Proclamation 3874—National Forest Products Week, 1968

After nearly two centuries of our Nation's growth and development, forests still cover one-third of the American earth.

This enormous natural resource contributes significantly to the economic well-being of our Nation, and to other, equally important benefits in the form of water conservation, forage, recreation, and natural beauty.

So that these benefits may be available in increasing quantities and greater quality, all of us should contribute wherever and whenever we can to the renewal and wise use of our forests.

The Congress, in order to re-emphasize the importance and heritage of our forest resources, has by a joint resolution of September 13, 1960 (74 Stat. 898), designated the seven-day period beginning on the third Sunday of October in each year as National Forest Products Week, and has requested the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for the observance of that week.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon the people of the United States to observe the week beginning October 20, 1968, as National Forest Products Week, with activities and ceremonies designed to direct public attention to the essential role that our forest resource plays in stimulating the advancement of our rural economy and the continued growth and prosperity of the entire Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-third.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON