10 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



January 



gress in ten equal, annual install- 

 ments. To raise this fund, a bond is- 

 sue is suggested. Even at such a 

 price, the work if wisely, promptly and 

 honestly done would, from a National 

 standpoint, be cheap. An examination, 

 however, of the President's message 

 will disclose other sources of revenue, 

 notably taxes on incomes and inheri- 

 tances. A policy so vast and benefi- 

 cent, so long considered, and designed 

 for a Nation so great, powerful and 

 wealthy as the United States, should 

 not halt for lack of means. The 

 names of its promoters should live in 

 our National history as the names of 

 builders of the Republic. 



Forests -^'^^ ^^^ ^^'^^ ^^^ awak- 



Fundamental ing to the gravity of the 

 forest situation appre- 

 ciate the fundamental character of the 

 forest in our National economy. That 

 it has to do with wood and all wood 

 materials and products is evident. 

 With forest destruction, it is clear that 

 the lumber business must go, that the 

 building industry must suffer and 

 rents rise. The dependence of rail- 

 roads upon wood, notably for ties and 

 structural timbers, means that wood 

 failure must raise the cost of trans- 

 portation. 



R e a d e r s of Forestry 

 Irrigation and Irrigation also ap- 

 preciate some of the 

 causal relations between wood and 

 water. They are aware, for example, 

 that deforestation is a prolific source 

 of floods. They should note, in addi- 

 tion, the connection between forests 

 and irrigation. That the great West- 

 ern desert may be converted into a 

 fruitful field, it is but necessary that 

 water be turned upon the sand. With- 

 in six years. Government irrigation 

 has reclaimed a quarter of a million 

 acres, now sustaining twenty thou- 

 sand people. Director Newell esti- 

 mates that, in another decade, two 

 million more acres may be reclaimed, 

 upon which a quarter of a million more 

 human beings may maintain them- 

 selves. The water, however, for this 



work comes from mountain streams, 

 absolutely dependent upon mountain 

 forests. 



Again, the great drain- 

 Drainage age question is involved. 



Vast areas of swamp 

 land, notably on the lower Mississippi 

 and the southeastern Atlantic Coast, 

 still exist, constituting a negative, 

 rather than a positive economic factor 

 — a source of evil rather than of good. 

 President George E. Barstow, of the 

 National Drainage Association, esti- 

 mates that our swamp lands, if drain- 

 ed, would aft'ord homes of eighty 

 acres each to one million families or 

 five million people. The value of 

 eighty million acres of land thus re- 

 claimed, estimated at only $50 per 

 acre, would equal $4,000,000,000. The 

 annual earning power of this land, es- 

 timated at $25 per acre, is $2,000,- 

 000.000. 



But. in many cases, to attempt mere- 

 ly to drain the swamps is to begin at 

 the wrong end of the problem. It is to 

 repeat the futile method of clearing 

 river channels by simply removing 

 silt and soil without preventing its re- 

 entrance. Swamps are frequently the 

 result of river overflows. To get rid 

 of them, we must first stop the over- 

 flows. To this end we must store the 

 floods : and, hence, must maintain for- 

 ests on the slopes. 



Inland 

 Water 



As noted, our greatest 

 resource is our inland 

 water. Mr. M. O. 

 Leighton, Chief Hydrographer of the 

 United States Geological Survey, puts 

 the value of the water flowing down 

 our Western mountains far beyond 

 the fabulous wealth represented by 

 the metals and minerals lying between 

 the Rockies and the Pacific. Most of 

 this resource is now wasted. Water 

 running idly over Government dams 

 might be made to yield, he estimates, 

 $32,000,000 per year which, capital- 

 ized at 3 per cent, represents an in- 

 vestment of $1,066,000,000. 



Again, our annual flood damage he 



