1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



185 



needs for which the waters of the Eastern 

 streams and rivers are used. 



The American Forestry Association is 

 a national organization. It is already 

 strong and influential. It has worked 

 wonders already in its labors for forest 

 preservation. Let us make it still 

 stronger and more influential by extend- 

 ing its membership and resources. By 

 doing so you are putting in the field an 

 army of peaceful and ceaseless workers 

 to protect your homes from destruction 

 by Drought an enemy as much to be 

 feared as any foreign invader. 



The National Irrigation Association is 

 another organization fighting in the same 

 field, one of its purposes being forest 

 preservation. It is strongly advocating 

 the inauguration of a leasing system, 

 which will enable the now wasted re- 

 sources of our great public domain to be 

 utilized so as to yield a revenue for 

 forest preservation and irrigation de- 

 velopment in the arid region. Several 

 million dollars annually could be realized 

 from such a leasing system. Of course 

 the mountains of Southern California 

 have too great a value as sources of 

 water supply to permit of their ever be- 

 ing leased for grazing. But after ex- 

 cluding all forest areas which should be 

 exclusively reserved for water conserva- 

 tion, there are still left in California over 

 25,000,000 acres of public grazing land. 



Through this National Irrigation As- 



sociation we mud first unite the West in 

 favor of one distinct policy, and then 

 turn to the work of converting the East. 

 It needs only concentration of purpose 

 and tireless work to accomplish this. 

 The wage-earners of the East want 

 wider fields for labor. The manufactu- 

 rers of the East want new markets for 

 their wares. Where can either get what 

 they want so fully as by the development 

 of the great arid West which is capable, 

 with irrigation for its irrigable lands, of 

 sustaining a greater population than the 

 whole United States holds to-day. 



And here in Southern California there 

 is a local organization which every one 

 who has any interest in the welfare of 

 the people of this section should join. 

 It should number its members not by 

 tens but by thousands. And its influ- 

 ence will grow as its membership roll 

 lengthens. 



Again, the National Irrigation Con- 

 gress will convene for its eighth annual 

 session at Missoula, Montana, on the 

 25th of next September. Southern Cali- 

 fornia should send a delegation to take 

 part in its deliberations, and to give aid 

 and strong encouragement to the efforts 

 of the Irrigation Congress to bring be- 

 fore the minds of the people of the 

 whole nation the importance of these 

 great problems, and secure the national 

 legislation necessary to solve them. 



George H. Maxwell. 



A Forest Experimental Station. 



Being a Paper of the Summer Meeting. 



(number four of the series.) 



Among the many questions of vital 

 interest for the discussion of which The 

 American Forestry Association has met 

 in Los Angeles, I think the need of a 

 Forest Experimental Station, and what 

 it may hope to accomplish, must appeal 

 to us all. 



Before reaching our mountains in Cali- 

 fornia we must generally pass through 

 a belt of foot-hills, often too barren and 

 too steep for cultivation. In the San 



Joaquin Valley this belt of foot-hills ex- 

 tends often ten to fifteen miles ; occa- 

 sionally groups of these hills reach out 

 some way into the cultivated valleys, and 

 these conditions prevail to some degree 

 in Southern California. 



Here, in the city of Los Angeles, if 

 you will take the street-car to the Fre 

 mont gate of the Elysian Park, looking 

 north from the Southern Pacific yards, 

 you will be confronted by these dry bar 



