1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



231 



The Teton Forest Resen'e has been 

 considerabl}^ enlarged b}' taking in a 

 portion of the Yellowstone Park Timber 

 Land Reserv^e and new lands to the 

 amount of 2,987,627 acres, making its 

 present area 4.127,360 acres, the second 

 largest reserve in the West. The Teton 

 Reserv^e is located in the northwest part 

 of Fremont County and the northern 

 part of Uintah County, Wyoming. 



Another new reserve declared on May 

 22, also in Wyoming, is the Medicine 

 Bow Forest Reserve, of 400,051 acres, 

 located in Carbon and Albany Counties. 

 The total area of all the forest reserves 



IS now 





9,432 acres. 



Forestry in At the meeting of the 



Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State For- 

 estry Reservation Com- 

 mission, held on May i, a tract of land 

 situate in Union, Center, Mifflin, and 

 Snyder Counties, containing about 

 74,000 acres, was purchased for the 

 state. About 6,000 acres were also pur- 

 chased in Huntingdon County, and a 

 tract of 500 acres in Pike County. 

 Acting under instructions from the 

 Commission, State Forester Geo. H. 

 Wirt has established a nursery at Mount 

 Alto, Franklin County, on which there 

 are growing 15,000 young white pine 

 trees, and seed has been sown for 

 300,000 more. An ideal spot of land 

 has been selected for the nursery. 

 Water will be piped so as to reach all 

 points of the nursery when necessary. 

 Arrangements are being made now to 

 plant half a million young pine trees 

 next spring and 50,000 poplars. There 

 is also a spontaneous growth of white 

 pine on the tract, about twenty years 



old, which wnll afford a splendid oppor- 

 tunity for the exercise of the forester's 

 art. It will show what can be done by 

 pruning and selective cutting. 



The opening of this nursery on the 

 Mount Alto Reservation has its uses 

 also as an object lesson, and has awak- 

 ened the greatest interest on the part of 

 the citizens of the neighborhood, who 

 have lent a ready assistance to the op- 

 erator when it was in their power to do 

 so. It looks like a revival of the old- 

 time industry which prevailed when 

 Mount Alto was a thriving furnace 

 seat. Forest Leaves. 



Forest Fires During the month of 

 During^ May. Ma}' there were forest 

 fires in fourteen states, 

 as follows : Maine, Massachusetts, New 

 York, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jer- 

 sey, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, 

 Tennessee, Maryland, Arizona, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Rhode Island. 



The most destructive fires of the month 

 were in Maine, Colorado, and New York. 

 A large amount of timber in the Adi- 

 rondacks, belonging to private owners, 

 was damaged. A number of forest fires 

 near East Moriches, U. I., early in the 

 month, required the efforts of hundreds 

 of people to prevent the destruction of 

 dwellings and other buildings. 



Date in the month a forest fire raged 

 in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in 

 Colorado. Great damage to standing 

 timber was caused by the fire, while the 

 water supply and grazing grounds of the 

 vicinity have been materially injured. 



In New Brunswick and British Co- 

 lumbia there were manj^ forest fires 

 which destro3'ed much standing timber. 



THE IRRIGATION BILL. 



THE bill providing for the creation 

 of a reclamation fund, and for 

 the construction of reserv^oirs, diversion 

 canals, and other works, passed the Sen- 

 ate March i, and was sent to the House, 

 where it was referred to the Committee 

 on Irrigation of Arid Lands. Various 

 amendments were made in committee, 

 the bill being improved in detail. On 



April 7 it was reported to the House of 

 Representatives. 



The principal features are the setting 

 aside of the proceeds from disposal of 

 w^estern arid lands to form a fund, by 

 means of which the Secretary of the In- 

 terior can make surveys and examina- 

 tions and proceed with the construction 

 of necessary works for water conserva- 



