Forestry and Irrigatioa 



Vol. VIII. 



APRIL, 1902. 



No. 4. 



NEWS AND NOTES. 



The Irriga- 

 tion Bill. 



The House Committee 

 on Irrigation on April 

 7 favorably reported the 

 irrigation bill. It was the Senate bill 

 which was reported, the House bill, or 

 Newlands bill, as it is called, having 

 been laid aside. The bill was amended 

 in a number of respects so as to change 

 several provisions which have heretofore 

 been criticised. The measure is amended 

 in this respect, that it provides for the 

 more complete withdrawal of lands pro- 

 posed to be irrigated by the works con- 

 templated in order to remove all possi- 

 bility of speculative enterprise. The 

 amendment relates to lands under pri- 

 vate ownership which may be irrigated 

 under the provisions of the act, and 

 provides that the owners thereof must 

 also be actual occupants of or residents 

 on the land referred to. 



The so-called state-control clause was 

 modified by striking out the latter por- 

 tion of the section and making a substi- 

 tution therefor, so that as the clause 

 now stands it provides that nothing in 

 the bill shall interfere with any state 

 law relative to the appropriation, dis- 

 tribution, or use of water, and the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior in carrying out 

 the provisions of the act shall proceed 

 in conformity with state laws; also that 

 nothing in the bill shall be held to 

 affect the rights of any state or states, 

 or of the federal government, or of an)- 

 individual in the waters of any inter- 

 state stream. This last provision sim- 

 ply leaves in operation the present rule 

 of priority on the arid region. 



The members of the Irrigation Com- 

 mittee feel sure that the bill as reported 

 will be satisfactory to all irrigation in- 

 terests. The last clause of the state- 

 control provision is inserted with the 



idea of fully meeting the views of all 

 those living in states along the lower 

 course of streams used for irrigation 

 purposes. 



The Adiron- 

 dack Park* 



Accurate information of 

 the woodlands of New 

 York, especially the Adi- 

 rondacks, has long been needed. Gen- 

 eral information is abundant. Individ- 

 uals have recorded their observations, 

 and commissions have made inspection 

 tours and issued reports of a general 

 nature, but until recently no extensive 

 examination of the region had been 

 made, lot by lot, township by township. 



The Forest, Fish, and Game Commis- 

 sion during last summer conducted such 

 an examination of those lands b'ing 

 within the imaginary blue line of the 

 park, the work being entrusted to Mr. 

 R. C. Bryant and Mr. Asa S. WilHams, 

 the latter kindly furnishing the follow- 

 ing information : 



' ' It was not necessary to examine 

 400,000 acres recently purchased, as 

 the Commission had already conducted 

 examinations of this land before the pur- 

 chase was made. The land examined 

 was classified as follows: Forest, lum- 

 bered, waste, burnt ^ swamp, cleared, 

 improved, and water, state and private 

 lands being kept separate. 



' ' The term ' forest ' was given to land 

 still containing a good stand of spruce. 

 Of trvily virgin forest there remains but 

 little in the Adirondacks. Lumbered : 

 Culled forest with only the hardwoods 

 remaining. Waste: Lands covered with 

 an inferior growth of no economic im- 

 portance. De?itided: Absolute waste 

 land with no tree growth. Burned: 

 Lands on which the stand was destroyed 



