I 



90 



THE FORESTER. 



April, 



afford, if properly conserved, an adequate 

 supply of water for every acre that it is 

 possible to reach, and the supply of wood 

 necessary to the settlement of any region 

 is not far to seek. 



The problems confronting us, neverthe- 

 less, are the same as those in other States. 

 The canals that could be constructed at 

 low cost, and for which the normal flow 

 of the streams furnishes an adequate sup- 

 ply have been built. The additional can- 

 als will be larger and, as a rule, more ex- 

 pensive, and before there can be any 

 extensive addition to our present canal 

 system, provision must be made for the 

 conservation of the water supply by storage 

 reservoirs and forest protection. It is, of 

 course, well known that irrigation canal 

 enterprises have been generally failures 

 from the standpoint of the investor, and 

 while it is doubtless true that the failures 

 were to a large extent caused by inexperi- 

 ence and bad judgment, still for the larger 

 enterprises yet to be undertaken with the 

 additional expense of water storage it will 

 be difficult to overcome the proverbial 

 timidity of capital. 



As the Far West becomes more densely 

 populated, however, it is probable that 

 sources of revenue may be realized for irri- 

 gation purposes not now at our command. 

 For instance, a just plan for deriving a com- 

 pensation from stock and cattle owners may 

 follow in some States if we extend the 

 forest preservation idea to public grazing 

 lands. At present public grazing lands 

 are being injured by overgrazing, and, in 

 many instances, the cattlemen of small 

 means are deprived of reasonable protec- 

 tion from encroachments by cattle cor- 

 porations. The Agricultural Department 

 has made numerous extensive investiga- 

 tions on this subject and favors protection 

 tor our natural pasturage lands and a just 

 compensation to the government for their 

 use. It seems but reasonable that some 

 system of deriving profit from grazing 

 land rentals might be devised for the pur- 

 pose of further developing the arid regions 

 of this country, without in any way ham- 

 pering settlers or others desiring lawfully 

 to acquire lands for agricultural, irrigation 

 or other purposes. In a short time the ex- 



penditure of, say fifty per cent, of the 

 rentals of grazing tracts for purposes of 

 irrigation would effect a remarkable change 

 for the better in several of our western 

 States. Exact data for determining the 

 quantity of land that could be leased are 

 not at hand; but assuming that there are 

 forty million acres, which seems a conser- 

 vative estimate, the gross rental on the 

 basis of five cents per acre would be two 

 million dollars. Of this one-half would 

 be available for irrigation work. Assum- 

 ing the average cost per acre of placing 

 water upon the land to be twelve and one- 

 half dollars, the million acres would re- 

 claim eighty thousand acres a year. 

 When we consider that this result can be 

 obtained by the simple expedient of mak- 

 ing the stockmen and interested corpora- 

 tions pay for something for which many 

 of them are willing and able to pay, and 

 further that they get full value for their 

 money, it seems as if the plan is entitled 

 to the consideration of those interested in 

 irrigation problems. 



Practical forestry is needed to make 

 permanent the supply of wood and water 

 which these reserves, not only in Wash- 

 ington, but in other parts of the West, 

 are capable of furnishing to the regions 

 about them. The interests at stake de- 

 mand as thoroughly and carefully con- 

 sidered management as is applied to any 

 national forest lands in the world. The 

 study of the fire question, both with ref- 

 erence to the means of preventing fires in 

 the future, and in dealing with burned- 

 over lands, is of the first importance upon 

 the reserves. Scarcely less necessary to 

 the development of the highest capacity 

 of the forest for the production of timber 

 is the thorough study of the rate of growth 

 and characteristics of the western timber 

 trees. Should practical forestry be ap- 

 plied to the reserves, which is inevitable, 

 the studies which are now being made by 

 the Division of Forestry of Western Hem- 

 lock, Red Fir, and Western Yellow Pine, 

 and other important trees will be of great 

 use ; and they already have practical value 

 for private owners of timber lands. The 

 study of Western Hemlock has been un- 

 dertaken in the belief that in the near fu- 



