with impunity, and we shall
expose ourselves to the gravest consequences unless the wasteful
and improvident manner in which the forests in the United States
are destroyed be effectually checked. I earnestly recommend that
the measures suggested by the Secretary of the Interior for the
suppression of depredations on the public timber lands of the United
States, for the selling of timber from the public lands, and for the
preservation of forests be embodied in a law, and that, considering
the urgent necessity of enabling the people of certain States and
Territories to purchase timber from the public lands in a legal
manner, which at present they can not do, such a law be passed without
unavoidable delay. I would also call the attention of Congress to
the statements made by the Secretary of the Interior concerning the
disposition that might be made of the desert lands, not irrigable,
west of the one hundredth meridian. These lands are practically
unsalable under existing laws, and the suggestion is worthy of
consideration that a system of leasehold tenure would make them
a source of profit to the United States, while at the same time
legalizing the business of cattle raising which is at present carried
on upon them.

The report of the Commissioner of Agriculture contains the gratifying
announcement of the extraordinary success which has rewarded the
agricultural industry of the country for the past year. With the fair
prices which obtain for the products of the soil, especially for the
surplus which our people have to export, we may confidently turn to
this as the most important of all our resources for the revival of the
depressed industries of the country. The report shows our agricultural
progress during the year, and contains a statement of the work done
by this Department for the advancement of agricultural industry, upon
which the prosperity of our people so largely depends. Matters of
information are included of great interest to all who seek, by the
experience of others, to improve their own methods of cultivation.
The efforts of the Department to increase the production of important
articles of consumption will, it is hoped, improve the demand for
labor and advance the business of the country, and eventually result
in saving some of the many millions that are now annually paid to
foreign nations for sugar and other staple products which habitual use
has made necessary in our domestic everyday life.

The board