452 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



United States — I think the United States, under the circum- 

 stances, since the river flows through so many states in the 

 Union, should take hold of this matter. 



There is another feature that we have to take into considera- 

 tion in this matter. It is very difficult to determine just how 

 much land there is there that can be used for that purpose, how 

 much can be utilized for that purpose, and it seems to me that 

 the first thing to be done would he to ascertain what the true 

 conditions are. We have, it is true, the Surveyor General's 

 office which made a survey of that country, and Gen. Andrews 

 has a great deal of information with reference to it. But it seems 

 to me that the United States Government should take up this 

 matter and appoint a commission to ascertain just what lands 

 could be used or appropriated for that purpose. Such a com- 

 mission should take plenty of time to investigate and report its 

 findings to the General Government, the true situation as they 

 find it. Then we would have a basis to start upon, and I believe 

 it is due this country, and I believe the legislature can well af- 

 ford to memorialize congress for the purpose of taking some steps 

 to preserve the headwaters of this river. In the meantime I 

 think additional appropriations should be made by the state for 

 the purpose of reforestation of lands up there and that addition- 

 al land should be obtained by the state for that purpose, and I 

 believe that efforts should be made to obtain from the United 

 States Government assurance that the reforestation of the land 

 that has been set apart by the Government for this purpose, 

 this two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres, will be done 

 at once. I think the first thing that we should do is to deter- 

 rriine just what we want up there, and then we ought to get it. 

 In the limited time given me I cannot go into further details 

 on this question, and I will close by simply saying that I am very 

 much interested in keeping up the water supply of this great 

 river and in the great question of forestry in Minnesota. I be- 

 lieve that the course we have pursued in this state, of cutting off 

 our forests, is one from which we shall suffer very much in the 

 future, and the only thing we can do now to remedy the situa- 

 tion is to put ourselves in a position to improve the conditions 

 which exist at the present time, and the only way to do that is 

 to obtain more land for the purposes of reforestation and to get 

 busy along that line as coon as possible. 



