While the distribution and quantity of most of our important mineral substances are known in a general way, there is imperative need for further surveys and investigations and for researches concerning the less-known minerals.

Lands. The total land area of continental United States is 1,920,000,000 acres. Of this but little more than two-fifths is in farms, and less than one-half of the farm area is improved and made a source of crop production. "We have nearly 6,000.000 farms; they average 146 acres each. The value of the farms is nearly one-fourth the wealth of the United States. There are more than 300,000,000 acres of public grazing land. The number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits is more than 10,000,000. . . .

There has been a slight increase in the average yield of our great staple farm products, but neither the increase in acreage nor the yield per acre has kept pace with our increase in population. Within a century we shall probably have to feed three times as many people as now; and the main bulk of our food must be grown on our own soil.

The area of cultivated land may possibly be doubled. In addition to the land awaiting the plow, 75,000,000 acres of. swamp land can be reclaimed, 40,000,000 acres of desert land irrigated, and millions of acres of brush and wooded land cleared. Our population will increase continuously, but there is a definite limit to the increase of our cultivated acreage. Hence we must greatly increase the yield per acre. The average yield of wheat in the United States is less than 14 bushels per acre, in Germany 28 bushels, and in England 32 bushels. We get 30 bushels of oats per acre, England nearly 45, and Germany more than 47. Our soils are fertile, but our mode of farming neither conserves the soil nor secures full crop returns. Soil fertility need not be diminished, but may be increased. The large yields now obtained from farms in Europe which have been cultivated for a thousand years prove this conclusively. Proper management will double our average yield per acre. The United States can grow the farm products needed by a population more than three times as great as our country now contains.

The greatest unnecessary loss of our soil is preventable erosion. Second only to this is the waste, nonuse, and misuse of fertilizer derived from animals and men.

The losses to farm products due to injurious mammals is estimated at $130,000,000 annually; the loss through plant diseases reaches several hundred million dollars; and the loss through insects is reckoned at $659,000,000. The damage by birds is balanced by their beneficent work in destroying noxious insects. Losses due to the elements are large, but no estimate has been made of them. Losses to live stock from these causes are diminishing because of protection and feeding during winter. The annual losses from disease among domestic animals are: Horses, 1.8 per cent; cattle 2 per cent.; sheep, 2.2 per cent., and swine, 5.1 per cent. Most of these farm losses are preventable.

There is a tendency toward consolidation of farm lands. The estimated area of abandoned farms is 16,000 square miles, or about 3 per cent of the improved land. The causes of abandonment differ in different parts of the country. "Where most prevalent, it is caused principally by erosion and exhaustion of the soil.

The product of the fisheries of the United States has an annual value of $57,000,000. Fish culture is carried on by the nation and the States on an enormous scale. Most of the more important food species are propagated, and several species are maintained in that way. Fish from forest waters furnish $21,000,000 worth of food yearly, a supply dependent on the preservation of the forests.

Our wild game and fur-bearing animals have been largely exterminated. To prevent their complete extinction the States and the United States have taken in hand their protection, and their numbers are now increasing. Forest game yields over $10,000,000 worth of food each year.

With game birds the story is much the same - wanton destruction until the number has been greatly reduced, followed in recent years by wise protection, which in some cases allows the remnant to survive and even to increase.

Each citizen of the United States owns an equal undivided interest in about 387,000,000 acres of public lands, exclusive of Alaska and the insular possessions. Besides this there are about 235,000,000 acres of national forests, national parks, and other lands devoted to public use. . . .

Forests. Next to our need of food and water comes our need of timber.

Our industries which subsist wholly or mainly upon wood pay the wages of more than 1,500,000 men and women.

Forests not only grow timber, but they hold the soil and they conserve the streams. They abate the wind and give protection from excessive heat and cold. Woodlands make for the fiber, health, and happiness of the citizen and the nation.

Our forests now cover 550,000,000 acres, or about one-fourth of the United States. The original forests covered not less than 850,000,000 acres.

Forests publicly owned contain one-fifth of all our standing timber. Forests privately owned contain four-fifths of the standing timber. The timber privately owned is not only four times that publicly owned, but is generally more valuable.

Forestry is now practised on 70 per cent of the forests publicly owned and on less than 1 per cent of the forests privately owned, or on only 18 per cent of the total area of forests.

The yearly growth of wood in our forests does not average more than 12 cubic feet per acre. This gives a total yearly growth of less than 7,000,000,000 cubic feet.

"We have 200,000,000 acres of mature forests, in which yearly growth is balanced by decay; 250,000,000 acres partly cut over or burned over, but restocking naturally with enough young growth to produce a merchantable crop, and 100,000,000 acres cut over and burned over, upon which young growth is lacking or too scanty to make merchantable timber.

We take from our forests yearly, including waste in logging, and in manufacturing, 23,000,000,000 cubic feet of wood. . . .

Since 1870 forest fires have destroyed a yearly average of fifty lives and $50,000,000 worth of timber. Not less than 50,-000,000 acres of forest is burned over yearly. The young growth destroyed by fire is worth far more than the merchantable timber burned.

One-fourth of the standing timber is lost in logging. The boxing of long-leaf pine for turpentine has destroyed one-fifth of the forests worked. The loss in the mill is from one-third to two-thirds of the timber sawed. The loss of mill product in seasoning and fitting for use is from one-seventh to one-fourth.

Of each 1,000 feet which stood in the forest, an average of only 320 feet of lumber is used.

We take from our forests each year, not counting the loss by fire, three and a half times their yearly growth. We take 40 cubic feet per acre for each 12 cubic feet grown; we take