30 FOREST RESERVES IN IDAHO. 



be enabled to acquire title. You will readily understand that until 

 the iDublic lands are surveyed settlers hesitate to cast their lot upon 

 them, not knowing how soon they may be able to perfect their title 

 in the interest of themselves and their families. 



Last year a considerable part of the money set aside for the survey 

 of public lands in Idaho was returned to the Treasury because 

 the surveying contracts were not let, and the money w^as not ex- 

 hausted. This was through a mistaken policy that the surveys should 

 not be extended until after settlement upon each township. The cor- 

 rect rule is that the survey should precede the settler, as an induce- 

 ment thereto. 



I hope to secure such changes in this policy as will place Idaho 

 more nearly upon an equal footing with her sister States. You will 

 be surprised to learn that 55 per cent of the public lands of Idaho are 

 unsurveyed, while in California only 7 per cent remain unsurveyed; 

 in Colorado, 6 per cent ; in Wyoming, 4 per cent, and in Washington, 

 11 per cent. It is evident that Idaho is at a disadvantage in the 

 inducement which it can oiler to settlers in this particular. 



As to the climate of the proposed reserve, there is no more delight- 

 ful or beneficial climate in the United States. It is Avithin the influ- 

 ence of the Japan currents, which result in long seasons of warm 

 weather. The country is one that needs no irrigation, being Avithin 

 the humid region and with an ample snowfall, which goes off early 

 enough to allow for the cultivation and ripening of crops. 



To one unused to that section of the country the land might seem 

 to be sterile and lack those qualities that insure the })roduction of 

 crops, but to those who live there and know the facts the land is as 

 fertile as that of any other section of the United States and responds 

 to cultivation in the most satisfactory manner. 



All men do not desire to live on open prairies or in low valleys. 

 There is a fair percentage of the people that prefer to make their 

 homes in the mountains and that know how to make those homes 

 productive and prosperous. The field of choice should be left open 

 to them. The people surrounding this section of the country and 

 w^ho are expecting in part to inhabit it jorotest against the creation 

 of this forest reserve or an}^ part of it, and they do so, not from a 

 spirit of opposition nor from a desire of opportunity to defraud the 

 Government or violate the law or its intent, but because they want 

 it left open for settlement, which will contribute to the business pros- 

 perity of the country, widening its borders and broadening the field 

 for the extension of its enterprises. 



The area proposed to be withdrawn constitutes more than half the 

 area of Shoshone County and leaves only a narrow strip of the county 

 on the west, averaging about 10 miles in Avidth and GO miles in length. 

 Aside from this strip of land there remains only that portion of the 

 county covered by the Coeur d'Alene mining district to Avhich your 

 order of restoration made during last fall applies. 



Already the resources of Shoshone County haA^e been diminished 

 and dAvarfed by the withdrawal of XoA^ember 14, 1903, Avhich has 

 remained Avithout final action. A AvithdraAval for any purpose is 

 as effectual in keeping out settlers and enterprise as the final creation 

 of a forest reserA^e. 



I append hereto a correct map of Shoshone County, showing the 



