78 



THE IRRIGATION AGE, 



State Board of Irrigation is not vested 

 with judicial powers. 



OPPOSING FEDERAL CONSTRUCTION. 

 That man Brigham, the monkey of the 

 agricultural department, was beautifully 

 snowed under at the irrigation congress 

 last week when he had the gall to submit 

 the following minority resolution as he 

 had been commanded to do by his masters 

 at Washington: "Believing that the con- 

 struction of storage reservoirs for irriga- 

 tion purposes is not a proper function of 

 the federal government, but its work 

 should be confined to surveys of investiga- 

 tion for the collection of information in 

 regard to water supply, extent of irrigable 

 lands, location of reservoir sites, etc., the 

 minority of the committee on resolutions 

 recommend that the favoring of construc- 

 tion by the federal government of reser- 

 voirs be not adopted." Denver Field and 

 Farm. 



A COLONY IN TROUBLE. 

 The Farm Field and Fireside colonies 

 in Southern California are involved in all 

 kinds of litigation. According lo the re 

 ports in the general land office the title to 

 part of the property was cancelled by the 

 Land Commissioner March 15, 1897. The 

 Los Angele.s Express says that the Federal 

 grand jury lias returned indictments against 

 James W. Wilson and A. T. Howard on 

 the charge of illegal use of the mails in 

 connection with the Columbia Colonization 

 scheme. 



AWAKENING IN THE EAST. 

 If some of the money that is expended 

 under the river and harbor appropriation 

 was used to construct irrigation canals 

 from the head waters of the Missouri river 

 to the territory where irrigation is needed, 

 it would lessen very materially the danger 

 to life and property from floods on that 

 river and would open up good farming 

 lands for thousands of homes for the peo- 

 ple. Holyoke Herald. 



THE TIMBER QUESTION. 

 The timber question continues to be a 

 cause of disagreement. 



The almost criminal ignorance of the 

 west on the part of government officials, 

 says the Western Mining World, was illus- 

 trated by the recent attitude of Commis- 

 sioner Hermann relative to the use of 

 timber for mining purposes. Senator 

 Carter recently corrected some of Her- 

 mann's views as follows: "Commissioner 

 Hermann would modify his criticisms ma- 

 terially if enlightened by a personal visit 

 to and inspection of the region from which 

 the mining companies in Montana secure 

 the timber for their mines. He evidently 

 has in mind the quantity of timber on ICO 

 acres of land in Oregon when he suggests 

 that area sufficient to furnish a year's sup- 

 ply of timber for Montana copper mine. 

 There is scarcely a quarter section of land 

 in the Bitter Boot valley capable of fur- 

 nishing saw timber enough to supply the 

 necessities of the Anaconda mine for thir- 

 ty days. The sale of timber may, and 

 doubtless will prove more satisfactory than 

 the permit system, and I doubt not, the 

 mining and other industrial companies 

 would much prefer actual purchase at rea- 

 sonable stumpage rates. But it must be 

 borne in mind that they have hitherto been 

 denied the privilege of purchase and have 

 been forced to rely on the permit system. 

 There has been no exportation of lumber 

 from the public lands of Montana to any 

 other state, and I think the people are en- 

 titled to the use of the timber growing in 

 the country to aid in its development. It 

 rests with congress to say whether they 

 shall be permitted to cut or allowed to 

 purchase it. Our Montana people will 

 adjust themselves to either proposition." 



A LITTLE MINING NEWS. 



The daily production of copper in the 

 United States is 1,500,000 pounds. 



The total value of iron and steel ex- 

 ports for 1894 was $29,943,729; in 1895 it 



