THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XI. 



CHICAGO, MARCH, 1897. 



NO. 3 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



President Cleve- The success of for- 

 land's Forest es t preservation de- 

 Reservation, pends upon the in- 

 telligent and judicious selection of the 

 reservations and the proper care of them 

 thereafter. A reservation embracing 

 grazing and agricultural lands cannot 

 rightfully be called "forest preservation' 1 

 and timber lands exposed to the ax of 

 the lumberman and the destruction 

 caused by the spread of the camp fires 

 of careless tourists and hunters will not 

 remain "preserved' 1 for any length of 

 time. Forest preservation in its true 

 sense means the setting aside of timbered 

 areas embracing the head waters of 

 streams where the winter's supply of 

 moisture is stored, to be drawn upon 

 during dry seasons, and it also means 

 the guarding and protection of such 

 areas when reserved. President Cleve- 

 land's reservation proclamation of Feb- 

 ruary 22, has been the subject of much 

 unfavorable comment and harsh criti- 

 cism. The thirteen reservations thus 

 made include lands in South Dakota, 

 Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washing- 

 ton, Utah and California, aggregating 

 an area of over 21,000,000 acres. The 

 boundaries of these reservations were 

 marked by a special forestry commission 

 supposed to be composed of capable men 

 whose duty it was to personally visit the 

 sections to be reserved. This commis- 

 sion has been publicly accused of wilful 

 and flagrant neglect of duty. This has 



been given special prominence in con- 

 nection with the Wyoming reservations 

 where it is charged the commission pur- 

 posely avoided inspection of the timbered 

 areas, spending the time in a pleasant 

 visit to the Yellowstone National Park, 

 and ignoring the requests of the state 

 officials to make a full and complete in- 

 vestigation, although every facility for 

 doing so was tendered them free of ex- 

 pense. It has been claimed that the 

 opposition to the reservations was insti- 

 gated by the lumber interests seeking 

 the privilege of free timber, but an ex- 

 amination of the selection in the Big 

 Horn mountains reveals the fact that 

 the two townships in which the lumber 

 camps were pitched were accidentally (?) 

 or purposely overlooked, although the 

 reservation extended on three sides of 

 them. Moreover, these two townships 

 contain the largest and heaviest growth 

 of timber. The Teton Forest ( ?) reser- 

 vation consists principally of agricultural 

 lands upon which settlers are located 

 and some mountains practically barren 

 of timber. Just what the conditions in 

 the other states are is unknown as no 

 complete surveys have been made. 



A Survey As soon as the facts 

 Required. were made public by 

 persons conversant with the particulars 

 sentiment was aroused and an effort 

 made to have the proclamations revoked. 

 This created in the minds of some mis- 



