86 



THE FORESTER. 



April, 



The recent increase of irrigation has 

 added to the bitterness. Government ac- 

 tion in the matter has been hastened by 

 the establishment of forest reserves. In 

 view of the injury to the forests in many 

 sections from over-grazing, all reserves ex- 

 cept those in Washington and Oregon, 

 and the Black Mesa Reserve, in Arizona, 

 which is to be opened to 300,000 sheep at 

 3 cents a head, are closed to sheep by an 

 order issued last May- This step has 

 raised a storm of protest from wool-grow- 

 ers, who claim that no harm is done by 

 grazing under proper restrictions. Many 

 are reported to have driven their herds 

 into the mountains last summer in defi- 

 ance of the law. 



Against the sheep owners are arrayed 

 the cattlemen and farmers, and especially 



the irrigators, who claim the practice 

 means disaster to agriculture in the low- 

 lands. These argue that sheep destroy 

 the forest cover in the mountains and thus 

 diminish the water supply. They are 

 said not only to eat the young growth 

 which is to perpetuate the forest, but to 

 trample innumerable seedlings and destroy 

 the layer of leaves necessary to keep the 

 soil in good condition. Sheep herders are 

 accused of burning large areas in order to 

 secure a growth of grass. While the 

 government will decide the matter only in 

 the case of the forest reserves, these in- 

 clude a large part of all the summer 

 ranges of the western sheep-raising states, 

 and the results will be of great impor- 

 tance to the American wool-growing in- 

 dustry. 



Canadian Forestry Association. 



j 



A New Organization of Prominent Men to Advance the Principles of 



Scientific Forestry. 



The Canadian Forestry Association was 

 organized March Sth at the House of 

 Commons, Ottawa. An interesting com- 

 ment upon the new organization, in which 

 the influence of the American Forestry 

 Association, and one of its members, Hon. 

 Elihu Stewart, is mentioned, is thus spoken 

 of in the Ottawa Citizen of the following 

 day : 



" So imperative had it become that steps 

 should be at once taken to protect 

 Canada's forest resources that Mr. E. 

 Stewart, chief inspector of timber and 

 forestry sent out invitations to those inter- 

 ested in forest matters to attend a meeting 

 to organize a Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion. The idea found favor and a large 

 and representative number of those inter- 

 ested met yesterday at the House of Com- 

 mons and organized the association, which 

 will be conducted along the same lines as 

 is the American Forestry Association, 

 which has already achieved such satisfac- 

 tory results in the United States." 



The Governor-General of Canada, 

 Lord Minto, is to be invited to act as honor- 

 ary president. The officers, nearly all of 

 whom are prominent members of the 

 American Forestry Association, are : 



President, Sir Henry Joly de Lotbi- 

 niere ; vice-president, Win. Little; secre- 

 tary, Elihu Stewart, chief inspector of 

 timber and forestry for the Dominion ; 

 treasurer, C. J. Booth ; a board of seven 

 directors, and vice-presidents for each of 

 the provinces and territories. 



Approval of Minnesota Park Project. 



At a meeting of the Board of Directors 

 of the American Forestry Association, at 

 the office of the Secretary of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C., on Saturday, March 

 24th, official action was taken endorsing 

 the proposed national park in Minnesota, 

 of which project frequent mention has 

 been made in THE FORESTER. 



