Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/476

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In the letter recommending the establishment of the reserves, the Forestry Commission stated that it fully recognized the fact that the forest reserves previously established and now proposed can not be maintained unless a plan is adopted under which their boundaries shall be so modified as to take from them all land better suited for agriculture than for the production of forests, and under which their timber can be made available for domestic, mining, and commercial purposes, and valuable minerals can be freely sought and mined within their boundaries. The commission also stated that it believed that the solution of this difficult problem would be made easier if the reserve areas were increased, as the greater the number of people interested in drawing supplies from the reserved territories, or in mining in them, the greater would be the demand on Congress for the enactment of laws securing their proper administration. "For this reason," said the commission, "it is the unanimous opinion of the commission that the establishment by proclamation of the reserves described above is now a matter of the