phases of Conservation problems, which are now crystallizing into a National policy. So far as we are informed, it appears from the report of the Committee on Credentials and other committees that have been announced that no representation has been given these Delegates to enable them to participate in the active work of the Congress. We, as Delegates from the National Board of Trade, representing the commercial interests of the entire country, recommend that in case invitations are extended to National organizations to be represented at future congresses that suitable provision be made for their representatives to participate in the practical work.

The National Board of Trade rejoices with this Congress in the advanced thought that the campaign of education has created in the minds of the American people, and it also feels great satisfaction in that it has for many years earnestly advocated and been instrumental in the adoption of the wise, beneficent, and economic measures that are in the interest of not only the present generation but of generations yet unborn.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the National Board of Trade,

[Signed] A. T. ANDERSON, Cleveland WILLIAM S. HARVEY, Philadelphia (_Chairman Committee on Forestry, Irrigation, and Conservation_)

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BUSINESS LEAGUE OF AMERICA

I deeply appreciate the privilege, and am not insensible of the honor, of briefly addressing this great Congress of representative men in every field of human endeavor, who are met to plan for the Conservation of our natural resources.

First, I wish to emphasize the fact that the patriotic men who are planning Conservation today are mostly not the men who will execute. The men who are to conserve our lands and waters and minerals, and perpetuate our forests, are now running around in knickerbockers, or being rocked in the cradles of the Nation. They and their children and their children's children, down along the line of centuries, will carry out the vital precepts and principles of this great Conservation movement--this timely warning cry against careless National extravagance, this imperative codicil to the Declaration of Independence.

There are some resources we cannot restore, but may conserve or substitute. As one door closes another opens. Coal, iron, copper, and other products of the mine, when once consumed cannot be reproduced; but for all time the tree may be perpetuated--the friendly, faithful, useful tree that conserves the rain-drop with its treasures of light, heat, power, and life-giving properties for vegetation, and fills the world with inspiring beauty. The restoration and preservation of our forests, then, and an adequate policy of accomplishment, become of the weightiest importance.

In this connection I beg to suggest the American farmer boy. It is proposed to organize the farmer boys and young men of this country into a great National body, to be known as the Tree Planters of America. The plan involves instruction and actual practice in tree-planting and tree-culture, with suitable prizes for excellence and results. It aims to permanently check the wastefulness of go-as-you-please forestry now evident from every car-window in this country. In brief, without entering into details, the suggestion seeks to organize all farmer boys from twelve to twenty years of age as Tree Planters, in every commonwealth, county, and township of the United States; with the cooperation of the Forest Service at Washington, Governors of States, and the proper official heads of town and county governments.

The plan in general unifies the individual, the State, and the Nation, into one vast organized body for the practical reforestation of the country. The system once made operative will become an inseparable part of the life of the farmer of the future. It is kindred to the splendid educational and philanthropic work of Mr Bernard N. Baker, the ideal and actual President of this Congress; and I hope it may merit your approval as _one_ practical means to the end we all are aiming at.

The time for talking has gone by. The time for action has come. Therefore let us begin at the foundation and organize the coming men who are to do the actual work of reforestation. The mind of the American boy is plastic. The impressions he receives remain to the end. Teach him, then, to practice those things that make for permanent universal betterment; for with his brain and brawn he determines the destiny of this great American Republic.

[Signed] AUSTIN A. BURNHAM _General Secretary_

REPORT OF THE MISSOURI VALLEY RIVER IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

When the Missouri Valley River Improvement Association was organized in August, 1906, practically no one in the valley thought the Missouri navigable in its then unimproved state, and only a few people believed it worth while to solicit Government aid in trying to make it navigable. The general impression seemed to be that the Missouri had outlived its usefulness. Compare this feeling with the sentiment that exists today! The people of Kansas City and the entire Missouri Valley have become awakened to the great possibilities of this river as a means of cheap transportation. Through the efforts of our Association and the people of the valley, the Congress of the United States in 1907 made an appropriation of $400,000 for the improvement of the Missouri; in 1909 Congress made another appropriation of $555,000, and in June, 1910, still another of $1,465,000 for improving the river from its mouth to Fort Benton.

So great is the interest in the Missouri river project that the people of Kansas City recently raised a fund of over $1,000,000 for the purpose of navigating the Missouri with modern and up-to-date boats especially adapted to this river. Experiments are now being made with different kinds of boats to determine which are the most practical. With the opening of navigation in the spring of 1911, we hope to have a modern boat line in operation between Kansas City and Saint Louis. In addition to raising $1,000,000 for navigating the Missouri, Kansas City at her bond election in the spring of this year, voted $75,000 bonds for the improvement of her harbor.

The sentiment in favor of improving and navigating the Missouri was brought about to a great extent by some of the business men of Kansas City who in 1906 organized a boat-line company to maintain regular steamboat service between Kansas City and Saint Louis to demonstrate that the river was navigable even in its then unimproved state. This company, not waiting to build boats suited to the river, bought two old boats, and in 1907 and 1908 operated them with great success, carrying freight between Kansas City and Saint Louis at two-thirds of the railroad rates. When the people of Kansas City saw what could be done with the antiquated type of boat, they became interested in navigating the river with first-class steel-hull boats, built especially for the Missouri--which resulted in the organization of the Million Dollar Boat Line.

A movement is now under way to organize a company for the purpose of building a large dam across one of Missouri's streams within 120 miles of Kansas City. It is proposed to put up a plant that will generate 30,000 horsepower; this to be transmitted to Kansas City and sold to the consumers at the low price of one cent per kilowatt-hour. The largest consumers of electric power in Kansas City are now paying 2-1/2 cents and the smaller consumers from 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The proposition has the appearance of being feasible, and if it can be carried through it means a great deal to the future growth of the Missouri Valley, as it will furnish cheap power to prospective manufactories.

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] JEROME TWICHELL _Chairman_

REPORT OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION

How to conserve the natural resources of every land has become an absorbing theme throughout the civilized world, and I think no one is more alert in reference thereto than the inhabitants of the former Northwest Territory and of the Louisiana Purchase. They are of the salt of the earth; yet notwithstanding their power they have permitted constant encroachments by predatory greed and covetousness, mostly by the corporate monopoly rampant world-wide in this Twentieth Century. It is thus fitting that this magnificent assembly of progressive public-spirited Delegates from nearly every avocation and locality should here gather at the head of navigation of the great flowing stream that drains the most fertile valley on this mundane sphere. Viewing these fertile lands, it would be most natural to expect that the rights of this people declared by the law of Congress enacted in 1787 should be deemed wise, especially this provision:

_Article IV._ The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and Saint Lawrence, and the carrying places between the same, shall be common highways and forever free as well to the inhabitants of the said Territory as to the citizens of the United States and those of any other States that may be admitted into the Confederacy, without any tax impost or duty therefor.

The Association that I represent has labored during the past decade to so awaken public sentiment in this valley that a six-foot channel will be provided from here to the Gulf; and I bring the message to you that we have aided much in arousing the people from lethargy to a forceful activity for cheaper transportation by inland waterway improvement, which has been assured to this upper river within the succeeding dozen years by Congressional action at the last session.

The problem to be grappled with now is how best to regain for the public the landings for boats, which we find have been obtained and are largely held by private interests antagonistic to thorough use of the stream. Generally for a mere pittance the landing rights, to the thread of the stream, passed to private ownership needlessly and without any consideration to the original grantor, the Government. Each city and village along the river is now up and doing, as is this city of Saint Paul in providing a municipal wharf at enormous expense; they are now fully apprised of the importance of these holdings, which we ardently hope will be regained for free public use, so that improved machinery for loading and unloading cargoes of modern boats and barges by a single power lift may become effective, as may be seen along the Rhine. When this is done, boats will again ply this great river and its tributaries, carrying the abundant products of every kind that this valley annually produces at a much cheaper rate than by rail.

We, who people this Central Northwest, were pioneers in opposing rapacious transportation rates; it was the Granger movement hereabouts, nearly forty years since, that aroused the law-making powers to the necessity of conferring on State and Federal commissions the power to regulate rates; and further results are yet to be hoped for in the regulation of charges for freight, passenger, express, sleeping-car, and mail service, together with telegraph and telephone charges. This valley between the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains was ordained by nature to supply foodstuffs for a goodly portion of the globe's people; and with the opening of the Panama Canal, along with the development of our inland waterway transportation, the problem of traffic rates must be solved.

While the general Government has been using the people's money to improve rivers and build canals, no sooner does the Government undertake to develop power incidental to some praiseworthy project than it finds that the water-power was absorbed by private interests, which were at all times alert to obtain grants in perpetuity (now worth millions) without any regulation to redound to the people's good--as shown by the reports of our waterway conventions. The best sites are already taken away from the people; shall we bend every energy to save what remains? This should be all changed in future grants of power-rights in flowing water; a census of the Nation's water-power resources should be taken, and all grants hereafter should be determined, with the respective values of the same, for use at equitable rates. When once the law-makers realize that the people are truly in earnest about Conservation, a halt will be called upon reckless legislation in the interest of exploiters; then sincere citizens may be induced to stand as legislative candidates, without fear of being pilloried by a subsidized press and venal poll-workers at every turn in a canvass.

Our waterway improvement conventions in this valley have spoken plainly, and the rivers and harbors are faring better than ever before--in fact, our efforts along these lines have done wonders to bring to the people, by acts of Congress, what is justly their own. Will the Conservationists array themselves against all law-makers who have proven recreant by their attitude toward clean-cut legislation in aid of Conservation throughout the United States? Smooth words, without conscientious acts in the interests of our lofty aims, should meet with a lasting rebuke! "Fight it out on this line if it takes several summers," should be our slogan.

[Signed] M. J. MCENIRY _Chairman Conservation Committee_

REPORT OF THE WASHINGTON STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR

The Washington State Federation of Labor will not be represented by any of the Washington State Delegates at the Second National Conservation Congress. We are, however, deeply interested in the question of conservation of natural resources for the people, and as President of this organization, with a membership of over 20,000, I believe I am expressing the sentiment of the workingmen of this State when I say that I am in entire accord with the declaration of views and recommendations of the Governors of States and Territories of the United States, as adopted at the Conference of Governors, called by President Roosevelt, in May, 1908.

Our vast forests, our water supply (for irrigation and power projects), and our fisheries are of inestimable value to the people if properly developed under a control that will make the very best use of them with due regard to their future possibilities and greatness. Forestry, irrigation, and water power are to a great extent dependent on one another in their successful development, and the magnitude of the undertaking requires the hearty cooperation of State and Nation if it reaches the degree of success that we hope for.

I trust that the Congress will strengthen and perfect plans adequate for the protection of the people's interests and the development of these resources with an eye to their future greatness.

Respectfully submitted, [Signed] CHAS. R. CASE _President_

REPORT OF THE WESTERN FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION

Let us concede that Conservation means that we, as a people, should manage all our resources with the intelligence and prudence that an individual should devote to managing his own property. Let us use them profitably, as he would; neither destroying or wasting them unnecessarily, nor giving them heedlessly to anyone who needs them less and will use them less to our advantage. But let us not, during excursions into Constitutional problems, State rights, and other bewildering issues, forget that first of all comes protection from destruction and waste! The great danger now is that our resources will disappear while we are deciding to whom they shall belong.

It is of this kind of Conservation alone, the Conservation that conserves, that I bring you a message from the Pacific Northwest. The Western Forestry and Conservation Association does not decry the necessity for wise action by State and Nation in the safeguarding of water-power, minerals, and lands; but the settlement of such affairs is not our function. I come only to tell you of the work of the most perfectly organized and successful Conservation movement ever undertaken by private individuals in this country--the forest-protective associations of the Pacific slope. We talk little, but we work, spend money, and accomplish.

In our five States from Montana to California stands half the merchantable timber in the United States, the majority in private hands. The control of this stupendous community resource entails grave responsibilities. To preserve it for the fullest use, to replace it when used, if possible--this is the timber-owner's duty. His ownership is largely a public trust. Nowhere else has he realized this so promptly and acted so adequately as in the Pacific Northwest. I have come to report his stewardship, and to show you that you need not wonder whether he will follow the Conservation banner.

The Western Forestry and Conservation Association has no individual membership. It is the central medium or clearing house for a dozen subsidiary associations of timber-land owners, representing millions of acres, who cooperate in order to apply to the best advantage the most modern and efficient systems of forest protection. Through this means they employ a trained forester to assist them in solving problems of reforestation, forest legislation, education, and like matters demanding expert knowledge or central facilities. Its meetings are attended not only by delegates from these timber-owners' organizations, but also by the leading State and Forest Service officials and representatives of the public Conservation associations. All work in the closest harmony to devise and execute practical and effective policies. There are no dissensions at these meetings; no question as to who is most competent by right of law or geography. Every man there, be he a humble officer of the Forest Service, State Forester, or timber owner, is there because he wants to do his own part, with his own hands or money, in preserving the magnificent forests of the West. He knows what he is talking about, and the rest are mighty glad to hear him.

But we do not stop with meetings, and herein is perhaps our chief difference from a great many advocates of Conservation. You have all read of the recent fires in our northwestern country. They have been greatly exaggerated, the area injured really being very limited. Nevertheless, while we talk here of generalities, bands of weary, half-blind men are still battling to prevent fresh outbreaks; the smoke still curls over the blackened forms of those who met a fearful death to save the lives of others; scores who fought till they could fight no more still lie bandaged and sightless in the extremity of mortal agony. No honor is too great to do these heroes. We of the West owe a sacred debt to them, one and all, and not least to the men of the Forest Service whose training made them as efficient as they were brave. We want more, not fewer, of them. But side by side with the bravest, equally efficient, equally trained and disciplined, worked the patrolmen of our fire associations. Conservationists employed by private effort. We have had no time to prepare nice statistics, for our fire fighters have something else to do; but I venture to say that our Associations' expenditures for forest protection this year will be over $300,000. In the Coeur d' Alene fires alone, a single one of our Associations put 850 men in the field.

And yet this is not much to boast of. There should have been no fires to fight. The way to prevent fire is to prevent it, not fight it when almost or quite beyond control. The only solution of the fire question is better enforcement of better laws, better public sentiment, and better patrol. There must be an organized force of trained and vigilant men, ample in numbers during the dry season to reach all fires in their incipiency. It is in this that our Associations now lead all other agencies. They handle the fire situation in a much better and more comprehensive manner than even the Government has ever done, because they spend three times as much money per acre for patrol. Thoroughly excellent as are the methods in the National Forests--they are identical with those of the most progressive practical timberman--Congress does not sustain them adequately.

Our own system is by no means perfect yet. Although in the territory covered by our Association in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon we have perhaps 500 organized and equipped patrolmen, each authorized to hire help when needed, there is still much unorganized area, and not all timbermen within our territory contribute as they should. We need more men and more money from our own brethren, and heartier cooperation from public, State, and Government. But we confidently expect to get all this, just as we have in greater measure each year in the past. And when, as already in Washington last year, one Association protects 8,000,000 acres with a loss of but 1,000 acres; when this small loss was caused by less than 6 fires out of 1,200 extinguished; when in this historic year of 1910 we have controlled our countless fires so that actual disasters can be counted on the fingers, and our loss as a whole is insignificant--we feel that no one has done more to prove his willingness and competence to practice Conservation that counts than the northwestern forest owner.

The northwestern timberman approves all measures that will give the greatest number of people the greatest permanent opportunity to profit by the fullest use and least waste of all our resources. Thus they will be most prosperous and use most lumber. He is doing more than anyone else, Government or State, to protect both old and growing forests from wasteful destruction, so there may be most lumber to use. I take it this is Conservation.

[Signed] E. T. ALLEN _Forester_

REPORT OF THE UNITED MINE WORKERS

I regret very much that serious complications in the mining industry of our country, together with an enormous amount of important matters requiring my immediate attention, makes it impossible for me to keep my engagement to address the Conservation Congress on the subject, "Are we mining intelligently?" I am intensely interested in the subject of conserving our natural resources, but I am still more interested in protecting the lives and health of our people. We are not mining intelligently, as I will explain by letter.

Success to the work of the Conservation Congress! It means much for the future generations of this greatest industrial country on earth.

[Signed] T. L. LEWIS _President_

TIMBER CONSERVATION

GEORGE H. EMERSON

_Hoquiam, Washington_

To save our Nation's resources is the wish of all; to save our timber is the special wish of all timber owners--no one is so much interested as he who has his private gain or loss joined to his interest in the public good.

The American people are a prodigal folk. They have looked upon their resources as inexhaustible, their lands as unlimited. They have called upon all nations to come, and to all comers they have given lands, mines, timber, water-power. Has this course been right? Up to a point in our development, yes; of late, no--most emphatically NO! These resources are entrusted to us as a heritage for our children and generations yet to come. "America for Americans" should have been sounded 25 years ago; had it been, there would today be no cry of approaching timber shortage.

What more absurd disposition of our timber land could have been made than the laws under which it has passed to private hands? The Homestead and Preemption acts, framed for prairies, requiring the settler to live on and cultivate the soil, have been extended to our forests, and to comply with their terms, thousands of men have withdrawn from vocations by which they were increasing the wealth of the Nation, and with blankets and provisions strapped on their backs and axe and compass in hand have worked their weary way through the pathless forests to vacant Government lands, on which they filed. Then with axe and fire they spent months destroying the property they proposed to acquire title to--destroying the resources of the Nation instead of increasing its wealth; and in doing so, fires reached beyond their control and destroyed still other timber. The law and the ruling of the Land Office have made this destruction one of the considerations of acquiring title. Settlers must prove they "have cleared and planted and maintained a residence on the land;" that is, they must prove they have cut and burned a certain amount of the Nation's timber, and have wasted or--worse--employed in destruction certain of the Nation's time, and this to acquire title to land upon which they could no more live than in the middle of a desert! Lands whose only value was in timber they were compelled, in part, to destroy; and this where they never intended to settle, other than to comply with the letter of the law, and never expected to return after acquiring title. The months or years wasted in complying with these foolish laws they might better by far have been spent in jail at the public expense. It would have cost the Nation far less, and would have been less dangerous to life than the lonely existence remote from other human beings, where any accident to limb costs a life.

Sometimes there was an actual settler who wanted a farm or a pasture. He considered the timber only in the light of its cost to remove, and with axe, saw, and fire, he proceeded to its destruction. And why not? That which cost nothing looked to be of no value! Timber appeared as free as air and sunshine.

Later the lumberman came, and up to 1885 our Government offered him in Washington hundreds of thousands of acres of the best-timbered land for $1.25 per acre. Michigan and Wisconsin had been so offered, and mostly sold. The lands of the Northern Pacific could then be had at $2.50 per acre and paid for in the bonds of the Company, then worth half their face. The lumbermen looked upon the timber as inexhaustible. Only that near water could be harvested by known methods; only the best of the trees could be sawed and sold at a profit; only western markets appeared possible. What wonder fires were set to burn the choppings and make pastures? No people save that which cost nothing, and for which they have no use and cannot sell. When things become of value they are conserved, and when of enough value they are manufactured or grown; and the ratio between cost and selling price regulates the supply of things manufactured or grown.

Up to within a few years there has been plenty of timber land that could be taken under the Homestead, Preemption, or Timber and Stone Acts, or scripted or bought of the railroads. The blame, then, for the waste of our timber has been with the laws that made it valueless. The men we have sent to Washington to make our laws have given this timber to all comers of all nations. They are the men our people should hold responsible for the waste of our resources. These same men now tell us, "We are on the verge of a timber famine," and that the lumbermen are wantonly wasting the Nation's timber. Is it not the old cry of "Stop thief!" sounded by the culprit? By their acts they have made this timber valueless. Had the Government estimated the cost of growing a timber crop and sold its timber at about that price, timber would have been protected, conserved, and replanted, and its use would be as in Europe, about 60 feet per capita per annum, instead of 600 feet as in America.

Since our timber has taken on a value, its destruction by fire has greatly decreased. Timber owners now use precautions, and employ fire patrols. So, too, with harvesting; it is cut cleaner, sawed with thinner saws, manufactured with better appliances, and great saving has been effected in every branch of the industry--all because of greater values. Now, if just tax laws were passed, taxing no crop until harvested, and taxing reforested land as stump land; if rates of interest were lower, and if stringent fire laws and careful patrol were enforced; if stumpage was a little higher or labor a little lower, or the railroads were to make a reduced rate on low-grade products, the law of supply and demand (or the ratio of cost to selling price) would reforest old choppings. Toward these things we are rapidly advancing, and before our timber is exhausted we shall have reached this point.

If our Government would hold her reserved timber at cost of reproduction, and protect the timber of the Nation by import duty, the question of timber shortage in America would soon be settled. Instead, they threaten reduction of its present value and increase of its waste by the removal of duty on imports. There is no way to conserve any commodity but to give it value, and no way to make people manufacture goods or grow crops except to offer a price that covers cost and a profit.

If the public would buy lumber of strength and durability suited to the purposes required, instead of ordering grades better than needed, they would help the Conservation of our timber far more than by essays and speeches. The most unreasonable of all buyers are our Government officials; with them there seems to be no purpose for which ordinary lumber is suited. So, too, if our State legislators would pass just tax laws, they would make a grand move toward timber Conservation. Instead, counties are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars--which the timber owners must pay--estimating the number of feet of standing timber, so as to be sure they find it all and tax it out of existence. This generation owes posterity laws that will save some of our present timber and leave to them growing timber crops instead of charred and desolate stump lands telling only of their fathers' greed and lack of foresight.

Wonderful tables have been prepared showing the upward tendency in prices of timber lands. Far better prepare a table showing the cost of growing a timber crop, and causes that have deprived it of its legitimate value. Water always rises to its level when the pressure is removed. Timber-value level is costly to produce. The greatest pressure to hold timber values down in the past have been our land laws; first the Federal laws for the sale of timber, second the State laws for taxes--and lack of all laws for protection and planting.

Our Nation is still a prodigal. She taps the fuel supply of future generations and allows the gas to burn and the oil to run to waste. More of the timber of the Nation has been burned for clearing and pasture than has been sawed by the mills; but when the lumbermen are accused of destroying their property, or not utilizing all that will return cost for their labor, they are accused of lack of good intelligence--and that we resent. New England and New York have a greater area in timber than they had 50 years ago. Nearly every town site has a saw mill that supplies local demand and makes shipments to nearby cities. The few days I spent in New Hampshire last spring, and the auto trips I took through the places I knew in my youth, impressed these facts with force. Rail trips through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland revealed the fact that thousands of acres once under cultivation are now in timber, and that old forest lands are reproducing. Pine groves, cut when I was a boy, are being harvested, and fields where I picked rocks every spring are growing beautiful pine forests; the present owner of the old homestead in New Hampshire has put in a little saw and shingle mill to cut trees that were not sprouted when I left the old farm. The small saw-mills that are supplying the local demand are cutting the largest of the new growth, and the supply of that portion of the States where the timber was once exhausted will hereafter be adequate to local demands. As it is in New England and the Middle States, so it is in the South, in the West, in California and Oregon and Washington; if we keep out the fires in the old choppings, the new growth will be ready before the old is gone--and the waste of today kept always damp by the young growth, brush, ferns, and vines, will rival in value the portion of the tree we are now able to market.

Again consumption in all things is in proportion to price. Advance the price of lumber, and you reduce the consumption. Stone, brick, concrete, and steel are ready substitutes, as the price of lumber advances. In Europe, lumber is no longer a necessity, only a luxury, and not one much cared for at that; this has been forced home to me in countries I have visited during the past six months. Six days from New York we touch the Azores, a land where no lumber is used except for floor-joists and rafters in the cheaper buildings; next we touched Madeira, and found a city of stone. So with Gibraltar, southern Spain, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Italy, France; not a lumber yard in all these countries that we could find. A cargo a year would supply the demand for all purposes. The wonder was not how these people get along without lumber, but how they use the 60 feet per annum they are reported to require. I do not think there is one shingle roof in all those countries, and I expect a very good knowledge of Arabic would be needed to explain to those people what a shingle is and its use. In Constantinople we found a few miserable board shacks. Lumber comes to that market at a low price from the Black Sea, and it appears to be a detriment rather than a good. In Switzerland and southern Germany, some houses are built of wood above the lower story; but I think there are no shingle roofs. These countries are well timbered, with trees in rows showing they are planted. The price of common lumber is only a little higher than with us, but labor is cheap, and growing timber exempt from taxes. Trees there can find a profitable market, trunks, limbs, stump, and roots. It is then, little wonder mountain sides, impossible for agriculture, should be planted to timber. Those timber areas do not use much of their lumber. In Switzerland and Germany we found saw mills, some of them of fair capacity, and shipping by rail, but their towns were built of stone. The mills select the largest trees, and replace with new plants. In time we shall reach some of these same conditions, and plant our timber instead of allowing it to grow at will. All this will come about when proper laws are enacted.

American people will some time awaken to the fact, long since known in Europe, that timber is no necessity; only a makeshift. Bridges of rock, houses of brick and stone and steel, with roofs of tile, are for the centuries; buildings of wood are only for the years and the flames. Lumber is cheap in the new countries, and convenient for quick shelter; and it is there forests are found. Big timbers may become scarce, but their demand is also decreasing. Already our cities have fire limits. Bridges and spars are of steel; and if our farmers could obtain money at city rates, it is doubtful if it would not be cheaper for them to build fire-proof houses than to pay higher insurance on wooden buildings. Already roofs of shingles are in balance with roofs of other and safer material, and the price of shingles is fixed by this competition. As it is with shingles it will be with lumber, and is for many purposes; in many countries for nearly all purposes.

Do not think I underestimate the value of our timber, or fail to advocate its protection and reproduction; but he who says we are approaching the time when timber values are to be much greater than now, and he who predicts a timber famine, have both overlooked facts that will come to the front with the years. The cry of "Fire!" never stopped a conflagration. The cry of Conservation will never stop the waste of valueless commodities. Action is needed in both instances, if results are to be attained. To conserve our timber we must give it value. Let the Government refuse to sell from its reserves except for cost of reproduction; also protect us from foreign competition. Educate our loggers to the enormity of the crime of burning choppings fit only for the timber crop. Let States impose rigid fire laws and make liberal appropriation for forest protection. Let our legislators see the folly and injustice of taxing the same crop year after year; a crop that can contribute nothing toward paying those taxes until marketed, a crop that is of far less value per acre than the yield of fruit gathered each year. Do not be afraid the few remaining timber owners are going to be benefited at the expense of the many; rather the benefit will be for our children and our children's children. Above all, remember the timber owner is not to blame, only fortunate that he bought timber that our Government was willing to part with for a song; and hold our laws and their makers responsible for results for which they, only, are to blame.

The forest fires of the West today are more often set by the railroads than by all others. Their locomotives are torches of demons, tearing through our forests, streaming fire from their stacks and leaving all behind in flames. From the rear platforms of trains I have seen hundreds of little fires spring up as we passed--this, when the woods were dry and conditions right. The timber they burn is their resources for freight. The destruction they create is a loss of millions to their own business. It would seem prosecution for damage done should follow their wanton torches, and that laws should be made for the protection of their own interests they so recklessly ignore. It is no longer the logger or the settler that causes our forest fires. Our laws and public opinion, and vast sums expended by timber owners prevent the setting of careless fires; but the railroad locomotives still scatter fire along their pathway through the woods. Let the railroads learn a lesson from the recent Montana fires that stretched along their lines on either side and crossed the rivers where they cross--fires that have destroyed millions of young pines that a few years hence would have yielded a freight of from $10 to $30 each tree for their transportation to market.

Let the loggers awaken to the fatal folly of allowing the first fire in their cuttings, and our legislators to the necessity of forest protection. Stop the first fire where land is only adopted to the timber crop.

Out in the West where our mountains are the highest; where our streams spring from the eternal glaciers and are fullest when the weather is warmest; where water falls the farthest; where our soils are most productive when moistened; where our fruit is the finest; where trees grow the largest; where our hills contain coal, iron, silver, copper, and gold; where our ocean is the greatest and our fisheries are most prolific, our people are all Conservationists. They are for Conservation that is practical and adapted to their peculiar conditions; Conservation that shall develop and utilize their resources, and that shall yield the greatest good to the greatest number, and to the future as well as the present.

Where all things are on so grand a scale, the people cannot be small and narrow. They are as are their woods, their mountains, and their torrents, grand and active; and they are to be trusted. They will solve the problem of conserving their timber. They will keep out fires. They will enact just tax laws. They will guard their holdings. They will encourage new growth. They will be first to awaken to the best methods of forest Conservation adapted to their needs. They will solve the problem of conserving our western forests.

FORESTS AND STREAM-FLOW

WILLIAM S. HARVEY

_Philadelphia_

Professor Willis L. Moore, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau, in his address before the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Convention in Providence, September 1, 1910, made the statement that the waterways were in no way affected by the forests; that he had records made for many years that clearly prove that the waterways have in no way been affected by the acts of man; that he was aware that he would destroy a popular impression by making this statement, and that he based his statement upon the facts as he knew them. The following eminent men in articles published in _American Forestry Magazine_ for April, 1910, take exception to and refute the statements and claims made by Professor Moore (and which he had previously expressed): Professor Filibert Roth, University of Michigan, Forester; Professor L. C. Glenn, Vanderbilt University, Geologist; and Professor George F. Swain, Harvard University, Engineer. These gentlemen represent geology, forestry, and engineering, and their training, knowledge, and experience qualify them to speak intelligently and with authority on this question of the influence and effect forests have upon streams.

Mill owners and operators on various rivers in New England have practical demonstration that denuding or partial denuding of the forests on the head-waters of the stream on which they are dependent for power has seriously impaired the uniformity of flow and lessened the amount of power which they are able to secure for the same number of days in a year: that denuding also allows the rainfall to run off rapidly, causing erosion, which erosion is filling and choking the streams and rivers and in seasons of flood depositing silt in valleys which have heretofore been of agricultural value, thus largely impairing or destroying their fertility. This condition equally applies to various streams and rivers in other sections of the United States. It is moreover denied and refuted by the greatest financial and manufacturing interests, who have spent and are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the development of electric power on the waterways of the United States. They have in their employ the most competent engineers known, who have investigated the entire situation, studied the maximum and minimum rainfall for a long period of years, and conditions influencing the territory embraced on the streams and rivers upon which they propose to make and are making and have made developments. These great interests, vital to commerce and trade, emphatically state that the flow of streams is affected by the forest cover, and that they are most anxious and are earnest in efforts to have the forest cover protected in all territory in which they operate, claiming that if the hillsides or mountains on the headwaters of water-sheds are denuded the volume of power will be so diminished, impaired, or destroyed that the value of the bonds issued for the development of these powers, and heretofore considered one of the safest and most desirable investments, will be seriously imperilled.

In addition to the authorities above named, and to whose articles I have referred, there are others who have refuted and contradicted Professor Moore from his own premises and data. His Excellency M J. J. Jusserand, Ambassador from France, publicly stated the absolute principle: "No forests, no waterways." Without forests regulating the distribution of water, rainfalls are at once carried to the sea, hurried sometimes, alas! across the country. After having devastated the neighboring fields, the rivers find themselves again with little water and much sand; and with such rivers, how will you fill your canals?

The question is as clear as can be; do you want to have navigable rivers, or do you prefer to have torrents that will destroy your crops and never bear a boat? If you prefer the first, then mind your forests. If the Mississippi is the "Father of Waters," the forest is the father of the Mississippi. The French Ambassador, you will note, says, "We can tell you, for we know. France is now spending many millions of dollars to reforest the mountain-sides denuded many years ago, which have seriously affected her waterways."

Some of us feel it is unwise to take too seriously all the deductions and predictions that are made by academic, scientific, idealistic theorists, especially if the department of science with which they are most intimately identified relates almost exclusively to atmospheric conditions, which are still so imperfectly understood that they not infrequently elude prediction; though where the results of scientific deductions are proven correct and add to the fund of knowledge, they are deserving of our greatest respect and regard. We have much confidence, for example, in the conclusion of Gifford Pinchot and his staff of assistants, who have made a practical as well as scientific study of the effect of forest cover on the flow and supply of water in streams, which conclusions unqualifiedly refute the statements made by Professor Moore.

THE CONSERVATION OF MINERALS AND SUBTERRANEAN WATERS

GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, PH.D.

_New York_

The necessity for conserving the forests has been fully recognized, and it may be said that as to what is in the ground a clear and satisfactory distinction has been established between what must be conserved for the good of the people as a whole, and what can safely be left to the exclusive control, management, and ownership of individuals or corporations. In regard, however, to the material wealth that lies beneath the ground, whether diamonds, gold, silver, copper, oil, or clay, or, indeed, anything that has a material value and can be included as such in the domain of mining statistics, there has been and still is a considerable difference of opinion touching what should be done.

The existence of these materials beneath the ground is not usually evident, and the judgment of the best experts is frequently required to determine whether they exist in a given tract or not; on the other hand they may sometimes be casually found where their presence was not suspected. The Government of the United States still owns great tracts of land, and it is most important that the whole people of the United States should receive the full benefit of all the mineral wealth that is below the ground--the invisible wealth of the Nation, as it may be termed.

In order to avoid any collusion on the part of officials engaged by the Government to make investigations, or of those who, though no longer in the Government service, might learn the results of these investigations and might in some manner try to obtain control of these lands before the Government knew they had a distinct value, it would seem that a Conservation Act should be passed making it imperative that all minerals contained in any land beneath the surface should forever remain the property of the Government. With lands containing minerals, there should further be an assurance that the deposits will be effectively worked, thus preventing an entire mineral supply from being locked up for many years, so as to maintain an artificial value for the material. Again, little-understood minerals, or those that have been very little worked and yet may have a value in the future, such as bauxite, which is valuable in the manufacture of aluminum; monazite sand, which is used in the making of the Welsbach incandescent light; and carnotite, whose value as a radium ore has been discovered within the past ten years--should all be made to yield royalties to the Government.

It is very evident that many minerals not considered to have any commercial value today may prove to be of the greatest industrial value in the future. Furthermore, as we are likely to discover new elements, and new uses for old minerals, the Conservation Act might be made to provide for a payment of 20, 30, or even 60 percent of the total value of the mineral as taken from the ground in royalty to the Government of the United States, exactly as the South African Government exacts as a royalty 60 percent of the product of all the diamond mines within its territory. This would be a more generous treatment of private owners than was accorded them in some instances in the past. The French crown-deeds read in the Seventeenth Century that gold, silver, lapis-lazuli, etc, should belong exclusively to the crown. In reality, the Government should only sell to private owners what is in sight on the land and the right to what could be grown on it, not what is below the ground. The franchises of subways and tunnels and all mineral rights should be retained, as well as the right to condemn at a fair valuation any property needed for the development of a mine or a water-power.

The term "mineral" should apply to every substance found in the ground that is either a mineral or an associate of minerals, that is, rock, sand, clay, or even a swamp, that may have a value in the arts, sciences, agriculture, or any other monetary value. The word should be used in its broad sense and not in the more restricted scientific meaning of the word used by mineralogists, which is that a mineral must be a definite mineral compound.

The subterranean waters of the United States are a great and valuable asset of the Nation. Nearly all of our water companies sell water either for power or for consumption. As each owner of a piece of property ought to be entitled to an interest in the water under it, some provision in Conservation should be made for the actual ownership of the waters; not that they can be drained from under the property, for a series of springs could be threatened with ruin if this were done, just as were the famous springs in Saratoga. In other words Government lands should not be robbed of their subterranean waters to be in turn sold to those who have a joint right in them.

THE QUESTION OF LAND TITLES

FRANKLIN MCCRAY

_Indianapolis_

All the territory west of Mississippi river was acquired by the Government by three means, purchase, conquest, and treaty. This territory, having been obtained by the diplomacy and blood and treasure of our common country, belonged to the people of the whole country, and was held in trust by the Federal Government for them. It was subject only to their call for settlement.

The charge is made that practically all the looting of the public domain is in the Louisiana purchase, the territory wrested from Mexico, that acquired from Great Britain by the Ashburton-Webster treaty in the settlement of our northern boundary line, and that purchased from Russia. This land, being held in trust by the Federal Government for the people and being subject only to their call for actual settlement, it is charged, has been plundered through fraud and corruption of the trustee, the Government of the United States, in collusion with the grantees, who have obtained vast tracts and withdrawn the same from settlement by floating them into a different channel than that for which the Government held them in trust. By this corrupt and fraudulent method, it is charged that these vast estates have been monopolized by corporate greed and accumulated wealth, and that no less than 6,000,000 acres are now being held by two individuals alone within the State of California.

If this be true, then, under a well-settled principle of law, the Government has conferred no title upon such grantees, because fraud vitiates all contracts, and courts of equity have complete power under proper proceedings to follow this property, thus fraudulently obtained, in its labyrinthian processes and seize it by judicial decree, lay its stern hand upon it and restore it to its rightful owners, the people of the United States, and float it anew into the channel of settlement where it rested prior to its spoliation. I suggest that this Congress petition the United States Congress to investigate the titles of these grantees and, if found to be fraudulent, the Department of Justice should be instructed to institute proceedings calculated to restore the land to its rightful owners.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The full report by Mrs Wilkinson appears on later pages.

[2] The members of the Resolution Committee were chosen by their respective State Delegations, and met at the call of a Temporary Chairman (and member-at-large), Ex-Governor George C. Pardee, of California, who was afterward chosen by the committee as Permanent Chairman. The full personnel of the committee follows:

ALABAMA, John L. Kaul, Birmingham ARIZONA, B. A. Fowler, Phenix ARKANSAS, John A. Fox, Blytheville CALIFORNIA, Frank H. Short, Fresno COLORADO, P. T. Coolidge, Colorado Spgs. COLUMBIA (District of), W J McGee, Washington CONNECTICUT, A. Fletcher Marsh, New Haven FLORIDA, Cromwell Gibbons, Jacksonville GEORGIA, C. L. Worsham, Atlanta IDAHO, Jerome J. Day, Moscow ILLINOIS, Alfred L. Baker, Chicago INDIANA, William Holton Dye, Indianapolis IOWA, Robert Hunter, Sioux City KANSAS, Governor William R. Stubbs, Lawrence KENTUCKY, C. C. Grassham, Paducah LOUISIANA, Robert Roberts, Jr., Minden MAINE, Cyrus C. Babb, Augusta MARYLAND, Lynn R. Meekins, Baltimore MASSACHUSETTS, C. A. Start, Boston MICHIGAN, Francis King, Alma MINNESOTA, E. W. Robinson, Minneapolis MISSISSIPPI, H. L. Whitfield, Columbus MISSOURI, George B. Logan, Saint Louis MONTANA, F. L. Newman, Havre Rudolph Van Tolbel, Lewistown NEBRASKA, Woodruff Ball, Valentine NEW HAMPSHIRE, Geo. B. Leighton NEW JERSEY, Frederick W. Kelsey, Orange NEW MEXICO, W. A. Fleming Jones, Las Cruces NEW YORK, J. S. Whipple, Salamanca NORTH DAKOTA, James E. Boyle, Grand Forks OHIO, Charles Lathrop Pack, Cleveland OKLAHOMA, Benjamin Martin, Jr., Muskogee OREGON, M. A. Moody, The Dalles PENNSYLVANIA, M. I. McCreight, Dubois RHODE ISLAND, H. A. Barker, Providence SOUTH CAROLINA, E. W. Durant, Jr., Charleston SOUTH DAKOTA, P. H. O'Neill, Faulkton TEXAS, S. H. Cowan, Fort Worth UTAH, Harden Bennion, Salt Lake City VERMONT, George Aitkin, Woodstock WASHINGTON, George H. Emerson, Hoquiam WEST VIRGINIA, I. C. White, Morgantown WISCONSIN, William Irvine, Chippewa Falls WYOMING, E. H. Fourt, Lander

[3] The corrected list appears elsewhere (page iv).

[4] The reports submitted by States as mentioned in the responses to the Call of States are printed in the Supplementary Proceedings, beginning on page 327, and are entered in the Contents and Index of the volume.

[5] The formal report for Ohio appears in the Supplementary Proceedings.

[6] In the opinion he held that the plaintiff was entitled to judgment, declaring the Brooklyn Cooperage Company and Cornell University contract void, and directed the University to convey to the State of New York the 30,000 acres constituting the College Forest.

[7] The relative prices of forest lands sixty years ago and now may be judged from the fact that in 1850 a Law (Chapter 250) was passed providing that the State should not sell public land on Raquette river for less than 15 cents an acre. The State is now paying over $7.00 an acre for the same kind of land.

[8] Declaration of Colonel David McClure in the Constitutional Convention of 1894.

INDEX

Agriculture in schools, 265 Work of the Department of, 194

AITKIN, GEORGE, Report by, 373

Alaska coal lands, 21, 310

ALLEN, E. T., Report by, 367, 424

American Academy of Political and Social Science, Report of, 379

American Automobile Association, Report of, 380

American Civic Association, Report of, 383

American Forestry Association, Report of, 384

American Humane Association, Report of, 385

American Institute of Architects, Report of, 386

American Medical Association, Report of, 389 Work of, 255

American Paper and Pulp Association, Report of, 388

American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, Report of, 392

American Railway Master Mechanics' Association, Report of, 393

American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, Report of, 394

AMES, CHARLES W., Report by, 380

ANDERSON, A. T., Report by, 420

Arizona, Report from, 324

Arkansas, Report from, 314, 333

Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, Report of, 397

Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association, Report of, 383

BABB, CYRUS C., Report by, 341

BABB, GEORGE W., Report by, 418

BABCOCK, GEORGE H., Report by, 411

BACKUS, E. W., Report by, 389

BAILEY, E. W. M., Report by, 411

BAILEY, LIBERTY HYDE, Address by, 203 Report by, 397

BAKER, A. L., Address by, 222

BAKER, BERNARD N., Introductory remarks by, 7 Report by, 314 Resolution of thanks to, 308

BALDWIN, A. S., Report by, 393

BALLINGER, R. A., Reference to work of, 76

BANNISTER, O. B., Report by, 314

BARKER, HENRY A., Report by, 324, 368, 384

BARRETT, JOHN, Address by, 80, 237

BARRETT, C. S., Report by, 411

BENSON, R. DALE, Report by, 418

BENTLEY, H. T., Report by, 394

BEVERIDGE, Senator ALBERT J., Address by, 146

BISSELL, R. M., Report by, 418

BLANCHARD, Ex-Governor NEWTON C., Address by, 121

BOARDMAN, Miss MABEL, Address by, 94

BROOKS, Governor BRYANT B., Address by, 72

BROWN, ELMER ELLSWORTH, Address by, 264 Letter from, 165

BROWN, J. ADAMS, Report by, 416

BRYCE, JAMES, Tribute to, 243

BURNHAM, AUSTIN A., Report by, 420

Business interest in Conservation, 222, 257

California, Resources of, 116

Call of States, Announcement of, 134, 171, 226, 298 Resumption of, 213, 299, 313

Capital, Relation of, to resources, 226

Carriage Builders' National Association, Report of, 410

CASE, CHARLES R., Report by, 423

CHAMPNEY, W. P., Report by, 411

Cities, Wastes of, 309

CLAPP, Senator MOSES E., Presiding Officer, 168

CLEVELAND, GROVER, quoted on monopoly, 224

Colorado, Report from, 334

Columbia (District of), Report from, 324

CONDRA, GEORGE E., Announcement by, 71 Explanation by, 298 Report by, 317

Conference of Governors, Reference to work of, 87, 225, 245, 247, 293, 379, 415

CONNOLLY, MAURICE, Report by, 411

Conservation of Minerals and Subterranean Waters, 429 of the Nation's Resources, 328 Practical Aspects of, 331 Problems, Address on, 106 Program, The, 292

Constitution of the Congress, ix Adoption of, 79

Country Life as related to Conservation, 203

CRAIGHEAD, EDWIN BOONE, Address by, 168

Credentials Committee, Appointment of, 79 Modification of, 106 Report of, 145

DAMON, A. W., Report by, 418

Daughters of the American Revolution, Work of, 270

DAVIDSON, JAMES H., Address by, 132

DAY, JEROME J., Report by, 336

DEAN, WILLIAM B., Report by 380

Delaware State Federation of Women's Clubs, Report of, 411

DENEEN, Governor CHARLES E., Address by, 59

Denmark, Successful agriculture of, 200

DIXON, SAMUEL G., Reference to Work of, 301

DORT, J. D., Report by, 411

DRAPER, Mrs BELLE MERRILL, Reference to work of, 167

EBERHART, Governor A. O., Address by 3, 298 Presiding Officer, 246

EDSALL, Right Reverend SAMUEL COOK, Invocation by, 134

Education and Conservation, 264

EMERSON, GEORGE H., Report by, 320 "Timber Conservation," 424

EVANS, POWELL, Report by, 382

EVANS, R. D., Report by, 416

Executive Committee, Report from, 317

Executive powers, Definition of, 108

Exports, Diminution of, 183

Farm, Efficiency of the, 211 production, 136, 182, 190, 197 values, Losses in, 5

Farmers' Union of America, Report of, 411

FARQUHAR, A. B., "Practical Aspects of Conservation," 331

Fertility, Conditions of, 210

Forests and Stream Flow, 57, 216, 364, 400, 428 and the Nation, Address on, 214 Condition of, in Washington, 68 Conservation of, 199, 294, 398, 426 Destruction of, 11 National, Utilization of, 86, 261

Forest Service, Reference to work of, 180

FOSTER, J. ELLEN, Resolution in memory of, 276 Tribute to, 274

FOURT, E. H., Report by, 324

FOWLER, B. A., Report by, 324

FINLEY, W. W., Address by, 135

Fire Losses, Magnitude of, 418

FISHER, IRVING, Reference to Work of, 249

FISHER, WALTER L., Address by, 129

Florida, Report from, 335

GARFIELD, JAMES R., Address by, 106

General Federation of Women's Clubs, Report of, 412

Georgia, Report from, 325

GIBBONS, CARDINAL, Greetings from, 3

GIBBONS, CROMWELL, Report by, 335

GILBERT, CASS, Report by, 387

GIPE, JAMES C., Election of, as Recording Secretary, 307

GLENN, L. C., Reference to work of, 428

GOUDY, FRANK C., Report by, 334

Government, Cost of, 185

Governors, Western, Resolutions by, 72

GRAVES, HENRY S., Address by, 214

GREEN, F. R., Report by, 392

GREEN, SAMUEL B., Resolutions in memory of, 313

GREGORY, LUCIUS, Report by, 411

GRIFFITH, E. M., Report by, 377

GRIGGS, E. G., Report by, 375

HALL, EDWARD HAGAMAN, Report by, 409

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, quoted on executive powers, 112

HARDTNER, HENRY E., Report by, 339

HARRIMAN, E. H., Reference to work of, 281

HARVEY, WILLIAM S., "Forests and Stream Flow," 428 Report by, 299, 420

HAY, Governor M. E., Address by, 64

Health and Life as National assets, 247, 263

HENEY, FRANCIS J., Address by, 278

HIGLEY, WARREN, Report by, 409

HILL, JAMES J., Address by, 177 Control of water-power by, 321 Explanation by, 194 Reference to Work of, 281 Tribute to, 13

HOLLIDAY, CORNELIA R., Report by, 411

HOLMES, J. A., Tribute to, 296, 325

HORR, CHRISTOPHER G., Remarks by, 120, 313

HOWARD, Mrs JAY COOKE, Address by, 167 Presentation by, 276

HOWE, FREDERIC C., quoted on export trade, 184

HUNT, G. M., Report by, 324 Resolution of thanks by, 307

Idaho, Report from, 336

Illinois, Resources of, 59

Indiana, Report from, 314, 336

Invocation by Archbishop Ireland, 1 Bishop Edsall, 134 Reverend J. S. Montgomery, 81

Iowa, Report from, 337

IRELAND, Archbishop, Invocation by, 1

Iron ore of Minnesota, 12

Irrigation, Extension of, 55

JOHNS, WILLIAM DOUGLAS, Report by, 320

JOHNSON, EMORY R., Report by, 380

JONES, W. A. FLEMING, Report by, 347, 380 Resolution of thanks by, 307

JUSSERAND, J. J., Quoted on forests and waterways, 428

KAVANAUGH, W. K., Report by, 415

KELLER, Mayor HERBERT E., Address of welcome by, 13

KREMER, W. N., Report by, 418

KRUEGER, A. W., Report by, 319

KUNZ, GEORGE FREDERICK, "The Conservation of Minerals and Subterranean Waters," 429

LACEY, JOHN F., Report by, 416

Lakes-to-Gulf Deep Waterways Association, Report of, 413

Land Laws, 17, 35 Laws, Needed reformation in, 288, 296, 425 taxation, 152 Titles, The Question of, 430

Lands, Conservation and utilization of, 295

Lands, Public, 16 Disposition of, 181

LATCHAW, D. AUSTIN, Address by, 171 Election of, as Treasurer, 307

LATTIMORE, GEORGE W., Report by, 319

Laws That Should be Passed, 327

LAZENBY, WILLIAM R., Report by, 364

League of American Sportsmen, Report of, 415

Legislative functions, Failure in performing, 280

LEWIS, T. L., Report by, 424

Life and Health, Address on, 247

Louisiana, Report from, 339 Resources of, 124

LOWE, E. N., Report by, 315

MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER, Reference to work of, 414

Maine, Report from, 341

MARSHALL, Chief Justice JOHN, Opinions by, 109

MARTIN, BEN J., JR., Report by, 319, 365 Resolution of thanks by, 326

Massachusetts, Report from, 343

MAXWELL, HU, Report by 376

MCCRAY, FRANKLIN, "The Question of Land Titles," 430

MCDERMOTT, J. H., Report by, 416

MCENIRY, M. J., Report by, 422

MCGEE, W J, Reference to work of, 414

MCNEES, G. W., Report by, 301

MCVEY, FRANK L., Address by, 152

MERRITT, E. T., Report by, 372

MERSHON, WILLIAM B., Report by, 416

METZGER, A. E., Report by, 336

MILLER, A. C., Report by, 314, 337

Minerals, Conservation of, 296, 429

Minnesota, Deforestation of, 11 Farm Value in, 6 Iron Ore in, 12 Report from, 315

Mississippi, Report from, 315 Resources of, 48

Missouri, Report from, 315, 344 Valley River Improvement Association, Report of, 420 Waterways Commission, work of, 414

MITCHELL, A. R., Report by, 392

Monopoly, Growth of, 224 of Power, 101 of resources in California, 116 of transportation, 191

MOORE, WILLIS L., Reference to work of, 428

Montana, Report from, 345 Resources of, 52

MONTGOMERY, Reverend J. S., Invocation by, 81

MUCKLE, M. RICHARD, Report by, 386

National Board of Fire Underwriters, Report of, 416 Board of Trade, Report of, 419 Business League of America, Report of, 420 Conservation Association, Endorsement of, 371 Conservation Commission, Reference to Report of, 247 Efficiency, Promotion of, 296

Nebraska, Report from, 317

NELSON, Senator KNUTE, Address by, 35

NESTOS, R. A., Report by, 318

NEWELL, F. H., Reference to work of, 414

NEWLANDS, Senator FRANCIS G., "Laws that Should be Passed," 327

New Mexico, Report from, 347

New York, Report from, 318, 347, 352

NOBLE, JOHN W., Report and resolution by, 315

NOEL, Governor EDMOND N., Address by, 48 Tribute to, 315

Nominating Committee, Creation of, 246 Report of, 303

NORRIS, Governor EDWIN L., Address by, 52

North American Conservation Congress, Work of, 247

North Dakota, Report from, 318, 362

Ohio, Report from, 364

Oklahoma, Report from, 365

Oregon, Report from, 367

OVEY, ESMOND, Address by, 243

PAGE, THOMAS NELSON, Reference to work of, 271

Pan-American Union, Work of, 237

PARDEE, Ex-Governor GEORGE C., Address by, 115 Report of Resolutions Committee by, 308

PARRY, D. M., Report by, 411

PARTRIDGE, JOHN, Report by, 386

Pennsylvania, Report from, 299

PERSONS, HENRY H., Report by, 352

Phosphate lands, Withdrawal of, 29

PINCHOT, GIFFORD, Address by, 292 Memorial resolution by, 313 Nominating address by, 304 Presentation of certificate to, 276 Reference to work of, 54, 166, 373 Response by, 152, 277 Tribute to, 48, 76, 117, 151, 159, 221, 242, 325

PLUNKETT, Sir HORACE, Reference to work of, 87

Power, Address on, 101

Press (The), Address on, 171

PRIESTLY, J. T., Report by, 392

Property, Safeguarding public, 278

PURDUE, A. H., Report by, 314

Railway control of waterways, 64 subsidies, Magnitude of, 283

Railways, Control of, to prevent forest fires, 351, 401 of the South and Conservation, 135

RANE, FRANK WILLIAM, Report by, 343

RATTERMANN, H., Report by, 411

Reclamation Service, Reference to work of, 178

Red Cross, Address on work of, 94

REDDING, SID B., Report by, 333

Republics, Address on American, 237

Resolutions adopted by the Congress, 308

Resolutions Committee, Announcement of, 80, 145 Composition of, 311 Report by, 308

Resources as the basis for business, Address on, 222, 257

Rhode Island, Report from, 324, 368

RICHARDSON, GUY, Report by, 386

RICHTER, JOSEPH C., Report by, 301

Rivers, Federal control of, 125

Roads, Value of good, 11

ROBINSON, DOANE, Report by, 369

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, Address by, 82 cited on civilization, 351 Reference to work of, 242 Tribute to, 13, 38, 59, 76, 116, 151

ROSS, E. W., Interlude by, 302, 312 Privileged statement by, 322

ROTH, FILIBERT, Reference to work of, 428

ROTHROCK, J. T., Reference to work of, 301

SALISBURY, O. J., Report by, 372

SARGENT, WILL L., Report by, 370

SCOTT, Mrs MATTHEW T., Address by, 270

Senate, Policies of the, 279

SHELDON, CHARLES S., Report by, 392

SHIPP, THOMAS R., Election of, as Secretary, 306

SHORT, FRANK H., Address by, 226

SHORTALL, JOHN L., Report by, 386

SIMMONS, WALLACE D., Address by, 257

SMITH, C. G., Report by, 418

SMITH, HERBERT KNOX, Address by, 101

SMYTHE, WILLIAM E., Address by, 127

SNEATH, Mrs G. B., Address by, 166 Report through, 414

SNYDER, WILLIAM A., Report by, 411

Soil as a Resource, 6, 205, 259 Impoverishment of, 198

South Carolina, Report from, 369

South Dakota, Report from, 319, 369 Resources of, 77

SPRAGUE, HENRY H., Report by, 343

START, EDWIN A., Report by, 385

STEVENS, Representative F. C., Address by, 201

STEVENS, FREDERICK C., Report by, 380

STILLMAN, WILLIAM O., Report by, 386

STUBBS, Governor W. R., Address by, 75, 81 Presiding Officer, 35

SWAIN, GEORGE F., Reference to work of, 428

TAFT, President, Address by, 14 Cited on National functions, 116 Tribute to, 13

Taxation of forests, 295 of National resources, Address on, 152

Texas, Report from, 370

THORP, FREEMAN, Report by, 315

Timber Conservation, 424

TOMKIES, Mrs HOYLE, Address by, 163

Trans-Mississippi Congress, Resolution concerning, 315

Tree Planters of America, Proposed organization of, 420

TWICHELL, JEROME, Report by, 421

United Mine Workers, Report of, 424

Upper Mississippi River Improvement Association, Report of, 421

Utah, Report from, 372

Vermont, Report from, 373

VESSEY, Governor, Address by, 77

Vice-Presidents, Ratification of the, 313

VON TOBEL, RUDOLPH, Report by, 317, 345

VON SCHRENK, HERMANN, Report by, 344

WAGSTAFF, ALFRED, Report by, 386

WALDRON, C. B., Report by, 362

WALLACE, HENRY, Address by, 188, 305 Nomination and election of as President, 304

WARFIELD, R. EMORY, Report by, 418

Washington, Report from, 320, 375 Resources of, 64 Sentiment of, 120

Washington State Federation of Labor, Report of, 422

Wastes of civilization, 309

Water conservation, 404, 429

Water-power, Address on, 101 Control of, 222, 365, 405 Disposition of, 30, 54, 59, 105, 129, 156, 294, 321, 338, 349, 356 Value of, 287

Water resources of New York, 352

Water supply, Conditions of, 343, 353

Waterways, Development of, 163, 412 Utilization of, 83, 294, 364

WATSON, E. J., Report by, 369

WEIS, SAMUEL, Report by, 386

WELCH, Mrs GEORGE O., Address by, 160

WESBROOK, F. F., Address by, 247 Report by, 392

WEST, WILLIAM L., Report by, 380

Western Forestry and Conservation Association, Report of, 423

West Virginia, Report from, 324, 376

WHIPPLE, J. S., Report by, 347

WHITE, L. C., Report by, 324

WHITE, J. B., Address by, 158 "Conservation of the Nation's Resources," 328 Nominating Address by, 303 Report by, 316

WHITNEY, MILTON, Reference to work of, 136

Women's Clubs, Work of, 161

WORSHAM, E. L., Report by, 325

WILKINSON, Mrs J. D., Report by, 415

WILLIAMS, Mrs LYDIA PHILLIPS, Reference to work of, 161

WILSON, DANIEL T., Report by, 411

WILSON, Secretary JAMES, Address by, 194 Tribute to, 183, 191

Wisconsin, Report from, 377

Wyoming, Report from, 324 Resources of, 72

YOUNG, P. C., Report by, 314

J. H. BERKSHIRE, President O. W. FISHER, Vice-Pres. J. B. WHITE, Sec'y-Treas. and Gen'l Mgr.

=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=

MISSOURI SOFT PINE LONG LEAF YELLOW PINE SHORT LEAF YELLOW PINE OAK FLOORING

LOUISIANA MILLS:

LOUISIANA LONG LEAF LUMBER CO., FISHER, LA. 1 Pine and 1 Oak Flooring Mill

LOUISIANA LONG LEAF LUMBER CO., VICTORIA, LA. 1 Pine Mill

LOUISIANA CENTRAL LUMBER CO., CLARKS, LA. 2 Pine Mills

LOUISIANA CENTRAL LUMBER CO., STANDARD, LA. 1 Pine Mill

MISSOURI MILLS:

MISSOURI LUMBER & MINING CO., WEST EMINENCE, MO. 1 Pine Mill

OZARK LAND & LUMBER CO., WINONA, MO. 1 Pine and 1 Oak Mill

Annual Capacity 250,000,000 Feet

=High Grades= =Quick Shipments=

MAIN OFFICE 1111 LONG BUILDING KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=

SHIPMENTS

We ship stock of our own manufacture exclusively. We carry large, well assorted stocks and quote only when we are sure of being able to comply with grade and time requirements. As our mills are located on four (4) different railroads we can always ship orders without delay.

FINISHING LUMBER

We specialize on FINISHING lumber and every care is exercised to make it THE BEST. By separating all widths and lengths, we are in a position to quote on any particular width or length desired. We carry in stock Finish as wide as 26 inches, in 4-4, 5-4, 6-4 and 8-4 thicknesses. Our MISSOURI FINISH, owing to its flexibility, lightness, softness and figure, is peculiarly adapted to all finishing work. We also carry all grades of Finish in 4, 6 and 8 feet lengths.

=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=

=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=

PINE YARD AND SHED STOCK

We carry a large stock of all yard and shed material, which is piled scientifically to avoid sap-staining and bluing and to insure dryness

Our upper grades are all STEAM KILN DRIED and a large percentage of our lower grades are either STEAM KILN DRIED or SODA DIPPED

Either process precludes the possibility of sap-staining

=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=

=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=

OAK FLOORING

In the manufacture of our "DIAMOND BRAND" Oak Flooring the greatest possible care is taken in every department. Our Oak Flooring, owing to our method of drying and working, gives COMPLETE SATISFACTION in all climates. Due to the fact that our mill is located at the same point where we operate a pine plant we can ship Oak Flooring and Pine in the same car

Oak Timbers, Factory Stock, Etc.

We manufacture Oak Timbers, Ties, Car Framing, Grain Doors, Factory Stock, Etc. We can ship Oak, rough or dressed, in mixed cars with Yellow Pine

=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=

=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=

RAILROAD MATERIAL

We manufacture large quantities of Bridge Timbers, Cross Ties (Both Oak and Pine), Braces, Etc., with or without heart specifications, shipping same rough or surfaced as may be desired.

CAR MATERIAL

By specializing on car material we are in a position to handle satisfactorily orders for Sills, Framing (both Oak and Pine), Lining, Roofing, Siding, Insulation, Grain Doors, Etc.

=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=

=Missouri Lumber & Land Exchange Company=

SHORTS

We carry in stock 4, 6 and 8 foot lengths, in all grades from No. 3 Common to "A," in both 4-4 and 8-4 stock. All widths and lengths are _stacked separately_. We will work these "shorts" to any pattern desired or ship rough, trimming to any length specified

SPECIAL MATERIAL

We manufacture any special items desired, in Oak and Pine, such as Spreader Slats, Step-Ladder Material, Pulley Stiles, Crating Stock, Etc. If you use anything in "shorts," regardless of grade, length, width or pattern, send us your inquiry.

=If You want GOOD GRADES and PROMPT SERVICE, write the "EXCHANGE"=

Transcriber's Notes

Spelling irregularities where there was no obviously preferred version were left as is. Variants include: derivatives of "Allegheny" and "Alleghany;" "antitoxin" and "anti-toxin;" "benefited" and "benefitted;" "Caesar" and "Caesar;" "caretakers" and "care-takers;" "Chile" and "Chili;" derivatives of "criticise" and "criticize;" "drought" and "drouth;" "employes" and "employees;" "entry-man" and "entryman;" "endorse" and "indorse;" "fellowmen" and "fellow-men;" derivatives of "fiber" and "fibre;" "fulfil" and "fulfill;" "headwaters" and "head-waters;" derivatives of "homeseeker" and "home-seeker;" "horsepower" and "horse-power;" "inappreciable" and "unappreciable;" "lawmakers" and "law-makers;" "lifetime" and "life-time;" "livestock" and "live-stock;" "patrolmen" and "patrol-men;" derivatives of "payroll" and "pay-roll;" "Phoenix" and "Phenix;" "playgrounds" and "play-grounds;" derivatives of "postoffice" and "post-office;" "preeminently" and "pre-eminently;" derivatives of "preempt" and "pre-empt;" "prerequisite" and "pre-requisite;" "rainfall" and "rain-fall;" "Savior" and "Saviour;" derivatives of "short-sighted" and "shortsighted;" derivatives of "stockman" and "stock-man;" derivatives of "theater" and "theatre;" "Rudolph von Tobel," "Rudolf von Tobel" and "Rudolph van Tolbel;" "traveled" and "travelled;" "upbuilding" and "up-building;" "waterfalls" and "water-falls;" "watershed" and "water-shed," and their plurals; "workaday" and "work-a-day;" "workshops" and "work-shops."

Some of the index entries are not in strict alphabetical order, but they were left as is.

Changed "Mrs." to "Mrs" for consistency on page iii: "Mrs J. Ellen Foster."

Changed "Governer" to "Governor" on page v: "Ex-Governor Blanchard."

Changed "Thorpe" to "Thorp" on page vii.

Inserted missing "8." into caption of figure following page xii.

Changed "by" to "be" on page 2: "hallowed be Thy name."

Inserted missing comma after "fruit-raising" on page 10.

Changed "wth" to "with" on page 10: "with so many attractions."

Changed "non-irrigible" to "non-irrigable" on page 17: "applying to non-irrigable lands."

Changed "mattter" to "matter" on page 21: "set in this matter."

Changed "Phosphorous" to "Phosphorus" and "phosphorous" to "phosphorus" on page 29.

Changed "nothwithstanding" to "notwithstanding" on page 48: "notwithstanding the land."

Changed "believeing" to "believing" on page 49: "believing that our rights."

Changed "640 acre-tracts" to "640-acre tracts" on page 53.

Changed "reregarding" to "regarding" on page 59: "regarding this program."

Changed "Lakes-to-the-Gulf" to "Lakes-to-Gulf" on page 60: "the Lakes-to-Gulf deep waterway."

Changed "cooeperate" to "cooperate" on page 63: "cooperate and work together."

Changed "attenton" to "attention" on page 68: "call your attention."

Changed "fadists" to "faddists" on page 71: "faddists, dreamers, and enthusiasts."

Changed "o'clock" to "oclock" on page 78, for consistency.

Changed "Tumultous" to "Tumultuous" on page 93: "Tumultuous applause."

Changed "Brifly" to "Briefly" on page 96: "Briefly, then."

Changed "subcommittee" to "sub-committee" on page 96: "A sub-committee, six of whom."

Changed "devasting" to "devastating" on page 98: "devastating hand."

Changed "prevent" to "prevents" on page 111: "that prevents all progress."

Changed "phase" to "phrase" to correct the quotation from Alexander Hamilton on page 112: "another phrase for a bad execution."

Changed "essenial" to "essential" on page 112: "not less essential."

Changed "differene" to "difference" on page 112: "a wide difference."

Changed "Mr." to "Mr" twice on page 132 for consistency: "Mr Bernard N. Baker" and "Mr Chairman."

Changed "re-forested" to "reforested" on page 142: "mountain sides are to be reforested."

Changed "multi-millionaries" to "multi-millionaires" on page 150.

Changed "queston" to "question" on page 158: "the question of taxation."

Changed "recources" to "resources" on page 160: "natural resources."

Changed "foresty" to "forestry" on page 161: "the line of forestry."

Changed "Mrs." to "Mrs" on page 165: "Mrs Hoyle Tomkies."

Changed "extravagancies" to "extravagances" on page 194: "all their extravagances."

Changed "offences" to "offenses" on page 227: "failures and offenses."

Changed "fertilty" to "fertility" on page 250: "the fertility of the soil."

Changed "gaities" to "gaieties" on page 242: "the gaieties of fashionable resorts."

Removed mismatched double quotation character on page 245, before "Gentlemen, please hold steady."

Changed "re-assembled" to "reassembled" on page 246: "The Congress reassembled."

Changed "his" to "this" on page 261: "this kind of revenue-making regulation."

Changed "responsibilties" to "responsibilities" on page 267: "their powers and responsibilities."

Changed "innoculate" to "inoculate" on page 271: "to inoculate them."

Changed "devasted" to "devastated" on page 275: "devastated by earthquake."

Changed "Lascruses" to "Las Cruces," "Lewiston" to "Lewistown" and "Aitken" to "Aitkin" in the footnote 2.

Changed "Mississipppi" to "Mississippi" on page 315: "We from Mississippi."

Inserted "as" on page 315: "prosecuted as rapidly as possible."

Changed "Washingon" to "Washington" on page 321: "the State of Washington and its officials."

Changed "sovereignity" to "sovereignty" on page 327: "National sovereignty."

Changed "dividuals" to "individuals" on page 330: "than can individuals."

Changed "extravagence" to "extravagance" on page 331: "extravagance and waste."

Changed "non-preventible" to "non-preventable" on page 332: "non-preventable accidents."

Changed "Metzer" to "Metzger" on page 336.

Changed "necesssary" to "necessary" on page 342: "the necessary steps."

Changed "perserved" to "preserved" on page 351: "preserved for all time."

Changed "runoff" to "run-off" on page 356: "run-off of streams."

Changed "Henry A. Baker" to "Henry A. Barker" on page 368.

Changed "Greely" to "Greeley" on page 376.

Changed "Agronomony" to "Agronomy" on page 380: "Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry."

Changed "viligance" to "vigilance" on page 396: "the vigilance of the Society."

Changed "his" to "this" on page 405: "The provisions of this section."

Changed "Mrs." to "Mrs" and "S. B." to "G. B." on page 413: "Mrs G. B. Sneath."

Changed "centre" to "center" on page 413: "center of the most fertile valley."

Changed "acretions" to "accretions" on page 414: "the rich accretions."

Changed "sportsmens'" to "sportsmen's" on page 416: "sportsmen's travel."

Changed "kilowat" to "kilowatt" twice on page 421.

The index entry for "Blanchard" incorrectly references page 94, rather than page 121. Page 94 should be the reference for Miss Boardman, which is missing. These errors were corrected.

Changed "Emeprson" to "Emerson" in the index entry for "Emerson, George H."

Changed "Commitee" to "Committee" in the index entry for "Executive Committee, Report from."

Changed "Mathew" to "Matthew" in the index entry for "Scott, Mrs Matthew T."

Changed "Philips" to "Phillips" in the index entry for "Williams, Mrs Lydia Phillips."