NEW AND NOTES 



Lecture by Governor Bass 



Governor Robert P. Bass, of New Hamp- 

 shire, the President of the American Forestry 

 Association, gave a lecture on "The Conser- 

 vation of Our National Resources" at Clin- 

 ton, Mass., on November 3. The Clinton 

 Courant says: "The subject as dealt \vith by 

 Governor Bass was very interesting in an in- 

 structive way. In his opening remarks he 

 stated that the subject was large enough for 

 a whole series of lectures and only a few of 

 the more important points could be touched 

 upon in an evening. The speaker said if he 

 was to talk politics he could no doubt make 

 the subject more interesting, but he was not 

 present for that purpose. 



"He said that no public question of to- 

 day is more fundamental than that of con- 

 servation. In 1908 the first governor's con- 

 ference was held at Washington and as a re- 

 sult, a national conservation committee was 

 chosen to have charge of the work. He then 

 defined the meaning of conservation, which 

 he said is an endeavor to preserve for future 

 generations natural resources that are being 

 rapidly used. Conservation is practiced by 

 the federal state governments as well as by 

 the people in general. Governor Bass divided 

 the subject into four parts as of the most im- 

 portance, these being: Forest, water-power, 

 agriculture and minerals. In the latter are 

 included the coal, gas and phosphates which 

 are found in the West and South. He said 

 the government must retain the title to those 

 lands where the minerals abound in order to 

 protect itself. He explained that these lands 

 are leased to parties with a restriction on the 

 amount which can be mined. There is also 

 a provision in the lease which compels the 

 lessee to operate the land for a certain 

 length of time. 



"Governor Bass touched on the Cunning- 

 ham claims in Alaska, which were won by 

 the government. In these claims are the two 

 greatest coal fields in Alaska, and last spring 

 a portion of them was claimed by a man in 

 that section. The matter was investigated by 

 the Secretary of the Interior and it was 

 found that the claim was all right. _ Conser- 

 vation is endorsed by the great monied inter- 

 est": all over the country. 



"In regard to agriculture the speaker said 

 that our method of carrying on the work is 

 very extravagant, and he told of the differ- 

 ence in the amount of the crops raised in 

 this country and those produced in Germany 



760 



and England. The loss to crops because of 

 insect pests in a year is $659,000,000 Special 

 trains are sent about the country explaining 

 the better ways of raising crops. This de- 

 partment is doing as much as any other de- 

 partment in the national government in the 

 way of decreasing the high cost of living, he 

 said. In regard to irrigation he said that 

 congress appropriates a large sum of money 

 each year for this work. In 1909, thirteen 

 of the states in the union had systems of ir- 

 rigation. These lands which are nothing 

 more than deserts, are taken up by the gov- 

 ernment and irrigated and they are then sold 

 and the money which is derived, is used in 

 irrigating more land. These lands after they 

 are once irrigated, produce some of the best 

 crops in the country. 



"Forestry was another subject which 

 Governor Bass spoke on. He said that of 

 the 550,000,000 acres of forests in the coun- 

 try, about 150,000,000 are in national reserva- 

 tions. The decrease in the forests each year 

 is three times the increase, not counting the 

 loss from fire. The forests produce twelve 

 cubic feet of timber per acre each year, while 

 the consumption is about forty cubic feet. In 

 France the growth in timber land is the best 

 in the world and the production there is 

 fifty-three cubic feet per acre each year. The 

 average yield from the forests per acre in 

 Saxony is from $4 to $40, while in this country 

 the yield is about Vi oi 1 mill per acre. In 

 Germany $3 is spent on each acre of land, 

 while $1 is spent here. He told of the im- 

 portance of the rivers for water-power, and 

 he said more and more each year the value 

 of the water for power is being shown. He 

 told of the Weeks bill which had been passed, 

 with an appropriation of $2,000,000 annually 

 for irrigation." 



Excellent Fire Control 



W. I. Pack, supervisor of the Uinta for- 

 est, with headquarters at Provo, reports an- 

 other fire season closed with a clean record 

 for the patrol force, not a single fire having 

 gotten beyond control this year, says the Salt 

 Lake Herald Republican. Before this forest 

 was proclaimed by President Roosevelt, fires 

 in that region were frequent, often burning 

 for weeks uncontrolled. 



The rapid work and constant vigilance to 

 make this record is shown by the fires dis- 

 covered and put out during the past summer. 



In the early part of August in the after- 



