sts from fire. The cooeperation of the Federal Government,
under a provision of the Weeks Law which appropriates small sums
of money for forest protection, provided the state will
appropriate an equal or greater amount, has done much to
encourage the establishment of systems of forest protection in
many of the states.

[Illustration: SOWING FOREST SEED IN AN EFFORT TO GROW A NEW
FOREST]

The enormous areas of denuded, or waste land in the various
states, comprising more than 80,000,000 acres, which can be made
again productive only by forest planting, present another big
problem in state forestry. Many of the states have established
state forestry nurseries for the growing of tree seedlings to
plant up these lands. The trees are either given away, or sold at
cost, millions being distributed each year, indicating a live
interest and growing sentiment in re-foresting waste lands.

The appalling waste of timber resources through excessive and
reckless cutting, amounting to forest devastation, is deplorable,
but we are helpless to prevent it. Since the bulk of woodlands
are privately owned, and there are no effective laws limiting the
cutting of timber with a view to conserving the supply, the only
means of bringing about regulated cutting on private lands is
through cooeperation with the owners. This is being done in some
of the states in a limited way, through educational methods,
involving investigations, reports, demonstrations, and other
means of bringing improved forestry practices to the attention of
existing owners and enlisting their cooeperation and support in
forest conservation.

Forestry in the state, or in the nation, seems to progress no
more rapidly than the timber disappears; in fact, the individual
states do not take precaution to conserve their timber supplies
until exhaustion is threatened. The damage has been largely done
before the remedy is considered. We are today paying a tremendous
toll for our lack of foresight in these matters. As a timber
producing state becomes a timber importing state, (a condition
existing in most of the eastern and middle states) we begin to
pay a heavy toll in the loss of home industries dependent upon
wood, and also in heavy freight charges on lumber that we must
import from distant points to supply our needs. In many states,
the expenditure of an amount for reforestation and fire
protection equal to this freight bill on imported lumber would
make the state self-su