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but that is the only thing that is lame about him. He is as determined in spirit, and as earnest in his efforts for the good of his own people and for the good of the whole Nation as though he was sound in every bone in his body.

Illinois, the sister state to Missouri, is not a novice in the conservation movement. She began it a long time ago. She has had her conservation work going on for many years, and she has learned that in union there is strength. In Illinois we have had for a number of years, the Internal Improvement commission, which joined hands with the State Geological Survey, with the United States Government Survey, with the water survey, with the fish commission, and hand in hand they have worked for the development of the state and the conservation of our resources. Something has been said about the failure of the land in the East. It was my good fortune to be a delegate to the first Conservation Congress in the White House. The president of our Illinois University, in the course of his remarks said, that so much was said about the misfortunes, of the impoverishment of the land of New England, of the lands of New York, of the lands of Virginia and other eastern states, but. he said, "My friends. I do not so regard it. The impoverishment of these lands has sent the sons of those states to build up the West. They have carried with them their energy, their brains, their character, and they are making the great West what it is today." I repeated that to a distinguished educator in agricultural lines who is now in this audience, and what do you think his remark was? He said. "Did he also go on to say that wherever the English-speaking people had set foot they had robbed the soil, and given it nothing back?" Now, our universities are teaching our English-speaking people, and our people of all languages, how to give back to the soil that which has been taken from it. Our University of Illinois, with its experiment stations, its work on behalf of agriculture, has so educated its people that each year the results of that education is to give back to the state more than all the money that Ilinois has ever put into this great institution. It has been said of a great eastern college that it is a kindergarten for hell. Not so of our great institutions. That is a kindergarten from which we are educating men to upbuild our state, to make it agriculturally and in every other way, what that great state should be. We have in Illinois a number of things to be conserved. We have our coal resources. These problems have been taken up by the Geological Survey, and are being handled in a way which will result in great good for the state. We have no arid lands in Illinois. but we bave flooded lands, overflowed lands. We have hundreds of thousands of acres which we are now starting in to reclaim. It is the business of a commission which was appointed by the State of Illinois to study its streams, to look out for the interests of the state, to recover from all unlawful owners, unlawful seizure of lands which rightfully belonged to the state. It is the business of that commission to conserve the water power of the state. There is a great asset for which our Governor is making an excellent fight. The question is, shall Illinois own the water power of the Illinois river, and conserve it for all use, or shall private capital own that, and all the people use it by paying for it? It has been said that we have been defeated in this thing. Why, gentlemen, as a great leader-I believe he was a commander of a vessel-when called upon to surrender said, "We have just begun to fight." We are going to conserve that water power for the people of the state and we are going to give the state and the Nation a water way. This is a congress to consider the conservation of the land, the soil development of the land, but, gentlemen, you must bear in mind that this country is growing by leaps and bounds, and that the railroads of our country cannot keep pace with the transportation demands. We must look to the future. It is said that our water ways are of no use today. Ah, but they will be of use. The time is coming when these water ways, when every water way that can float a boat will be required to take the produce of our farms to market. The time is not long past when our railroads were so glutted with produce that the farmers were losing their hard earnings because they could not put their grain into market. This occurred at a time when the population of the states which may be considered tributary to the Mississippi river were only 31.4 per square mile. The same census gave Great Britain a population of 312.5 to the square mile, and these states are so rich in soil that they will support a population equal to that of any other area on the face of the earth, and that population is coming-you cannot begin to get ready for it too soon. In 1913 at the present rate of progress the Panama Canal will be opened to the nations of the earth for business. Will the Mississippi valley be able and ready to float its produce down to avail that great opening, or must it go on forever shipping its produce by rail to some Pacific or Atlantic port, to be there loaded into the vessels, and go through this canal in vessels that ought to be loaded at your own doors, in your own city? I make this appeal for the water ways, and I make it brief, because my time is up, and I thank you for your attention. (Applause.)

REPORT FOR INDIANA.

BY HARRY EVEREST BARNARD.

I represent the Indiana branch of the National conservation association. The state which is the center of population, the center of industrial activity, the center of literary activity. We believe that Indiana is the state most progressive in the way of constructive, conservative legislation of any of the states of our great country. During the last few years our legislature has been doing active constructive work. We have this last year placed upon our statute books the first cold storage bill passed in the United States which is really constructive legislation. We believe, in Indiana, that conservation means utilization, economic utilization, and that the manufacturers who know how to make a better brick out of Indiana clay; the health officer who shows us how to conserve and improve the health of our school children, or teaches us how to build a better school house; the man who can produce a new product out of Indiana oil, is a true conservationist. The state boards of health of Indiana have been devoting most of their time in the last few years to a study of stream pollution. We have been studying the pollution of the southern end of Lake Michigan, by the industrial activities at the northern end of our state. We have shown the citizens in that northern part of Indiana how they are pouring their sewage into Lake Michigan through one pipe and drawing water from Lake Michigan through another. At the present time we are studying the pollution of the Ohio river by the sewage of the cities of Indiana, and we have now demonstrated by a survey which is still in operation, but which has covered over 300 miles of the Ohio river, that wonderful stream of water is nothing but a stream of sewage its entire length, wholly unfit for drinking purposes. Indiana is regulating the propagation of the unfit, by effective legislation. Indiana is taking a stand in the front of all health organization work. It has this last year introduced compulsory medical inspection of school children.

Within

the last two years Indiana, although not at the present time a forest state, has become aroused to the necessity of work along the lines of intelligent forest conservation, not only because we need the lumber, and the timber and wood, but because we need to preserve the life of our streams. Indiana has found that within the last twenty years the ground water level throughout the state has been lowered some twenty feet, and is now realizing that without proper forest conservation it cannot expect to find sufficient water for its needs in the not distant future. (Applause.)

REPORT FOR IOWA.

BY THOMAS H. MACBRIDE.

I shall say nothing about the resources of Iowa. This is an intelligent audience (applause) and I take it there is not a man or woman in any state in the United States who does not know all about the fact that Iowa is the most magnificent garden on the face of the earth. I shall, therefore, say nothing about Iowa. I do say, however, that my notion of this whole conservation movement is simply the devotion to an idea. And that idea is the right use of this world. Our problem, therefore, is the right use of the state of Iowa. Now, then, we have magnificent soil; we have streams that run riot in spring and winter and are so dry in summer that all the large catfish have to move away. We have lakes, the most beautiful perhaps of all the lakes, the small lakes, on the northern plains. We have some forests, and Nature put the forests in the right place; she put it to protect the streams. Four years ago the legislature of Iowa made provision for a commission which should report upon the proper conservation of our soils, our lakes, our streams and our woods. That commission did make a report. That report is available for the members of this Congress; it can be had. That report was presented to our last legislature, our latest legislature was called to the momentous task of choosing a senator for the senate of the United States, and in devotion to

that tremendous problem the report of the commission was entirely overlooked.

That report was a good one; I say so because I was a member of that commission, and I therefore make this apology for the legislature of my state, in view of the fact that I think the legislature overlooked the most magnificent piece of work. But in all seriousness, Iowa is at work. The people of Iowa are alive to these problems. We have there many agencies that are at work. Our whole subject is before our state colleges of agriculture, than which it is admitted there are none better. There are many men in all parts of the state who are devoted to this idea, and one of them has been so prominent that he stands above us all today as the president of this Congress (applause). It is therefore less necessary that I should say anything about Iowa. Mr. President, do you believe that hundreds of men and women would leave their homes at their own cost, and at the cost and sacrifice of their own business, for anything less than an idea? And, Mr. President, the time has come when that idea shall win. It must win, if we are going to use this world rightly, because no problem is solved until it is solved rightly. Then, when that time comes, you will see in Iowa, and in all these border states, not only the freest people on the face of the earth, but the happiest. (Applause.)

REPORT FROM KANSAS.

BY DEAN H. J. WATERS

Of the State Agricultural College.

I understand that this is a report of progress in the great movement of conservation. I regret that Kansas, unlike Iowa, has no beautiful lakes. They have all long since gone dry, as has Kansas in other particulars, and where these lakes once were are now growing crops, great and bountiful crops of alfalfa, and in the places where Kansas went dry in other particulars there is now growing a great crop of temperate and stalwart men and women. (Applause.) It was said by your distinguished chairman this morning that Kansas was the experiment station of this Nation, and she pleads guilty to the charge, and is proud of it. They have the courage to try any experiment in government, in business, in farming that promises to be successful, and that promises real progress.

You ask what Kansas is doing to conserve its resources? She is conserving her resources of men and women by having less intemperance than any other state in the union; by having less illiteracy than any other state in the union; by having empty jails and almshouses, and having full school houses with seven months of school in every district in Kansas each year; with a teacher. the minimum salary of which is $50 a month. (Applause.) And, with a larger proportion of our sons and daughters in colleges, in proportion to our population, than any other state in the Union. (Applause.) Bnt, speaking more specifically concerning the questions immediately before this Congress, what is Kansas doing towards the conservation of her so-called material resources? Our last legislature made provision for a state commission of conservation, and I regret exceedingly that the chairman of that committee happened to be absent at this particular moment. so that I might have been spared the embarrassment of speaking for the state on this occasion. That commission is actively at work, and is considering the matter of soil fertility, of the education of the people in the country and in the city, and considering all matters that would naturally be considered in connection with this subject.

And then, what has the agricultural college been doing along this line, and these agricultural colleges have been the pioneers in this field of conservation? Last year the Kansas state agricultural college spoke to 150,000 people in Kansas concerning the question of conservation. and at every farmers' institute held in that state for the last six years the question of soil fertility has been discussed, and has been the topic of discussion at meetings, and the details of soil fertility has come to be a household word.

There are today in the state of Kansas 340 farmers' institutes or farmers' clubs, that meet once every month, with a membership of 14,000 heads of families, the membership representing sixty or seventy thousand persons. They discuss once a month the details of prosperous, progressive and successful farming, including soil fertility. In the great corn belt. on an average fully 25 per cent

of our great corn crop-and the greatest crop we produce-is wasted for the want of a silo in which to preserve it. In Kansas four years ago there were 62 silos. The agricultural college has made a special campaign through its extension department along this line, and today there are 2,000 silos in Kansas, and all of them full. That is the only thing I know of in Kansas that is full. Within the last six years the area of alfalfa has been doubled; and this is in the line of conservation, for here is a crop that enriches the father but does not impoverish the son, and that is but a part of what Kansas is doing. I say these things not boastfully, for Kansas is not doing a quarter of what she ought to do in these lines, and not a quarter of what she will do in the very near future through the stimulus of great Congresses like this. (Applause.)

REPORT FOR LOUISIANA.

BY FRED L. GRACE.

Just a few words about conservation from our state. Louisiana. Our very emblems are symbolic of conservation. Our state emblem is a pelican, the only bird of flight that will pull the flesh from its own breast to feed it to its young. Our state flower is the magnolia, whose stately trees by the same name grow all over our state, and whose wood is very valuable for furniture.

At the last session of the general assembly of Louisiana, under the progressive administration of Governor J. Y. Sanders, there were enacted and made into laws twenty-nine measures relating to conservation of our natural resources and the preservation of the gifts so bountifully provided us by an all-wise Providence. Louisiana leads in the production of lumber, as well as sulphur, and salt, much mineral oil and gas. In fact, Louisiana leads in having the greatest store of natural

resources.

She has in pine lands, as near as I have been able to figure, about 4,269.928 acres. In hardwoods, such as oak, gum, willow, persimmon, hickory, magnolia, beech, elm, sycamore and poplar, 3,338,486 acres.

In cypress approximately 900,000 acres.

We have, in Louisiana, two mills which alone cut daily nearly one and threequarter million feet of lumber. Of these the mill of the great Southern lumber company of Bogalusa, La., and Fullerton, La., is the largest in the world.

This company is putting in an alcohol plant so that utilization can be made of waste products and they be manufactured into alcohol. The number of employees at this plant and their logging operatio e about 1,600 to 1,800. Their motto is, "Utilization as well as Conservation." They now make charcoal of the limbs, and paper and alcohol of the refuse wood and sawdust. In a short time they will begin to work the stumps, and in connection with this I will add that there is more turpentine in a stump than in any part of the tree. Utilization of the stumps will clear the lands for farming purposes and these soon will blocm with growing crops.

Louisiana has many bayous and creeks and all of these are lined with mills and lumber companies which are steadily cutting on the vast supply at hand. Our forests are teeming with woods of all kinds and Louisiana has more kinds of woods than any state in the Union.

The long leaf pine of Louisiana obtains preeminence over those of other states for its superior qualities of strength and elasticity, combined with comparatively light weight and ease of working, making it adaptable to many classes of work.

Our cypress, which grows principally in the southern part of the state and also to some extent in the lower and swampy portions of the middle and northern portions, is of extremely slow growth, but is the most lasting of all our woods, and under water is practically indestructible. We ship more cross-ties of oak and cypress than any other state, a great many of these being creosoted and exported to foreign countries where they are in great demand.

Another tree that is springing into prominence is the pecan. East Baton Rouge has a pecan orchard of 700 acres and the Parish of Iberville has a number of varieties of several hundred acres each. In some of the parishes bordering on Bayou Teche, inhabitants are going into the culture of this tree on a large scale.

The profits in this business are large, each tree producing, when having attained a growth, one or more barrels of the pecans of which the average price is from 15 to 25 cents per pound.

We are now drafting laws for the protection of timber from devastation by fire and from indiscriminate logging.

Over in the southwestern part of Louisiana is located the plant of the Union Sulphur Company, engaged in the mining of sulphur by a novel process.

The product is mined by being melted by superheated steam pumped down through the deposits and it is then pumped up in a molten state and allowed to cool and solidify in vats where it is broken up and shipped to market.

This mine is one of the largest in the world, if not the largest, and its output is close to one thousand tons per day. This, I think, shoves Sicily hard for first place in the production of this mineral.

Borings made by the company to ascertain the amount of sulphur in that vicinity show fully 40,000,000 tons underlying their holdings.

The discovery of the famous Beaumont oil field in 1901 was the signal for oil exploration, both in Texas and Louisiana.

Since that time Louisiana has proven to have within her borders oil deposits second only to the famous Pennsylvania fields. And the deposits of the Caddo field are generally conceded to be the greatest single field in the world.

The depths at which oil is found varies from 500 to 2,200 feet in the different fields.

The Welsh and Jennings fields have produced oil at from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. And while these fields in their beginning produced gushers, they are now all pumpers and are producing in the neighborhood of 10,000 barrels per day.

Along with oil in the Caddo field have also been found large supplies of natural gas and this is now being utilized in many ways and will continue to be, as the supply is seemingly inexhaustible.

A great waste of these valuable mineral deposits was made before pipe lines were built and receptacles constructed. Now the matter is being taken in hand and soon, under the conservation measures adopted at the last general assembly, control of the situation will be complete. There is still some work along this line to accomplish, and at the next session of the General Assembly these will be written in our statutes.

The conservation of game and fish, as well as the other natural resources, is most momentous to the people of our state. Louisiana has adopted good and sound measures for the protection of her game and fish and has created a commissin with a system of wardens and provides that hunters shall contribute to the support of the commission for protection by the payment of a nominal license for the privilege of hunting.

Of course, changes will have to be made, but the ground work has been done. Louisiana has in her many streams and water courses, as well as in her bays and lakes, a vast supply of fish and shrimp. The shrimp and salt water fisheries furnish employment to a great number of persons. These are dependent on the supply of this valuable resource and are directly interested in the protection of it. The oyster industry during the past year has enjoyed a healthy and expansive growth, and while the general business depression has affected the canner, still a great many acres of water bottoms were leased for oyster culture and other improvements were made.

There are now under lease and cultivation over 14,391.24 acres of water bottoms at $1.00 per acre per annum, and yielding on an average of two hundred barrels of oysters per acre.

There are more than 2,700 boats engaged in the oyster industry and 2,400,000 bags were caught last season with a market value of something over $2,000,000.

The shores of Louisiana are largely indented with lakes, bayous and bays, where the tides ebb and flow daily, mixing the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico with the fresh waters of the Mississippi river and the bayous and small rivers leading therefrom. The area of this water surface, susceptible to oyster culture, is calculated to be 4.720,502 acres.

There are now under cultivation slightly over 15,000 acres, producing about 200 barrels of oysters per acre each year, and something like 62,740 acres, esimated, of natural reefs where oysters grow wild and unaided.

Deducting the leased bottoms and the natural oyster reefs from the total area mentioned would leave about 4,660,000 acres of barren bottoms at present unproductive, but which, with the expenditure of labor and a small amount of money, could be made to yield enormous revenues and be a great source of food supply. The oyster industry of Louisiana offers to the people of this country one of the greatest fields of exploitation and development.

Salt has been known to exist in Louisiana for many years, and has been mined

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