164 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



April, 



but in a less degree than in the conifers. 

 The general effect of frost is the same in 

 both classes of timber (Fig. 5). The 

 more difficult the timber is to split, the 

 less likely it is to be affected by the 

 frost, either by expansion or contrac- 

 tion. 



It is noticeable that frost checks from 

 expansion are most frequent in the tim- 



ber standing on the south side of hills 

 or mountains. Trees standing on the 

 north side of hills and mountains are 

 found to be much less affected by ex- 

 pansion or ring checks, on account of 

 being protected by the intervening ele- 

 vations from receiving the direct warm- 

 ing influence of the sun, consequently 

 expanding more gradually. 



PROPOSED NATIONAL LEGISLATION. 



EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION ON 



IRRIGATION. 



WHY NATIONAL AID IS ASKED. 



NATIONAL aid is not asked to se- 

 cure the beginning of the work of 

 irrigation nor to take up an experiment. 

 Many millions have already been spent 

 by private enterprise. The main object 

 of national assistance is to make it possi- 

 ble for the people of the country to con- 

 tinue to secure homes upon the public 

 domain through the ability to obtain 

 water, to be brought ultimately to the 

 land by ditches or conduits built by 

 themselves. It is asked for the same 

 reason that the settlers called upon the 

 government to protect them from the 

 Indians ; that works are built to prevent 

 overflows of great rivers, and navigation 

 aided by establishing light-houses, and 

 sometimes rendered possible by dredging 

 a bar across the entrance to a harbor. 

 As before stated, none of these pay, in 

 the sense of a commercial undertaking, 

 but the government and the people as a 

 whole secure a larger share of pros- 

 perity through thus making possible in- 

 <:reased opportunities for commerce and 

 industry. 



The national government has already 

 begun in part the work of reclamation 

 by setting aside the summits of the 

 mountains from which issue the rivers 

 most important in irrigation, and creat- 

 ing these into forest reser\-es for the 

 beneficial influence exercised upon the 

 stream flow. It is necessary to go still 

 further, and within these forest reserves 



to build reservoirs, saving the floods and 

 regulating the flow of the streams. 

 These should never fall into private or 

 speculative control, but should be ad- 

 ministered for the benefit of various 

 communities, situated often in different 

 states. 



NATIONAL CONTROL PREFERABLE. 



There is no doubt that any extensive 

 plan for the reclamation of arid lands 

 can be carried on to much better advan- 

 tage by the general government than by 

 the states which have such lands within 

 their borders. Where the lands have 

 been granted to the states the}' have 

 been improvidently disposed of, and 

 private individuals have ultimatel}' ac- 

 quired owniership of large tracts, as 

 many as 14,000 acres in one instance. 

 In every case where work of reclamation 

 was a national enterprise it was a suc- 

 cess, and only when relegated to the 

 state has it proved a failure. The na- 

 tional government, the original owner of 

 the land and still the possessor of the 

 greater part of it, alone has the right 

 and the ability to conserA^e the waters 

 for the best interests of the several states 

 and communities. 



In California 43 per cent of the land 

 belongs to the United States or is re- 

 served and not subject to taxation; in 

 Colorado, 60 per cent; in Idaho, 83 per 

 cent ; in Montana, 83 per cent ; in 

 Nevada, 88 per cent ; in Utah, 83 per 



