PROCEEDINGS. 639 



will be diminished, and the vast plains below will become proportionately- 

 barren and of little value. There are millions of acres of agricultural lands 

 on the plains and in the foothills of this State not included in the forest 

 reservations or public parks, which lands are not yet cultivated, and it will 

 take many generations, even with a greatly increased population, before 

 these lands are settled upon and cultivated. These plains and rolling 

 lauds, outside of the public parks and reservations, are much more valua- 

 ble for agriculture than any lands in said reserves, and moreover many of 

 them could not be properly irrigated except with the waters which the for- 

 est reservations are intended to preserve. Until such time, therefore, in 

 the far-away future, when possibly our agricultural lands become over- 

 crowded, no infringement upon the forest reservations should be permitted, 

 and any effort to diminish them will result injuriously to this State and 

 the nation at large, for the reasons above stated. What few and small 

 patches of cultivable lands and meadows may exist in the forest reserva- 

 tions and public parks are absolutely necessary for the purpose of furnish- 

 ing food and jDasture for the teams and horses of the traveling public visit- 

 ing those wonderful forests and marvelous waterfalls. If such locations 

 are allowed to be gobbled up, the reservations themselves could not be en- 

 joyed by the people at large; and 



Wherkas, Congressman Bowers of California is quoted as having stated, 

 among other things, that: 



"Of all the assets that the present Administration fell heir to when it 

 succeeded to the Government, it seems to consider this looting of the pub- 

 lic domain as the most sacred trust. In accordance with the recommend- 

 ation of the forest reserve incubator, on February 14, 1893, thirty town- 

 ships of land in Kern county were made a forest reservation. In those 

 townships there were at that time 300 legal voters, 5,000 tons of hay were 

 raised there last year, and 7,000 acres are under irrigation. There are six 

 public school buildings, four churches, 10,000 cattle and over 1,000 horses 

 owned by the settlers. These were grazing on those sections. The as- 

 sessed valuation of the improvements made by the settlers is over $400,000. 

 Many of these settlers have been there for ten to twenty j^ears, and large 

 areas of lands in this reservation are fine natural farming lauds. The 

 making of this reservation was an inexcusable outrage, and these town- 

 ships should be restored to the public domain. The history of this forest 

 reservation is the history of other reservations in California." 



Therefore Resolved, This, the Academy of Sciences, does declare that 

 these statements by Mr. Bowers are greatly exaggerated; they must have 

 been based upon erroneous information. Surely there are no churches, 

 no school houses and no settlements upon such reservations, save alone 

 by such people as are manufacturing lumber or desiring to do so. 



Such complaints come, undoubtedly, from such class of people as raided 

 the timber lauds of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and finally 

 2d See., Vol. IV. ( 42 ) 



