THE MAKING OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA. 325; 



or another, went to Congress with petitions for appropriations to 

 aid irrigation, and they failed every time, and they never had the 

 slightest shadow of success until the time came that the national 

 irrigation movement was projected right into the eastern part 

 of the country, and it was made clear to the merchants and 

 manufacturers and- to the great industrial institutions in this 

 eastern country that every dollar spent for irrigation would 

 bring another dollar into the arteries of commerce and that every 

 man practically would be benefited. The moment the American 

 people grasped that idea, national irrigation was assured. 

 (Applause.) 



I say to you that whenever the people of northern Minneso- 

 ta grasp that broad, national idea of reclamation, it will not be a 

 question of making the town of Cass Lake grow, but it will be 

 a question of making the United States a greater nation. 

 (Applause.) Then, and not until then, will the national govern- 

 ment extend to you a helping hand in the reclamation of the 

 swamps of northern Minnesota. When you get national help 

 you will get it not only because you are going to demonstrate 

 that large areas of these lands are capable of being turned to 

 agricultural use ; you will get it because you will also pledge 

 yourselves that you will establish a great, permanent natural 

 reservoir that will add ten times the amount of acreage to the 

 forest reserves than exist in Minnesota today. (Applause.) In 

 this state, where lumbering is one of the great industries, you 

 ought to be today planning through the national government 

 the means of growing timber in your state to be harvested in a 

 comparatively few years to come by the active men who will 

 then be working in the interests of lumbering. Your cut-over 

 forest lands should be replanted and not allowed to be cut off 

 and go back to a sand barren. Lumbering in this state should 

 be looked upon as a permanent industry, just as much as the 

 growing of a crop of barley, wheat, oats and corn, and the har- 

 vesting of those crops today. You should plant forest planta- 

 tions in different places throughout the state of sufficient area 

 to eventually supply all the needs of the people of your state 

 for wood and timber through all the years to come. It will 

 take longer to raise a tree than it will a stalk of corn, but it will 

 grow to maturity just the same. 



This is a serious matter. If you will go over a map of 

 Minnesota you will find that probably one-fifth of the total area 

 of this state (which I understand is about 85,000,000 acres) is 



