PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Pet. No. 11, S. By Senator Barwig. To committee on Education and Public Welfare. Madison, Wis., February 3, 1915. HON. O. G. MUNSON, Chief Clerk, Senate, Madison, Wis. Dear Sir: The joint committee on Finance will have the budget for the state board of control under consideration this afternoon, this evening, tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening and we respectfully invite the members of the legislature, especially the members of the visiting committee, to be present at these meetings. The meeting for this afternoon will be called at 2 p. m. Respectfully, Joint Committee on Finance, Committee Room No. 333, South Wing. Chairman. EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS The nomination of James O. Davidson to be a member of the state board of control was taken up at this time. The question was: Shall the nomination by the governor of James O. Davidson to be a member of the state board of control for the term ending April 1, 1919, and designated as president of the said board, be confirmed? The ayes and noes were required, and the vote was: Ayes, 23; noes, 6; absent or not voting, 4; as follows Ayes Senators Ackley, Barwig, Baxter, Bennett, Bosshard, Bray, Burke, Culbertson, Cunningham, Everett, Fairchild, Glenn, Hanson, Huber, Jennings, Mulberger, Perry, Potts, Skogmo, Staudenmayer, Stevens, Weissleder and Whitman-23. Noes-Senators Albers, Arnold, Monk, Rollmann, Scott and Tomkins-6. Absent or not voting Senators Bichler, Kellogg, Martin, and Richards-4. And so the nomination was confirmed. To the Honorable, the Senate: Pursuant to the statute governing, I hereby nominate and, by and with the consent and advice of the senate, appoint John S. Owen, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to be a member of the state highway commission, for the term ending on the first Monday in February, 1921. Respectfully submitted, In accordance with the request of the senate, Henry S. Graves, chief forester of the United States, addressed the senate. ADDRESS OF HON. HENRY S. GRAVES, CHIEF FORESTER OF THE UNITED STATES, BEFORE THE SENATE, FEBRUARY 3, 1915. Gentlemen: The United States Government and the state of Wisconsin are co-operating in forest matters in a number of ways. I was visiting Madison in connection with one of these co-operative projects, to look over the work of our Forest Products laboratory, which is conducted here in co-operation with the University. Yesterday I received word that an invitation would be extended to me to address you this morning, briefly, on some questions relating to our national forest problem, which, in my judgment, can only be worked out by the combined activities of the government, the states, and other public activities and private individuals. It formerly was the policy of our government to dispose of its public lands to private ownership as fast as possible. It was also the policy of most of the states to dispose of their public lands to private ownership as fast as possible. The original idea of this policy was to get the agricultural lands into the hands of settlers, in order to settle up the country and encourage home-building. This was a very wise policy, and it contributed to the very rapid development of the West. Recently a new principle has been recognized in public land matters, and that is that there are certain classes of lands,-of non-agricultural lands, in regard to which this policy of disposal to private individuals does not work; that there are certain classes of lands over which the public, for its own protection, must exercise some measure of control. Certain forest lands, those nonagricultural in character, and particularly those so situated that they affect our water resources, come within this category. In many ways forestry is a public problem. In the first place, there are certain public interests in the right handling of forests which are not, and in fact in the very nature of the problem cannot be, fully safeguarded under private ownership. This is particularly so in the mountain regions, where the maintenance of the well managed forests at the headwaters of rivers is of very great importance to the maintenance of their flow, to prevent erosion, which in many places after the forests are cut off or destroyed fills up our river channels, our artificial canals, and in the irrigated country, irrigation ditches, reservoirs, etc. Private enterprise, or private ownership of forests I would rather say, will not safeguard that interest, because private individuals cannot be expected to make investments purely for public benefits. Again, the very problem of forestry is such that private investment in extensive timber lands not suited to agriculture and where agriculture will not follow, will not on its own initiative take care of the forest problem in the long run. The It takes from 40 years to 150 years, depending on the species of tree and condition of growth, to raise timber. Our fire risk is very great, and private ownership unaided is not likely to enter as a business proposition an enterprise of raising trees when it takes so long to raise a crop. fire problem is a very difficult one, and that is now being solved only where the public itself is participating in aiding private owners in protection and the state is contributing a considerable sum each year to work out a fire protective system. The United States government is contributing $5,000 a year to Wisconsin to help in the protection of the timber lands and forests at the headwaters of navigable streams, in order to accomplish a broad public purpose. Now, the government recognized this general principle as early as 1891; and Congress in that year authorized the President to set aside for public domain areas to be held permanently under public control as national forests, and that law has resulted in the establishment of 155 different national forest units aggregating altogether something over 165,000,000 acres. Now, the purpose of the handling of these public timber lands is in the first place to insure their protection from destruction by fire and otherwise, and to so handle them that their resources can be made available as there is demand for them, and in an orderly way, so that the timber can be utilized, and at the same time, replaced, and the various industries and interests dependent on the timber industry can be permanently maintained, and all other resources utilized. One of the greatest reasons, however, for setting aside these national forests is to protect the water resources. In the West, particularly in certain critical regions, the whole of agriculture depends on irrigation, and most of the waters used in irrigation in these regions arise in these national forests. Water is precious. It is a public enterprise to protect those water resources; but one of the biggest purposes, after all, is to insure the permanent upbuilding and permanent maintenance of industries. You have a contrast on the one side of a single cutting of timber-and I am speaking of non-agricultural lands now-a temporary industry followed after the resource is exhausted by the industry disappearing, the population moving out, and the land not producing; and on the other hand, a continuous production of timber and the utilization of all the various resources, and the maintenance of permanent industries, and the maintenance of permanent homes which are dependent upon those industries. Now, this plan of national forests is working successfully. It has been in operation for ten years. Timber is being sold. Last year we sold timber to the amount of something over one billion, four hundred million board feet. This represented contracts running from one to twelve years. The timber is cut in such a way that the danger from slashings is reduced, and in such a way that the forest is replaced by new growth. The grazing resource is utilized. We have in the national forests, under permit, over 9,000,000 head of stock, where previously the forest range was running down hill on account of over-grazing; the productive and carrying capacity was constantly being reduced. It is now going in the other direction-in sharp contrast. The carrying capacity is approximately 50 per cent of what it should be. In other words, this problem of grazing and the public regulation and control of the public range has a very important bearing on the question of the meat supply of the country. The mineral resources are being developed; prospecting is encouraged; and mines are being acquired within the national forests, just as outside. The agricultural resources are being developed, because we are classifying the lands and cutting out of the forests those bodies of lands which are agricultural in character, and opening them to settlement. We are going further, and locating settlers within the forest where small areas are found which are suitable for profitable farming. During the past year we have reduced this great area of public forest some two million acres by throwing out certain areas which were found not suitable to our purpose and more suitable to other purposes than forests. But the government work is not going to accomplish the whole forest problem of the country. The government owns about one-fifth of the standing timber of the United States; and we believe that the problem of the national forests is going to be worked out so as to solve the whole forest problem of the country. The individual states have also a responsibility in forestry; and the problem of forestry in the country is not going to be solved unless the states do a very considerable part of the work. I come back to my original proposition that in many ways forestry is a public problem, and unless the states do their share in working out the state functions of public forestry, the country's forestry problem will not be satisfactorily worked out. Now, in every state, or nearly every state, there are two general forest problems. One relates to the farm wood-lot. I suppose altogether there are some |