Chapter XIX: Part 19

About five or six months ago—I haven’t a recollection of the exact date—the Conservation commission of California was appointed and began its work. I have had the pleasure and the privilege of attending only one meeting which was held a week ago last Friday, and at that meeting I was prevailed upon to come to this Congress, because other members, more competent to represent the state, could not leave home. Accompanying me are other gentlemen from that state. The secretary of our state commission, and representatives of other phases of conservation are here. We have a great deal of rich agricultural land in California, and we are a little shy of water in some places. We have ideal conditions in many respects for manufacturing, but we are also a little shy on coal. So that we turn our attention naturally to water and power first. We have entered into coöperative agreements with federal employes, representatives of the various federal bureau departments, who are working in our state, especially the geological survey people, and the representatives of the department of agriculture, and we have men of our own in the field gathering data on those important phases of conservation in California—water resources and power resources. The work has only just begun, but we feel that we were fortunate in securing this coöperation of the National Government. It is barely possible that this may be a suggestion to some other state. We entered into agreements with these people to gather the data that we need in order to give us the information necessary for intelligent recommendation to the legislature as to the necessary legislation in our state. This work has just begun, and we feel that we have saved a great deal of time in not having to organize a complete force of our own, and also a great deal of money has been saved in eliminating overhead charges. These gentlemen are gathering for us complete data as to the amount and character of lands that can be irrigated, and complete data as to the water that is available for irrigating those lands. We also in our last legislature, in addition to providing for this commission, provided for a board of control of water power, and under that law the state has absolute control and regulation of water power. In California there is sufficient water power to turn every wheel that is now turned in the United States. It is estimated by federal government experts that we have in California in use and operation 250,000 horsepower, and that we might easily develop five million. It is also estimated that this five million horsepower on the basis of the price of coal in California is a billion dollars a year. So you can see how important that phase of the work is to us. We are accompanied here by the secretary of our commission, Mr. Louis R. Glavis, and during the course of the convention if there is anything that any one wishes to ask about our work or plans, Mr. Glavis can no doubt answer the questions intelligently. Very likely I could not if the questions were put to me.

We wish to say in this same connection that we would indeed be glad to have the representatives and the conservation commissions in other states and all conservation bodies and organizations, send us any information they have that may be of benefit to us, and we shall be glad, indeed, to reciprocate that courtesy. I do not think there is anything else that I can say, ladies and gentlemen. We merely wanted you to know that we were awake, or just beginning to get awake in California on this important subject, and that we shall give it our best efforts, and invite your hearty coöperation. I thank you. (Applause)

REPORT FROM IDAHO.

BY MRS. HOLLAND C. DAY.

While I am not a native of Idaho, I must say that I claim allegiance to the state of Missouri, and Governor Hadley is my governor. (Applause) But, as I spent many months in Idaho, I was appointed by the newspapers to speak a word for Idaho in case there was no one else here to represent her. Therefore that is my excuse for appearing before you.

Through the Carey act Idaho has had more opportunity to be settled than through the general homestead act, as there is not so much time required to stay on the land before beginning to cultivate. Of course, you all know that is a sage brush country, and there is lots of grubbing to be done there. A few years ago I helped to plant an orchard of 167 acres. Eight thousand fruit trees were planted there. It is called Pasadena valley. From my little hut we counted sixteen settlements of school teachers and their wives, and young people settling in that valley, making a new start in life. That valley blossoms, I was going to say, like a rose, but I mean like an apple tree. For two years now these apple trees have been growing and putting out fine new shoots and they have been obliged to cut these twigs away in order to have the best kind of apples two years from now. Dr. Morrison’s orchard is situated in Pasadena valley: he has 167 acres there. He is a man well known in the State of Washington, and he took up this land for the sake of inducing others to come. Now, as far as the irrigation problem is concerned, you all know about it. I am confined to five minutes, but I want to say that the sooner the people of the United States, especially of the East, will not think so much about the productiveness of the soil as they will of the locality, and they think more of the locality I would say, than the productiveness, then the whole western country will be a Mecca for some of the hide-bound people of the East. (Applause)

Now, I am a New Yorker myself originally. I was a New York girl up to thirty years ago, and now I am a Missourian, and once a Missourian always a Missourian. And when I went out West they did not have to show me, either. (Applause) But I see the people of the East do not understand the conservation theory as well as they might. I have talked with many, and you take up the New York papers, and you will find that they are very provincial. There is nothing outside of New York. You have to come West and get the western papers to find out what is going on all over the world, and conservation is the touch-word nowadays. I want to say that Idaho is heart and soul in this movement. I represent a paper that goes all over Idaho and is looking forward to some report from this Congress with a great deal of interest, and I shall be pleased to report it as well and effectively as only a woman can. I thank you very much, and if you want to plant any orchards and have them grow and make money, and send your apples to Europe and all over the world, come to Idaho, to King’s Hill or Glenn’s Ferry. I thank you. (Applause)

REPORT FROM ILLINOIS.

BY COLONEL ISHAM RANDOLPH.

COL. RANDOLPH—I bring you God speed and the good will of our Governor who cannot be here himself. He is lying upon a bed of pain with a broken leg, but that is the only thing that is lame about him. He is as determined in spirit, and as earnest in his efforts for the good of his own people and for the good of the whole Nation as though he was sound in every bone in his body.

Illinois, the sister state to Missouri, is not a novice in the conservation movement. She began it a long time ago. She has had her conservation work going on for many years, and she has learned that in union there is strength. In Illinois we have had for a number of years, the Internal Improvement commission, which joined hands with the State Geological Survey, with the United States Government Survey, with the water survey, with the fish commission, and hand in hand they have worked for the development of the state and the conservation of our resources. Something has been said about the failure of the land in the East. It was my good fortune to be a delegate to the first Conservation Congress in the White House. The president of our Illinois University, in the course of his remarks said, that so much was said about the misfortunes, of the impoverishment of the land of New England, of the lands of New York, of the lands of Virginia and other eastern states, but, he said, “My friends, I do not so regard it. The impoverishment of these lands has sent the sons of those states to build up the West. They have carried with them their energy, their brains, their character, and they are making the great West what it is today.” I repeated that to a distinguished educator in agricultural lines who is now in this audience, and what do you think his remark was? He said, “Did he also go on to say that wherever the English-speaking people had set foot they had robbed the soil, and given it nothing back?” Now, our universities are teaching our English-speaking people, and our people of all languages, how to give back to the soil that which has been taken from it. Our University of Illinois, with its experiment stations, its work on behalf of agriculture, has so educated its people that each year the results of that education is to give back to the state more than all the money that Illinois has ever put into this great institution. It has been said of a great eastern college that it is a kindergarten for hell. Not so of our great institutions. That is a kindergarten from which we are educating men to upbuild our state, to make it agriculturally and in every other way, what that great state should be. We have in Illinois a number of things to be conserved. We have our coal resources. These problems have been taken up by the Geological Survey, and are being handled in a way which still result in great good for the state. We have no arid lands in Illinois, but we have flooded lands, overflowed lands. We have hundreds of thousands of acres which we are now starting in to reclaim. It is the business of a commission which was appointed by the State of Illinois to study its streams, to look out for the interests of the state, to recover from all unlawful owners, unlawful seizure of lands which rightfully belonged to the state. It is the business of that commission to conserve the water power of the state. There is a great asset for which our Governor is making an excellent fight. The question is, shall Illinois own the water power of the Illinois river, and conserve it for all use, or shall private capital own that, and all the people use it by paying for it? It has been said that we have been defeated in this thing. Why, gentlemen, as a great leader—I believe he was a commander of a vessel—when called upon to surrender said, “We have just begun to fight.” We are going to conserve that water power for the people of the state and we are going to give the state and the Nation a water way. This is a congress to consider the conservation of the land, the soil development of the land, but, gentlemen, you must bear in mind that this country is growing by leaps and bounds, and that the railroads of our country cannot keep pace with the transportation demands. We must look to the future. It is said that our water ways are of no use today. Ah, but they will be of use. The time is coming when these water ways, when every water way that can float a boat will be required to take the produce of our farms to market. The time is not long past when our railroads were so glutted with produce that the farmers were losing their hard earnings because they could not put their grain into market. This occurred at a time when the population of the states which may be considered tributary to the Mississippi river were only 31.4 per square mile. The same census gave Great Britain a population of 312.5 to the square mile, and these states are so rich in soil that they will support a population equal to that of any other area on the face of the earth, and that population is coming—you cannot begin to get ready for it too soon. In 1913 at the present rate of progress the Panama Canal will be opened to the nations of the earth for business. Will the Mississippi valley be able and ready to float its produce down to avail that great opening, or must it go on forever shipping its produce by rail to some Pacific or Atlantic port, to be there loaded into the vessels, and go through this canal in vessels that ought to be loaded at your own doors, in your own city? I make this appeal for the water ways, and I make it brief, because my time is up, and I thank you for your attention. (Applause.)

REPORT FOR INDIANA.

BY HARRY EVEREST BARNARD.

I represent the Indiana branch of the National conservation association. The state which is the center of population, the center of industrial activity, the center of literary activity. We believe that Indiana is the state most progressive in the way of constructive, conservative legislation of any of the states of our great country. During the last few years our legislature has been doing active constructive work. We have this last year placed upon our statute books the first cold storage bill passed in the United States which is really constructive legislation. We believe, in Indiana, that conservation means utilization, economic utilization, and that the manufacturers who know how to make a better brick out of Indiana clay; the health officer who shows us how to conserve and improve the health of our school children, or teaches us how to build a better school house; the man who can produce a new product out of Indiana oil, is a true conservationist. The state boards of health of Indiana have been devoting most of their time in the last few years to a study of stream pollution. We have been studying the pollution of the southern end of Lake Michigan, by the industrial activities at the northern end of our state. We have shown the citizens in that northern part of Indiana how they are pouring their sewage into Lake Michigan through one pipe and drawing water from Lake Michigan through another. At the present time we are studying the pollution of the Ohio river by the sewage of the cities of Indiana, and we have now demonstrated by a survey which is still in operation, but which has covered over 300 miles of the Ohio river, that wonderful stream of water is nothing but a stream of sewage its entire length, wholly unfit for drinking purposes.

Indiana is regulating the propagation of the unfit, by effective legislation. Indiana is taking a stand in the front of all health organization work. It has this last year introduced compulsory medical inspection of school children. Within the last two years Indiana, although not at the present time a forest state, has become aroused to the necessity of work along the lines of intelligent forest conservation, not only because we need the lumber, and the timber and wood, but because we need to preserve the life of our streams. Indiana has found that within the last twenty years the ground water level throughout the state has been lowered some twenty feet, and is now realizing that without proper forest conservation it cannot expect to find sufficient water for its needs in the not distant future. (Applause.)

REPORT FOR IOWA.

BY THOMAS H. MACBRIDE.

I shall say nothing about the resources of Iowa. This is an intelligent audience (applause) and I take it there is not a man or woman in any state in the United States who does not know all about the fact that Iowa is the most magnificent garden on the face of the earth. I shall, therefore, say nothing about Iowa. I do say, however, that my notion of this whole conservation movement is simply the devotion to an idea. And that idea is the right use of this world. Our problem, therefore, is the right use of the state of Iowa. Now, then, we have magnificent soil; we have streams that run riot in spring and winter and are so dry in summer that all the large catfish have to move away. We have lakes, the most beautiful perhaps of all the lakes, the small lakes, on the northern plains. We have some forests, and Nature put the forests in the right place; she put it to protect the streams. Four years ago the legislature of Iowa made provision for a commission which should report upon the proper conservation of our soils, our lakes, our streams and our woods. That commission did make a report. That report is available for the members of this Congress; it can be had. That report was presented to our last legislature, our latest legislature was called to the momentous task of choosing a senator for the senate of the United States, and in devotion to that tremendous problem the report of the commission was entirely overlooked. That report was a good one; I say so because I was a member of that commission, and I therefore make this apology for the legislature of my state, in view of the fact that I think the legislature overlooked the most magnificent piece of work. But in all seriousness, Iowa is at work. The people of Iowa are alive to these problems. We have there many agencies that are at work. Our whole subject is before our state colleges of agriculture, than which it is admitted there are none better. There are many men in all parts of the state who are devoted to this idea, and one of them has been so prominent that he stands above us all today as the president of this Congress (applause). It is therefore less necessary that I should say anything about Iowa. Mr. President, do you believe that hundreds of men and women would leave their homes at their own cost, and at the cost and sacrifice of their own business, for anything less than an idea? And, Mr. President, the time has come when that idea shall win. It must win, if we are going to use this world rightly, because no problem is solved until it is solved rightly. Then, when that time comes, you will see in Iowa, and in all these border states, not only the freest people on the face of the earth, but the happiest. (Applause.)

REPORT FROM KANSAS.

BY DEAN H. J. WATERS, _Of the State Agricultural College_.

I understand that this is a report of progress in the great movement of conservation. I regret that Kansas, unlike Iowa, has no beautiful lakes. They have all long since gone dry, as has Kansas in other particulars, and where these lakes once were are now growing crops, great and bountiful crops of alfalfa, and in the places where Kansas went dry in other particulars there is now growing a great crop of temperate and stalwart men and women. (Applause.) It was said by your distinguished chairman this morning that Kansas was the experiment station of this Nation, and she pleads guilty to the charge, and is proud of it. They have the courage to try any experiment in government, in business, in farming that promises to be successful, and that promises real progress.

You ask what Kansas is doing to conserve its resources? She is conserving her resources of men and women by having less intemperance than any other state in the union; by having less illiteracy than any other state in the union; by having empty jails and almshouses, and having full school houses with seven months of school in every district in Kansas each year; with a teacher the minimum salary of which is $50 a month. (Applause.) And, with a larger proportion of our sons and daughters in colleges, in proportion to our population, than any other state in the Union. (Applause.) But, speaking more specifically concerning the questions immediately before this Congress, what is Kansas doing towards the conservation of her so-called material resources? Our last legislature made provision for a state commission of conservation, and I regret exceedingly that the chairman of that committee happened to be absent at this particular moment, so that I might have been spared the embarrassment of speaking for the state on this occasion. That commission is actively at work, and is considering the matter of soil fertility, of the education of the people in the country and in the city, and considering all matters that would naturally be considered in connection with this subject.

And then, what has the agricultural college been doing along this line, and these agricultural colleges have been the pioneers in this field of conservation? Last year the Kansas state agricultural college spoke to 150,000 people in Kansas concerning the question of conservation, and at every farmers’ institute held in that state for the last six years the question of soil fertility has been discussed, and has been the topic of discussion at meetings, and the details of soil fertility has come to be a household word.

There are today in the state of Kansas 340 farmers’ institutes or farmers’ clubs, that meet once every month, with a membership of 14,000 heads of families, the membership representing sixty or seventy thousand persons. They discuss once a month the details of prosperous, progressive and successful farming, including soil fertility. In the great corn belt, on an average fully 25 per cent of our great corn crop—and the greatest crop we produce—is wasted for the want of a silo in which to preserve it. In Kansas four years ago there were 62 silos. The agricultural college has made a special campaign through its extension department along this line, and today there are 2,000 silos in Kansas, and all of them full. That is the only thing I know of in Kansas that is full. Within the last six years the area of alfalfa has been doubled; and this is in the line of conservation, for here is a crop that enriches the father but does not impoverish the son, and that is but a part of what Kansas is doing. I say these things not boastfully, for Kansas is not doing a quarter of what she ought to do in these lines, and not a quarter of what she will do in the very near future through the stimulus of great Congresses like this. (Applause.)

REPORT FOR LOUISIANA.

BY FRED L. GRACE.

Just a few words about conservation from our state, Louisiana. Our very emblems are symbolic of conservation. Our state emblem is a pelican, the only bird of flight that will pull the flesh from its own breast to feed it to its young. Our state flower is the magnolia, whose stately trees by the same name grow all over our state, and whose wood is very valuable for furniture.

At the last session of the general assembly of Louisiana, under the progressive administration of Governor J. Y. Sanders, there were enacted and made into laws twenty-nine measures relating to conservation of our natural resources and the preservation of the gifts so bountifully provided us by an all-wise Providence.

Louisiana leads in the production of lumber, as well as sulphur, and salt, much mineral oil and gas. In fact, Louisiana leads in having the greatest store of natural resources.

She has in pine lands, as near as I have been able to figure, about 4,269,928 acres.

In hardwoods, such as oak, gum, willow, persimmon, hickory, magnolia, beech, elm, sycamore and poplar, 3,338,486 acres.

In cypress approximately 900,000 acres.

We have, in Louisiana, two mills which alone cut daily nearly one and three-quarter million feet of lumber. Of these the mill of the great Southern lumber company of Bogalusa, La., and Fullerton, La., is the largest in the world.

This company is putting in an alcohol plant so that utilization can be made of waste products and they be manufactured into alcohol. The number of employees at this plant and their logging operation are about 1,600 to 1,800. Their motto is, “Utilization as well as Conservation.” They now make charcoal of the limbs, and paper and alcohol of the refuse wood and sawdust. In a short time they will begin to work the stumps, and in connection with this I will add that there is more turpentine in a stump than in any part of the tree. Utilization of the stumps will clear the lands for farming purposes and these soon will bloom with growing crops.

Louisiana has many bayous and creeks and all of these are lined with mills and lumber companies which are steadily cutting on the vast supply at hand. Our forests are teeming with woods of all kinds and Louisiana has more kinds of woods than any state in the Union.

The long leaf pine of Louisiana obtains preëminence over those of other states for its superior qualities of strength and elasticity, combined with comparatively light weight and ease of working, making it adaptable to many classes of work.

Our cypress, which grows principally in the southern part of the state and also to some extent in the lower and swampy portions of the middle and northern portions, is of extremely slow growth, but is the most lasting of all our woods, and under water is practically indestructible. We ship more cross-ties of oak and cypress than any other state, a great many of these being creosoted and exported to foreign countries where they are in great demand.

Another tree that is springing into prominence is the pecan. East Baton Rouge has a pecan orchard of 700 acres and the Parish of Iberville has a number of varieties of several hundred acres each. In some of the parishes bordering on Bayou Teche, inhabitants are going into the culture of this tree on a large scale. The profits in this business are large, each tree producing, when having attained a growth, one or more barrels of the pecans of which the average price is from 15 to 25 cents per pound.

We are now drafting laws for the protection of timber from devastation by fire and from indiscriminate logging.

Over in the southwestern part of Louisiana is located the plant of the Union Sulphur Company, engaged in the mining of sulphur by a novel process.

The product is mined by being melted by superheated steam pumped down through the deposits and it is then pumped up in a molten state and allowed to cool and solidify in vats where it is broken up and shipped to market.

This mine is one of the largest in the world, if not the largest, and its output is close to one thousand tons per day. This, I think, shoves Sicily hard for first place in the production of this mineral.

Borings made by the company to ascertain the amount of sulphur in that vicinity show fully 40,000,000 tons underlying their holdings.

The discovery of the famous Beaumont oil field in 1901 was the signal for oil exploration, both in Texas and Louisiana.

Since that time Louisiana has proven to have within her borders oil deposits second only to the famous Pennsylvania fields. And the deposits of the Caddo field are generally conceded to be the greatest single field in the world.

The depths at which oil is found varies from 500 to 2,200 feet in the different fields.

The Welsh and Jennings fields have produced oil at from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. And while these fields in their beginning produced gushers, they are now all pumpers and are producing in the neighborhood of 10,000 barrels per day.

Along with oil in the Caddo field have also been found large supplies of natural gas and this is now being utilized in many ways and will continue to be, as the supply is seemingly inexhaustible.

A great waste of these valuable mineral deposits was made before pipe lines were built and receptacles constructed. Now the matter is being taken in hand and soon, under the conservation measures adopted at the last general assembly, control of the situation will be complete. There is still some work along this line to accomplish, and at the next session of the General Assembly these will be written in our statutes.

The conservation of game and fish, as well as the other natural resources, is most momentous to the people of our state. Louisiana has adopted good and sound measures for the protection of her game and fish and has created a commission with a system of wardens and provides that hunters shall contribute to the support of the commission for protection by the payment of a nominal license for the privilege of hunting.

Of course, changes will have to be made, but the ground work has been done.

Louisiana has in her many streams and water courses, as well as in her bays and lakes, a vast supply of fish and shrimp. The shrimp and salt water fisheries furnish employment to a great number of persons. These are dependent on the supply of this valuable resource and are directly interested in the protection of it.

The oyster industry during the past year has enjoyed a healthy and expansive growth, and while the general business depression has affected the canner, still a great many acres of water bottoms were leased for oyster culture and other improvements were made.

There are now under lease and cultivation over 14,391.24 acres of water bottoms at $1.00 per acre per annum, and yielding on an average of two hundred barrels of oysters per acre.

There are more than 2,700 boats engaged in the oyster industry and 2,400,000 bags were caught last season with a market value of something over $2,000,000.

The shores of Louisiana are largely indented with lakes, bayous and bays, where the tides ebb and flow daily, mixing the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico with the fresh waters of the Mississippi river and the bayous and small rivers leading therefrom. The area of this water surface, susceptible to oyster culture, is calculated to be 4,720,502 acres.

There are now under cultivation slightly over 15,000 acres, producing about 200 barrels of oysters per acre each year, and something like 62,740 acres, estimated, of natural reefs where oysters grow wild and unaided.

Deducting the leased bottoms and the natural oyster reefs from the total area mentioned would leave about 4,660,000 acres of barren bottoms at present unproductive, but which, with the expenditure of labor and a small amount of money, could be made to yield enormous revenues and be a great source of food supply.

The oyster industry of Louisiana offers to the people of this country one of the greatest fields of exploitation and development.

Salt has been known to exist in Louisiana for many years, and has been mined commercially in one deposit, that of the Avery salt works, since 1852. This deposit is one of pure salt rock and at the present time nearly a thousand tons a day are being produced. This is only one of the several similar mines in Louisiana and I have no doubt that there are many very valuable deposits of salt yet undiscovered and undeveloped.

REPORT FROM MASSACHUSETTS.

BY PROF. FRANK WILLIAM RANE, _State Forester_.

Complying with the request of the officials of this association in reporting herewith for the state of Massachusetts, I wish to say at the outset that I feel certainly incompetent to undertake the task and to point out the numerous activities that the good old Bay State is fostering. Being a Massachusetts citizen by adoption only, I feel privileged to express myself more frankly as otherwise my report might seem prejudiced.

We have in Massachusetts, in the first place, a conservation of the old-time ancestry which is not only renowned for its brilliant deeds in the Nation’s early history, but is still firm and abiding even after these many years. What state has a fairer reputation in its dissemination of its natural resources and still lives to enter more heartily into the conservation and restoration of those remaining.

The historic setting and general environment of Massachusetts in the early days of the Nation are natural resources that constitute an ever-bubbling fountain. Yearly the pilgrimage to the old Bay State of thousands upon thousands from throughout the Nation to visit Boston, Concord, Lexington, Arlington, Cambridge, Salem, Plymouth and a score of other cities and towns goes to show what the conservation of high ideals and true patriotism mean.

The state has always been liberal, progressive and a natural leader in all that stands for education, advancement and enlightenment.

Many wonder at the splendid showing that Massachusetts always makes and seem confounded at her successful progress. The explanation is that as a state we do not confine our interests to state bounds, but our people are equally interested in promoting and developing copper and other mines or sheep ranches and other industries in the South or West, as much as they are at home. Succeeding elsewhere means also better opportunities for home development. In this way mutual associations and enterprises of a stalwart and permanent nature are established.

The old biblical saying that it is more blessed to give than receive is literally true of the old Bay State. While she has been generous in the Nation’s life, yet there are few states that for their size have greater natural advantages and hold out better prospects for success in the future.

Contrary to the minds of many, Massachusetts has advantages that are hard to surpass. I wonder how many have read the article entitled “Golden New England,” by Sylvester Baxter, which appeared in the Outlook in 1910. If not, you may be interested in doing so. The author therein portrays various rural industries and very entertainingly points out their success. One of our enterprising business houses, N. W. Harris & Co., bankers, Boston, very kindly has sent out excerpts to those desiring the same.

Massachusetts is a state with many manufacturing centers and, therefore, a great consumer of all kinds of resources, particularly in the raw material. This material is put through our factories and goes out as the manufactured article.

Our high standard of education in literature, science and art has evolved men of usefulness. In the modern or applied sciences we point with pride to our technical, agricultural and trade schools which are already accomplishing results toward conservation, restoration and economic utilization of natural resources.

Massachusetts people began to see the handwriting on the wall many years ago and even before this Congress was born they were agitating and accomplishing actual results. Our cities and towns are already well forearmed with generous water supplies. The great metropolitan water system of Boston and its suburbs, already a reality, is one of the greatest engineering feats yet accomplished in its line. Our metropolitan and municipal park systems are a credit to our people. The state highway system of Massachusetts needs no introduction to an intelligent audience like this, as its reputation has attracted road engineers from all over the world and many states have come to the Massachusetts highway commission and induced our men away. Dr. Field of the fish and game commission is here at the convention; hence, he will inform you of this field of our activity. Simply let me say that our marine natural resources are far greater than most people realize. Massachusetts has a large and important coastal boundary and were I able to tell you of the great possible future we have in mind even for the old historic Cape Cod Country, I know it would interest you. While the great fishing industries of Old Gloucester, Nantucket and New Bedford are not as thriving as in earlier times, nevertheless with the guidance of modern science to water farming, we have great promise of the restoration of these industries that will go far toward feeding the Nation in the future.

Speaking of fishing and game, forestry, natural history and Appalachian clubs, I am frank to say that I believe there are no people on earth who are more in love with Nature herself, heart and soul, than our Massachusetts people. We have organizations galore and they are not only organized but bubbling full of real activity and accomplishing things. Were you the state forester of Massachusetts, I can guarantee that you could spend your whole time simply lecturing on conservation or forestry, as the demands are so great and the work so popular.

In the development of a new nation it invariably follows that conditions are constantly changing, and as intercourse with other nations through trade and business relations progresses, the evils and blessings are shared. While we are greatly indebted to the various countries of the world for many an introduction, nevertheless now and then we unfortunately get an insect or fungus development that proves extremely disastrous.

It would not be fair to Massachusetts in reporting on her conservation policies did I not mention the great fight that the state has waged for years against the gypsy and brown-tail moths. These two insects are indigenous to Europe and while they have their natural enemies and are under subjection there, upon reaching this country they find an open field and with no enemies become a veritable pest.

Both species are destroyers of trees. The brown-tail moth devours the leaves of the deciduous, or hardwood trees only, while the gypsy is no respector of vegetation and will defoliate evergreens as well, if food is scarce, although it, too, prefers the deciduous. The brown-tail moths besides being tree destroyers, give off hairs from the larvae and moth, which, when brought in contact with the skin of human beings produce a rash that is extremely irritating. Of the two insects the gypsy moth is generally considered the worse. The fact that when the white pine, or our evergreens, are once stripped they die outright; and that the pine in particular is one of our most valuable species, both from the economic and aesthetic standpoint, make their protection from the gypsy moth important.

I will not take time to give you the life histories of these insects, for should anyone be interested this information can be had by applying to the State Forester, Boston, Mass. We have illustrated matter in natural colors showing these insects.

Practically all of our trees in the residential sections of the cities and towns, in the eastern part of the state, are sprayed annually. Our main travelled roadsides are sprayed each year. Individuals, municipalities and the state all coöperate in this work. The annual appropriation of the state is $315,000 a year. The total expenditure from all sources, within the state, up to the present time in this work is estimated at $6,000,000. Besides this the United States Government has spent in Massachusetts probably $700,000. We have had as high as 2,700 men at work at one time in the busiest season of the year. The renewed North Shore, our fashionable summer resort, spends practically $100,000 a year to protect the trees in this section alone.

The state forester’s spraying apparatus is composed of an aggregation of 300 spraying outfits. We use in a single season over 400 tons of arsenate of lead, the state’s contract alone being for 250 tons a year.

During the past two years the state forester’s department has made great improvements in power spraying equipment, the cost of spraying woodlands having been reduced from $30.00, or more, per acre, down to as low as $6.00 in some instances. Instead of its being necessary to climb trees as heretofore, the modern power sprayer enables us to spray directly over the tops of tall trees from the ground. The whole spraying problem has been revolutionized. It is certainly to be hoped that these insects may not secure a foothold elsewhere. Surely Massachusetts is doing her part, and I cannot urge too strongly the necessity of other states and the Nation realizing the importance of this work. We have introduced parasites from all over the world, and they are showing great promise. The work with disease also seems very effective, and I feel optimistic. It is clear that the practice of modern forestry methods, and the employment of highly developed mechanical devices, are doing much, and we trust ere long the parasites and diseases will bring about the desired balance.

Massachusetts is enthusiastically interested in forestry and the state forester this past season was given an appropriation of $10,000 for forest fire work. We have appointed a state forest fire warden, who is organizing and perfecting a workable system. He is also establishing lookout stations, and patrol systems in different sections of the state.

Our forest management, reforestation and general forestry, educational and demonstration work are all well established and progressing. We have 3,000,000 trees in the state nursery for use another season. The state is planting 1,000 acres each year, and our lumbermen and people generally are showing interest, and doing more each season. Our appropriation, including that for forest fires this past year, was $40,000.

In Massachusetts the work of restoration is even of more importance than conservation when applied to forestry. The annual cut of our forest products at present amounts to only five per cent of that used each year throughout the commonwealth for manufacturing, building and other purposes. Surely we can and ought to supply a larger amount of our own home grown woods. Although the state has been well cut over, even now our wood harvests play an important factor in the industries of many of our rural sections. While we believe thoroughly in conservation where it will apply, still the more potent force begins farther back. We need to teach the A B C of restoration in forestry. When our work of reforestation shall have begun to demonstrate its value, it will be an object lesson, which will mean much toward perfecting a better state forest policy.

Practical forest restoration, therefore, is what Massachusetts needs most. If we will reconvert our hilly, rocky, mountainous, moist sandy and waste non-agricultural lands generally into productive forests the future financial success from rural sections of the commonwealth is assured. This is no idle dream; it can be accomplished. Massachusetts is a natural forest country and all that is needed is simply to assist nature, stop forest fires and formulate constructive policies. Then we can grow as fine forests as can be found anywhere. Germany and many of the countries of the old world have already demonstrated what can be done. Are we to be less thrifty and far-sighted? Americans do things, when they are once aroused, and it is believed that reforestation and the adopting of modern forestry management must be given its due consideration in this state from now on.

I have been delighted to follow the interest that has been aroused and the great tendency for all our people to not only welcome and appreciate the new idea of “conservation,” but to even credit the term or phrase, as covering every phase of new endeavor.

It is not my purpose to lessen the glory one whit or bedim a single gem in the crown of the national phrase, “Conservation of Natural Resources,” nor could I were it to be tried, for the heralded motto has already stamped itself firmly upon the Nation.

As time goes on, however, it will be found that our popular phrase will not carry with it the whole panacea for overcoming our wasteful and depleting conditions, and that new and equally applicable terms, though perhaps never so popular, will come to express more aptly our real needs.

To my mind the phrase, “Restoration of Natural Resources,” vies with that of “Conservation of Natural Resources,” and expresses a force to be aroused in the Nation for good that in many ways surpasses the present popular one.

We have our forest reserves and minerals, what are left, and now to conserve them economically is a worthy undertaking, but in the older sections of the Nation to conserve what we have in depleted and worn-out lands and forests is to pick the bones of the withered and shrunken carcass.

Let conservation apply where it may, but the force that is needed in Massachusetts and all of New England, yea the South, extending even well into the middle of the Nation, following the great depleting agricultural cereal and cotton crops on the one hand, and the lumberman’s axe and forest fires on the other, is greater than this term can begin to express.

The term, “Restoration of Natural Resources,” I claim, meets our present needs far better and breathes greater hope and definite accomplishments for our children’s children in the future.

REPORT FROM MINNESOTA.

BY D. M. NEILL.

To undertake to tell you of the resources of the state of Minnesota would be to recapitulate nearly the resources of all the states of the union. But I don’t understand that is what we are here for. When the governor of Minnesota asked me to come down here, I asked him what I was to say to the people who might be here at this time. He said, “You have been on the state conservation commission for two years, and you ought to know what to say,” and in addition to that he said, “Go down and tell them what we are trying to do in Minnesota.” That is what I will try to tell you about. In the first place, the men who settled Minnesota looked far into the future. The state had an immense amount of what was called swamp lands donated by the government for educational purposes. These men of the early days, looking to the future, passed a law whereby these lands could not be disposed of except at a minimum price of what then seemed to be a ridiculous sum entirely beyond what these lands would probably then be worth. But these lands are found to be among the most valuable assets of the state of Minnesota, and have sold at double, triple, ten times, and some of them for more than a thousand times the minimum price. So that today the state of Minnesota is next to the state of Texas, has the largest school fund in the United States—something over $25,000,000—and with the resources on hand belonging to the fund, it probably, in the course of time, will amount to over $250,000,000. That looks like conservation of our school resources.

In our farm work, our agricultural college has been doing of late years a splendid work throughout the state. In connection with the commercial clubs it has established a considerable number of experimental farms in different localities, to give somewhat of a practical education to the farmers already tilling the soil. The leaders in this movement have felt that the ordinary processes of sending the children to school, giving them an agricultural education, trying to get them back to the farm again—to spread that education was too slow. It seemed necessary to do something with the parents that they may see the necessity for the children having an agricultural education, and for that reason the state agricultural college has been conducting this set of experiments through the experimental farm. The results are already beginning to show.

The state of Minnesota has succeeded in the last few years in raising the number of bushels of wheat alone 3½ bushels to the acre. That is some of the practical conservation of the soil. Minnesota used to have the reputation of having the worst roads in the United States, and I think she fully lived up to her reputation. That condition is very rapidly being changed. The state wide campaign for good roads is being constantly conducted by the good roads commission. The last legislature, in fact the legislature of four years ago, took the matter in hand and levied a small tax for the betterment of the state roads. These roads were required to be built under the supervision of state engineers. If the roads were so built the state contributed one-third of their cost up to a certain maximum amount which to any one county did not exceed $2,000. That was the starting of the state movement. The last legislature provided for a tax that will raise something like $2,000,000 to be divided among the eighty counties of the state to aid in the work of good roads. A project is now on foot to build a state highway from the southern boundary to the northern boundary, and one across the state from the city of Duluth to the city of East Grand Forks. These to be great state highways, and all other highways radiating out from them. These experimental roads are built on scientific lines furnished by the state, and are conditioned according to the quality of the soil through which the road runs. The effort is first to get a system of good dirt roads. The state is not yet developed sufficiently to warrant us going in to macadamized roads at this time, except in the large cities.

In the matter of our mineral wealth the state long ago provided that the people at large shall receive the benefit of it. No state land is now sold except where the mineral rights are retained and the mines already opened and in operation pay very large taxes toward the maintenance of the state government, thus contributing to the welfare of the whole people. These are some of the things that the state of Minnesota is trying to do and is doing. I do not feel that I can take the time to go into detail of many other things that we are just starting, the prevention of disease—already one or two tuberculosis institutions have been started in the pine woods of Minnesota—and a general campaign against the great white plague is constantly in progress. My time is up. I thank you. (Applause)

REPORT FOR NEBRASKA.

BY GEORGE COUPLAND.

I have been very strongly reminded today in these remarks that I have heard made that the state that I represent is purely an agricultural state. That is about all the industries that we have. I thought perhaps of one manufacturing interest that we were trying to develop, that of furnishing presidential timber, but we had to give that up, and the factory is in the hands of the repairers today. (Applause.) I think that perhaps there is no more important factor in the development of a sentiment that means what it says, than such a gathering as this. I notice in the paper that I just picked up it is, “Back to the Land”—yes, I am glad that that is the story—for it is out of the land that this country has to maintain its position as a nation.