104 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



would more properly be lodged in the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



In other words, forestry is tree cultivation upon a large 

 scale and covering long periods of time, for which the life 

 of an individual would be inadequate. France and Ger- 

 many have been compelled by force of necessity to adopt 

 a forestry system. Spain, too, suffering from drought 

 and the destruction of her water courses, has adopted such 

 a system. The state of New York has been compelled 

 to buy the Adirondacks, spending $4,000,000 in order to 

 save the headwaters of the Hudson. These forests upon 

 the tops of the mountains in the Far West serve to pro- 

 tect the snow and fountain heads of the streams and to 

 make irrigation practical and practicable. We have upon 

 the calendar, and will no doubt within a few days con- 

 sider, a bill with reference to the irrigation of arid lands 

 in the West. Now, it makes no difference whether the 

 future irrigation shall be controlled by private parties or 

 by the states or by the United States — whichever course 

 is taken it is essential that the sources of the streams 

 should be preserved. 



The Department of Agriculture has a scientific bureau 

 that has been organized, not for the purpose of prevent- 

 ing the use of the trees on our public lands, but to provide 

 for their use so that they may be cut down from time to 

 time as they may be needed by settlers ; and at the same 

 time proper measures will be used to prevent fires and 

 to maintain and restore these forests, as in Germany they 

 are maintaining and preserving these forests, while at 

 the same time they are realizing from year to year the 

 benefits of marketing the ripened or matured trees. 



In France they have found that by the destruction of 

 the forests the heavy rains have resulted in washing 

 down the soil on the sides of the mountains and destroy- 

 ing the valleys beneath, and at an expense of millions of 



