32 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



water supply has gone hand in hand with the havoc and desolation 

 wrought in the mountains adjoining by reckless denudation. 



The scientific data so far at hand to establish this inter-relation of 

 forest cover and water supply will be reviewed and their application 

 to the particular conditions of our own country discussed in a special 

 report of the Forestry Division. 



While, through publications from this Department and other 

 sources, through agitation and discussion by societies and newspa- 

 pers, a better knowledge of the condition of our forests has been 

 gained, and through representations of the experience of older na- 

 tions, the importance of the subject of forestry and the dangers result- 

 ing from its neglect are appreciated by a larger number of people than 

 formerly, yet it cannot be said that we have come very much nearer 

 to a practical solution of the problem. Meanwhile the difficulties in 

 its solution are increasing as time goes on. 



As a first step of reform undoubtedly the land policy of the United 

 States in the timbered regions requires a change according to the 

 changed conditions of those localities. A state of affairs which allows 

 railroad companies, miners, prospectors, and settlers to cut timber 

 on the public domain as their wants require, without any projDer 

 super^dsion, without proper opportunity of acquiring either material 

 or timber land by purchase, holds out a premium for fraud, theft, and 

 immorality. The inadequacy of the force to prevent depredations 

 and to enforce existing laws is productive of the most reckless devas- 

 tation of these mountain forests, while the value of timber destroyed 

 by fire in one year in Colorado alone would suffice to pay a force of a 

 thousand forest guards. 



Besides the good example which the Government may set in taking 

 better care of its own timber lands, it might appropriately extend its 

 operations, by planting on a large scale, in bodies of several contigu- 

 ous sections, in the treeless States and Territories of the West. 



The military reservations in those States, owned by the General 

 Government, would form a most desirable field of oi:)eration. Only 

 by such extensive planting can a desirable modification of the ex- 

 tremes of climate on the Western plains be expected. 



If, as seems contemplated by Congress, the so-called timber-culture 

 act should be repealed, I would suggest that this be not done without 

 in some way making proper provision for timber planting on home- 

 stead entries. More good is to be expected from such planting, where 

 the owner is near at hand to watch and give needed cultivation, than 

 in the case of timber-claim planting, which, to a large extent, has 

 been practiced, it is alleged, for mere speculative purposes. 



The newly appointed chief of the division was sent by me to in- 

 spect the tree planting in Kansas and Nebraska, and his observations 

 will enable me to give much needed information to the Western 

 planter in regard to methods of forest planting. 



