Nezvs and Notes. 357 



the people of the West, since they realize that retrogression must 

 follow and decrease in the supply of available water, and the 

 water supply, they have found, is more or less dependent on the 

 forests. The resolutions adopted at the conservation meeting in 

 California, briefly summarized, are as follows : 



Resolved; That the plan proposed by the National Rivers and 

 Harbors Congress for the issuance of Government bonds in the 

 sum of $500,000,000 for the improvement of the navigable rivers 

 of the country be endorsed ; 



That hearty endorsement be given to the work of the United 

 States Weather Bureau in California ; 



That cordial approval be given the general policy of conserving 

 the forest and mineral resources and the fertility of the soil 

 throughout the country; 



That the Forest Service be asked to institute more compre- 

 hensive tests and experiments, in order that official data relating 

 to Eucalyptus growing may be placed at the service of the State, 

 and that these tests and data be broadly commercial in their bear- 

 ing rather than technical. 



In this connection a rather daring but by no means insane propo- 

 sition which looks ahead to the still stupendous possibilities of de- 

 velopment on this continent, has been launched by Arthur Hooker, 

 secretary of the board of control of the National Irrigation Con- 

 gress, who presented a resolution for approval by that organiz- 

 ation at its seventeenth sessions in Spokane, August 9 to 14, 

 memorializing Congress to issue 3 per cent, gold bonds, running 

 100 years, to the amount of $5,000,000,000, or as much thereof as 

 may be necessary, for the following specific purposes : 



One billion dollars for drainage of overflowed and swamp lands, 

 thus reclaiming an area equal to 100,000 square miles. 



One billion dollars for the reclamation by irrigation of 40,000,- 

 000 acres of arid and semi-arid lands, now partly or wholly waste. 



One billion dollars to construct and improve deep waterways, to 

 develop thousands of miles of territory now without adequate 

 transportation facilities. 



One billion dollars for good roads and national highways, for 

 the lack of which the loss to the farm area of the United States is 

 approximately $500,000,000 annually. 



One billion dollars for forest protection, reforestation and con- 



