. Conservation. Forests and forestry. Dams Now Proposed to Regulate Streamflow Dam Site on Lower Colorado (Page 666) We can hardly blame the lumbermen more than operatives in other indus- tries for past practise or present con- ditions. Like other people, they are in business for the profit, and too busy with the things of to-day to take thought for the morrow ; and, with no authority to stay the work of destruc- tion, competition has compelled them to adopt such practise as experience has shown to be necessary for success. But it is evident that the short- sighted policy of private control ca
. Conservation. Forests and forestry. Dams Now Proposed to Regulate Streamflow Dam Site on Lower Colorado (Page 666) We can hardly blame the lumbermen more than operatives in other indus- tries for past practise or present con- ditions. Like other people, they are in business for the profit, and too busy with the things of to-day to take thought for the morrow ; and, with no authority to stay the work of destruc- tion, competition has compelled them to adopt such practise as experience has shown to be necessary for success. But it is evident that the short- sighted policy of private control can- not be trusted for protection of the common interests, and, if we would stay the work of destruction, we must pro- vide some system of Government guar- dianship and supervision of the remain- ing forests. Our authorities estimate the original forested area of the United States at 850,000,000 acres, and that clearing, cutting, and burning have reduced the acreage to 550,000,000. Of this remaining so-called forest, 100,000,000 acres, an area as large as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Mrginia, is said to be so damaged by cutting and burning that its growth is of little value, while 250,000,000 acres partially cut and burned over are restocking naturally with sufficient young growth to pro- duce a fair crop of timber. This leaves but 200,000,000 acres of unculled for- est, less than one-fourth the original forest area. Of this amount there can hardly be over 50,000,000 acres of unculled for- est east of the Mississippi, and a con- siderable part of this has been left be- cause, on account of its inferior quality or quantity, it has not been worth the cutting. The 350,000,000 acres of culled and burned-over forest lands have been so persistently stripped of their best pro- ductions, and the least valuable left to grow and propagate their kind, that the natural reproduction is largely of un- desirable and unprofitable growth ; and though the estimates on the amo
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