448 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



FOREST PRESERVATION. 



HON. G. S. IVES, ST. PAUL. 



I wish to talk to you a few minutes about the question of 

 the preservation of the headwaters of the Mississippi river and, 

 incidentally, about the importance of that river to the people of 

 this state. I do not think it is necessary to say much to those 

 present to impress them with the idea of the importance of the 

 river to our state. If we took into consideration alone the ques- 

 tion of water power that it affords it would be sufBcient to war- 

 rant us in keeping up the supply as it is at the present time ; but 

 in addition to that the question of the navigation of the river 

 as operating upon the rates of freight of the railways that are 

 in existence on each side of the river is very important to these 

 people. The facts are that while on the upper Mississippi there 

 is not very much done in the way of steamboat traffic, yet the 

 fact that this navigable water is open to the gulf has prevented 

 the keeping up of the rates upon freight to a great extent on 

 these railways. Last year when the matter came up before the 

 Board of United States Engineers in considering the subject of 

 reservoirs, this matter was presented by statistics, and it was 

 then shown that the amount that had been saved to the people 

 in this region by reason of the fact of the navigation of the river 

 was enormous. While we cannot use the river to any great ex- 

 tent here, in the lower part of the river they use it a great deal, 

 and I saw some time ago statistics showing that in 1903 there 

 was freight to the value of $24,000,000 carried on the river that 

 year. 



In this connection I wish to call attention to the fact that keep- 

 ing up the navigability of this river is very important in con- 

 nection with the building of the great canal that is now in 

 process of construction by the United States Government. When 

 this is opened the trade that will be opened up along this river 

 will be of the greatest advantage to us. There is no question 

 about that. But if we should take into consideration the river 

 alone, the fact that this river rises in the northern part of the 

 state and flows almost the entire length of the state, the mere 

 fact that we have this river, is a benefit to the people, and an 

 effort should be made to keep up the supply of water. 



I wish to call your attention to this matter of keeping up the 

 water supply of the river. We have a large extent of country up 

 here at the headwaters, that is called the Mississippi Basin, that 

 is used for the purpose of keeping up this water supply. We 

 all realize the necessity of something of this kind. And we all know 

 that the large rivers that flow into the Mississippi and add materially 

 to that supply after the country began to be settled and cultivated 



