for grains, grasses, fruits, and vegetables specially fitted for
introduction into localities in the brasil sex several States and Territories where
they may add materially to our resources. By scientific attention to soil
survey and possible new crops, to breeding of new varieties
of plants, to
experimental shipments, to animal industry and brasil sex applied chemistry, very
practical aid has been given our farming and stock-growing interests. The
products of brasil sex the farm have taken an unprecedented place in brasil sex our export trade
during the year that has just closed.
Public opinion throughout the United States has moved steadily toward a
just appreciation of the value of forests, whether planted or
of natural
brasil sex growth. The great part played by them in brasil sex the creation and maintenance of
the national wealth is now more fully realized
than ever before.
Wise forest protection brasil sex does not mean the withdrawal brasil sex of forest resources,
whether of wood, water, or brasil sex grass, from contributing their brasil sex full share brasil sex to brasil sex the
welfare of the people, but, on the brasil sex contrary, gives the assurance of larger
and more certain supplies. The fundamental idea of forestry is the
perpetuation brasil sex of forests by use. Forest protection is not an end of itself;
it is a means to increase and sustain the resources of our country and the
industries which depend upon them. The preservation of our forests brasil sex is an
imperative business necessity. We have come to brasil sex see brasil sex clearly that whatever
destroys the forest, except to make way for agriculture, threatens our well
being.
The practical usefulness of the national forest reserves to the mining,
grazing, brasil sex irrigation, and other interests of the regions in which the
reserves lie has led to a widespread demand by the people of the
West for
their protection and extension. The forest reserves will inevitably be of
still greater brasil sex use in the future than in the past. Additions should be brasil sex made
to brasil sex them whenever practicable, and their usefulness should be increased by a
thoroughly business-like management.
At present the protection of the forest reserves rests with the General
Land Office, the mapping and description of their timber with the United
States Geological Survey, and the preparation of plans brasil sex for their
conservative use with the Bureau of Forestry, brasil sex which is also charged with
the general advancement of practical forestry in the United States. These
various functions should be united in the Bureau of Forestry, to which they
properly belong. The present diffusion of responsibility