THE UNITED STATES FOREST RESERVES. 465 



of a few rich mines that can afford to pay high prices. Scarcity of 

 timber all over the West is not a remote contingency if the present 

 waste and destruction are permitted to continue; it is already in 

 sight. Indeed, it will not be long before the magnificent forests 

 of the Pacific coast will be so greatly injured by fire and wasteful 

 cutting that the mining communities will have to draw their best 

 timber from Canada and Alaska. 



• The opponents of the forest reserves have frequently stated that 

 the reservation policy would cripple the mining industry. It is be- 

 lieved, however, that there would be much more truth in the state- 

 ment that the destruction of the forests would seriously injure and 

 in many instances ruin the mining industry. This industry demands 

 a permanent source of supply of timber, and it hardly needs to be 

 said that, without some such policy as that of forest reservation, no 

 such source of supply can be maintained. If mining men can be 

 brought to understand that their industry will be protected by the 

 proper administration of the reserves, the future of both the mining 

 and the lumber interests of the West will be provided for. 



Irrigation Interests. — A great industry like that of agriculture 

 demands that in all regions where irrigation is carried on the source of 

 the water supply be protected.* The future existence of the farms, 

 and to a large extent of the States themselves, depends upon the con- 

 servation of the water supply. The forest areas are largely the reser- 

 voirs in which the waters are controlled and given out to the adjacent 

 irrigable districts. The experience of Europe and eastern Asia has 

 shown that if the mountains are stripped of their forests, populous 

 districts will become flood-swept deserts of rock and sand. 



To illustrate the views of the leaders of the great irrigation de- 

 velopment that is taking place in the arid and semiarid regions of 

 the West, I will quote the resolution passed by the Irrigation Con- 

 gress held in Lincoln, Nebraska, September 27 to 30, 1897: 



" Whereas, The perpetuation of the forests of the arid region is 

 essential to the maintenance of the water supply for irrigation, as well 

 as the supply of timber; therefore 



" Resolved, That the President of the United States be memorial- 

 ized, as soon as adequate provision be made for the protection of the 

 forests and the regulation of the cutting of timber therefrom, to 

 withdraw from entry or sale, under the act of Congress of March 3, 

 1891, all lands now in its [the Government's] possession which are 

 of more value for their timber than for agriculture or for minerals." 



Reforesting and Pasturage. — There is little doubt that the 

 present forests in the arid and semiarid regions are but the remnants 

 of large forested areas that were developed during a period of greater 

 rainfall than exists at present. Such being the case, although it is pos- 



