GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEYS. 541 



To execute the survey in the manner planned required the organ- 

 ized effort of a force working at a considerable expense. The result 

 of this effort was the collection of an enormous number of facts, 

 which would be almost useless unless properly digested and cor- 

 related, and represented in a graphic manner. The information ob- 

 t.ained concerning this great area can be expressed only in very gen- 

 eral terms without at least approximately accurate maps on which 

 the facts observed would be clear to ever3'bod3'. As such maps did 

 not exist the survey was obliged to make them which was done to the 

 extent of several thousand square miles. 



The region with which the survey had to do presented itself to 

 the economist in two aspects. First, as a producer of raw materials. 

 It has immense forests on the western coast and in the interior moun- 

 tain valleys, forests on which the whole United States may before 

 long beconio dependent. The railroads of this corporation are des- 

 tined to become the most important lumber-carrying roads in the 

 world. It was evidently, therefore, important that the commer- 

 cial character of tliese forests should be determined, and the data 

 gathered for the framing of a forest policy. The mineral wealth 

 of this region was known to be both varied and extensive, and there 

 is little doubt that a properly conducted study of mineral resources 

 would lead to the encouragement of many industries which might lie 

 dormant in tlie absence of the information that was furnished by 

 the survey. Nearly all of the region excepting the forest and the 

 rugged mountains is adapted to grazing ; vast areas to grazing only, 

 others in part to grazing and in part to agriculture. It was im- 

 portant to have the data for determining upon what areas the small 

 amount of possible agriculture should be discouraged in order to pro- 

 tect the naturally predominant grazing interest, and for what areas 

 the opposite policy should be adopted. 



The second aspect in which the region presents itself is as to its 

 «'.apacity under cultivation. While there are large areas of land 

 which are always sufficiently watered at the right season by rain and 

 dew, there are larger areas in which droughts occur more or less 

 frequently and in which the possibility of irrigation would insure 

 its agi'icultural value; and there is a far larger area in which the 

 soils are of the higher and highest grades, on which the cereals can 

 not, under existing climatic conditions, be cultivated without irri- 

 gation. Now this region is traversed by many rivers with many 

 tributaries, some of them fed by spring and autumn rains, and others 

 hy the summer melting of the snow on the mountains. There is no 

 physical question that is more intimately connected with the future 

 «nd immediate prosperity of this great region than that of irriga- 



