74 fHE IRRIGATION AGE. 



their posterity homes that will enrich and beautify the region, thus 

 sustaining and promoting the general welfare. " 



Governor Roosevelt outlined a plan for government supervision, 

 which he summed up in the following points, which he said must be 

 attained : 



Government study of the streams upon which the plans depend. 



Government construction and control of great irrigating plants. 



The preservation of forests by the extension of the forest reserve 

 system and government control of the forests. 



National protection and use of the forests under expert supervision. 



The instruction of private owners of forests, East and West, that 

 timber can be cut without forest destruction, and that ownership of 

 water rights in the arid country and of forest lands anywhere entails 

 public as well as private duties and responsibilities. 



Mr. Dubois expressed hope that the water supply of western lands 

 would never fall into the hands of corporations. 



Professor Willis L. Moore, chief of the United States Weather 

 Bureau, told of the achievements of the weather bureau in relation to 

 irrigation problems. He said the department had been able to forcast 

 far in advance of the season the probable character of the water sup- 

 ply on the plains. This is done by measuring the snowfall in the 

 mountains, where the packing of snow and ice in ravines forms great 

 natural reservoirs. 



Gifford Pinchot, forester of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, in an illustrated lecture on "Forestry is Business," pointed 

 out the many economic reasons for the preservation of the forests. 

 The department, he said, is accomplishing great results in the West 

 by showing timber owners how they can cut this timber and yet pre- 

 serve the forests Destruction of the forests, he said, will mean more 

 floods. 



H. B. Maxson, the secretary of the congress, reported that the 

 National Irrigation Association now has 1,000 members, representing 

 the leading agricultural, commercial and labor organizations. The 

 reclaimation of the arid lands of the West would provide homes for 

 100,000,000 people, he said. 



Captain Hiram M. Chittenden, of the United States Engineer 

 Corps, said that the building of great storage reservoirs at the head 

 waters of the western rivers would not only impound water for the 

 irrigation of millions of acres of arid land, but would prevent the floods 

 of the lower rivers. This work, he said, came properly under the gen- 

 eral government. 



George H. Maxwell, chairman of the executive committee of the 

 congress, declared that too many men are fighting for water instead 

 of getting together and starting a campaign for government action 



