3i4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be excessive, nor its supply inadequate to meet the home demand. The 

 establishment of lumbering as a sound and stable industry will be 

 attained only when it reaps, as well as harvests, the crop upon which its 

 existence depends. 



Of the indirect returns from conservative forest management, the 

 most valuable is its influence upon the flow of streams. The arid 

 lands comprise two fifths of the area of the United States, and cover 

 nearly all the western half of the continent. Their character varies 

 with the amount of rainfall, ranging from true desert conditions to 

 those capable of supporting a nomadic kind of grazing and a form of 

 farming so low in its production that it promises little in inviting settle- 

 ment. In his timely and forcible volume, 'Irrigation in the United 

 States,' Mr. Newell states that the utilization of the vacant public lands 

 can come about only through irrigation, or the artificial application 

 of water to the soil, to supplement the scanty rainfall or to supply its 

 absence. The area within the arid region which is irrigable is esti- 

 mated at not less than 60,000,000 acres. The streams which may be 

 diverted for purposes of irrigation rise in the forests, whose conserva- 

 tion is necessary to the maintenance of an abundant and sustained 

 supply of water. 



The passage of the Irrigation Bill, on March 1, 1902, paves the 

 way for the adequate reclamation of the public lands. It sets aside 

 receipts aggregating about $5,000,000 per year, received from the sale 

 of lands within the arid region, and provides that they shall be applied 

 to the construction of works for water conservation. The success of 

 this great undertaking may be assured only through the preservation 

 of the forests which feed the streams available for purposes of irriga- 

 tion. The careful protection of these forests can be accomplished only 

 by the federal government, through their management as national 

 forest reserves. The exclusion from settlement of forest lands com- 

 prising the catchment basin of streams important for irrigation began 

 under President Harrison, and has resulted in the creation of fifty 

 reserves, with a total area of 53,107,685 acres, or 82,981 square miles. 

 These are administered with a view to timber production only in so 

 far as their more valuable function of water conservation is not 

 affected. Their management is still hampered by its distribution 

 among three branches of the government, and by difficulty in the rapid 

 building up of a force of thoroughly trained and effective executive 

 officers. There has, however, been progress in the prevention of timber 

 theft and of fire, and the development of the fullest usefulness of the 

 forest reserves is beset by no insurmountable difficulties. Their ex- 

 tension to include all large bodies of mountainous forest within or 

 tributary to the arid region is essential to the fullest development of 



