22 FOREST EESERVES IN IDAHO. 



ors and miners are actually engaged in mining,'' not over 10 per cent 

 has any prospecting Avhatever. 



The statement concerning agricultural lands is not borne out by the 

 facts. This area was withdrawn from settlement very recently. 

 During the long period prior to its withdrawal only about 11,880 

 acres, or 1.6 per cent, had been entered as homesteads, and a careful 

 field examination has shoAvn that but 15 per cent of the land so taken, 

 or about 1,780 acres, is really suitable for agriculture. The rest was 

 taken for timber or grazing purposes. 



Of the vacant lands now under withdrawal, which Senator Hey- 

 burn says include many valleys most desirable for settlement, it is 

 barely possible that 3,000 acres, or four-tenths of 1 per cent of the 

 Avhole, might be entered under a broad construction of the homestead 

 laws. The rainfall of this region is but 10 or 15 inches, and there 

 are fcAv spots where irrigation is feasible. The essential fact, how- 

 ever, is that although these 3,000 acres are Avithdrawn they are not 

 Avithin the proposed reserve. As the appended table shoAvs, all culti- 

 vable land has been excluded by the boundary recommended. 



If, as Senator Heyburn says, the object of the projected Pacific and 

 Idaho Northern Railroad will be defeated by this reserA^e, that object 

 must be solely to remoA^e the inferior forests of the Cuddy and ScA'-en 

 Devils ranges, upon Avhich a large and groAving population depends 

 Avholly for an already inadequate water supply. The projected route 

 of the road nowhere crosses the proposed reserA^e, so its construction 

 could be hampered only by the segregation of some tie timber Avhich 

 might be aa ithin hauling distance. The insignificant amount of Avith- 

 draAvn farming land previously described, even Avere it not to be re- 

 stored to the public domain, could hardly furnish any perceptible 

 support to a railroad or seriously affect the future of Idaho. 



Even the lumbering possible if the lands Avere left subject to the 

 timber and stone hiAvs Avill be little affected by the reserA^e, for all of 

 the commercial timber available on the east of the proposed road, and 

 most of that on the Avest, has already been taken up. That which is 

 included is the commercially inferior Avoodland on the higher slopes, 

 despised and left by the timber cruiser, but of incalculable value to 

 the miner, the fuel-using settler, and the irrigator of the arid and 

 water-needing Weiser Valley. This reserA^e, as Avell as the SaAvtooth, 

 Payette, and Henry's Fork areas, is not only indorsed but vigorously 

 urged by the State engineer of Idaho and the Reclamation SerA^ice. 

 Among the eAddence concerning the SeA^en DeA^ils area presented by 

 Senator Heyburn is a petition against the reserve Avhich giA^es as 

 objections the statements that no water protection is needed, that 

 much of the area is agricultural land or barren, and that it will flood 

 the market Avith *' scrip." The first tAvo of these have been ansAvered 

 aboAx. The third does not bear comparison Avith the appended table, 

 which shoAvs that but three-tenths of 1 per cent of the Avhole area con- 

 sists of lands which are aj)t to become base for lieu selection. 



SQUAAV CREEK. 



Little reference is made by Senator Heyburn to the other division 

 of the proposed Weiser Reserve (the SquaAv Creek diA^sion) other 

 than its inclusion on his maj) in the '' determined '' mineral class. As 

 a matter of fact, one doubtful coal claim constitutes the only mining 

 or prospecting activity in the tract. 



