THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



The new factor in the situation is the 

 Wyoming's ... 



Action on Carey law, which gives each of the 



Carey Law. States the opportunity to deal with one 

 million acres of public lands without reference to the 

 government at Washington; further than to obtain its 

 consent for the reclamation of particular tracts. It is 

 the Carey law which is furnishing the impulse to the 

 present movement, and the name of the senator from 

 Wyoming seems certain to have a place in the history 

 of his times. Four or five States will utilize the law 

 this year. They all look to Wyoming for an example, 

 since the law comes from that State and is admirably 

 adapted to its conditions. The bill, framed with a 

 view to making the law effective, has been enacted 

 and early developments in the way of actual reclama- 

 tion and settlement are confidently looked for. If 

 the new law can be carried out in the best public spirit 

 we believe it will strikingly illustate the wisdom of 

 giving the States large powers of administration over 

 the public domain, the nation having first marked out 

 the lines on which development shall be permitted to 

 go forward. One great virtue of the new Wyoming 

 law is that it surrounds the investor and settler with 

 the most ample safeguards in the all-important mat- 

 ter of the water supply. It requires examinations 

 and reports which will demonstrate that the water 

 supply is sufficient, and the canals large enough 

 and of the proper character. This goes to the 

 foundation of success, alike for investment and 

 for settlement. The law is also very strong in the 

 fact that it furnishes security upon the land as 

 well as the water, and this without recourse to the 

 disgraceful methods which have been used in con- 

 nection with the Desert Land Law. Capital requires 

 such security and ought to have it. But the law is 

 equally strong and satisfactory from the standpoint 

 of the settler. The State fixes the maximum prices 

 of water rights, the land being sold for the nominal 

 sum of fifty cents per acre. The irrigation works 

 go to the people when the water rights are paid for, 

 and will be administered by a district. We see but 

 one dangerous point in the Wyoming law, and this 

 is in the large powers, almost judicial as well as 

 administrative, vested in the State engineer. The 

 Wyoming water laws were constructed on the same 

 plan, and State Engineer Elwood Mead has gloriously 

 vindicated the confidence reposed in him. We have 

 no doubt he will do so again, but the outcome of the 

 law possibly depends too largely upon a single in- 

 dividual, and the occupants of the office in this and 

 other States may not always be of such ability and 

 character as to justify the principle. There are those 

 who predict that the new Wyoming law will be used 

 to defeat, rather than to encourage, the settlement of 

 the lands. It is idle to speculate on this subject. 

 Wait and see. The supreme interest of Wyoming 



is to obtain men and money for its development. The 

 man or set of men who defeat this ambition and cover 

 the name of irrigation with infamy, will be very dar- 

 ing. We do not believe they can be found, but if 

 such should unfortunately prove true THE IRRIGA- 

 TION AGE will guarantee to bring them under the 

 white light of publicity. 



Chicago These ideas are permeating all the 

 Movements. arter j es o f pu bli c opinion and come to 

 the surface in various places. The " Campaign for 

 National Prosperity," a circular issued by the Na- 

 tional Committee, has been in great demand during 

 the last few weeks. It has received wide newspaper 

 comment, and applications have come in for it from 

 all parts of the United States. In the city of Chicago 

 several movements are on foot. One organization 

 is called the Bureau of Labor and Transportation, 

 and has Lyman J. Gage at the head of its advisory 

 board. Its object is to transplant individuals and 

 families to country homes. Another is the Industrial 

 League, started by workingmen and looking to the 

 organization of colonies of idle people to reclaim and 

 occupy public lands. Still another society has been 

 formed by leading clergymen, and it has similar 

 objects. It is difficult to predict the outcome of these 

 various currents, but they all tend in the same direc- 

 tion and it is likely that in the early future they will 

 be brought under one general direction, or at least 

 into a common line of effort. 



Fighting The Western people ought to appreciate 



for the what the Centtiry Magazine is trying to 

 Forests. 



do in the interest of forest preservation. 



This is not a new interest with the great New York 

 magazine, but one which has enjoyed its earnest 

 championship and to which it is very heartily com- 

 mitted. The February number contains an elaborate 

 symposium, to which Messrs. Edward A. Bowers, of 

 the Land Office of Washington; B. E. Fernow, chief 

 of the Forestry Division of the Department of Agri- 

 culture; Frederick Law Olmstead; President J. T. 

 Rothrock, of the Pennsylvania Forest Commission; 

 Superintendent Verplanck Colvin.of the Adirondack 

 Survey; Theodore Roosevelt; Gifford Pinchot, Prof- 

 N. S. Shaler; D. M. Riordan, of Arizona; John Muir, 

 of California; Prof. Cleveland Abbe, of the United 

 States Weather Bureau; Wm. J. Palmer, of Colo- 

 rado, and Capt. Geo. S. Anderson, in charge of the 

 Yellowstone National Park, are the contributors. 

 The basis of the discussion is the plan of Prof. 

 Sargent, of Harvard, which would provide for forestry 

 instruction at West Point, with an experimental for- 

 estry reservation near that place ; control of the forest 

 areas by educated officers, and the enlistment of 

 a forest guard, to be specially chosen to carry out 

 the principles of forestry thus taught. 



