262 



ARBORICULTURE. 



sion of two others, adding to the reserve 

 area of that State 7,406,556 acres, and the 

 recent addition of more than 800,000 acres 

 of forest land in Stevens County, Wash- 

 ington, is looked upon by the people of 

 the Northwest as exemplifying the Ad- 

 ministration's disregard for the protests 

 of Senator Hepburn and others. 



"The contention of the forestry depart- 

 ment is that the trees are necessary to 

 conserve the water and timber supply to 

 the great mining industry in the Coeur 

 d'Alene country, since the Coeur d'Alene 

 River finds its source in the wilds of 

 Northern Idaho, where the Shoshone re- 

 serve has been created in connection with 

 the Coeur d'Alene reservation, adjoining 

 it on the north, and to others to be known 

 as the Coeur d'Alene reserve. Their ag- 

 gregate area is 2,250,000 acres. They are 

 in Shoshone and Kootenai Counties, and 

 extend northward to the middle of Lake 

 Pend d'Oreille. The Lemhi reserve em- 

 braces 1,346,460 acres, and is in three 

 strips adjoining the Montana line, while 

 165,240 acres of timber lands have been 

 set in the extreme northeastern part of 

 Idaho, on the British Columbia and Mon- 

 tana lines, a small segment of the reserve 

 being in Montana. The Salmon River 

 reserve in Lemhi and Custer Counties 

 embrace 2,201,120 acres, the entire area 

 between Salmon River and the middle 

 fork of that stream. The Raft River 

 reserve, in Cassia and Oneida Counties, 

 embraces 291,976 acres, and additions ag- 

 gregating 1,371,760 acres have been made 

 in Sawtooth reserve. 



"Timbermen say there is little founda- 

 tion for the contention that there is dan- 

 ger of the forests being denuded at the 

 present rate of cutting. It is estimated 

 there is more than 700,000,000.000 feet 

 of standing timber in the Northwestern 

 States, and at the present rate of cutting 



it will take three hundred and fifty years 

 to trtiiize the merchantable trees." 



I have personally talked with quite a 

 number of Idaho citizens recently, some 

 engaged in mining and others in ranch- 

 ing, all of whom fully indorse the forest 

 reserve policy. 



I am credibly informed that the oppo- 

 sition comes from lumber companies who 

 are grabbing the forests and are cutting 

 the timber which is greatly needed for the 

 future use of the mines and for the pro- 

 tection of the water supply. 



No intelligent person would for an in- 

 stant consider our correspondent's state- 

 ment of the centuries which the timber of 

 the Northwest will last. 



Instead of three hundred and fifty 

 years, it will be practically used up in less 

 than twenty-five years. 



There are large and influential corpora- 

 tions as well as numerous individuals who 

 have no regard for the interests of others, 

 so long as they can make large sums of 

 money from the destruction of our for- 

 ests. Such corporations have for many 

 years dominated Congress, elected Sen- 

 ators and controlled Legislatures. 



It is full time the Government should 

 assert the rights of this people and those 

 who are to come after us. 



With but a trifle of America's magnifi- 

 cent forests remaining, the duty of Con- 

 gress is to withdraw every acre of timber- 

 land still held by the Government from 

 public sale. 



This should be held as a sacred trust to 

 be forever retained, only removing such 

 trees as can be spared and those which 

 have exceeded their allotted age, care- 

 fully reserving all young trees and those 

 which will continue to grow into valuable 

 timber. 



To which should be added a more ef- 

 ficient system of forest planting by the 



