Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1878.djvu/17

Rh by the Commissioner of the General Land Office in the following language:

I fully concur with the Commissioner of the General Land Office in his opinion thus expressed.

The traditions of a time are still alive when the area covered with virgin forest in this country was so great that the settler might consider the trees on the land he occupied as a mere difficulty to be overcome and to be swept out of his way. But circumstances have very materially changed. We are now rapidly approaching the day when the forests of this country will no longer be sufficient to supply our home wants, and it is the highest time that the old notion that the timber on the public lands belongs to anybody and everybody, to be cut down and taken off at pleasure, should give way. A provident policy, having our future wants in view, cannot be adopted too soon. Every year lost inflicts upon the economical interests of this country an injury, which in every part of the country will be seriously felt, but in the mountainous regions threatens to become especially disastrous and absolutely irreparable. We ought to learn something from the calamitous experiences of other parts of the world. If the necessity of such a provident policy be not recognized while it is time, the neglect of it will be painfully appreciated when it is too late. I am so deeply impressed with the importance of this subject, that as long as I remain entrusted with my present duties I shall never cease to urge it upon the attention of Congress.