1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



273 



necessary to secure a stand of trees, 

 and by improving the conditions for 

 natural seeding over areas where the 

 present forest stand is insufficient. 



Several parties are now in the field 

 in connection with this work. In the 

 Middle West a large number of land- 

 owners have made application for as- 

 sistance in establishing woodlot and 

 other forest plantations, and the work 

 of examining these farms and prepar- 

 ing plans for them is now under way. 



On the forest reserves recently es- 

 tablished in the sand-hills of Nebraska 

 hy President Roosevelt's proclamation 

 preparations for extensive planting are 

 being carried forward as rapidly as pos- 

 sible. The necessary buildings w^ill be 

 erected, seed beds and nurseries will be 

 prepared, and a large quantity of seed 

 collected in preparation for planting 

 next spring. 



A field part}' of seven men is making 

 a forest survey of Oklahoma, including 

 a special study of forest conditions on 

 the Wichita Forest Reserve. On the 

 Prescott Forest Reserve, in Arizona, an 

 investigation is being made to devise 

 methods for increasing the forest stand 

 by improving the conditions for natu- 

 ral seeding. 



In Massachusetts and New Hamp- 

 shire a party is studying the reproduc- 

 tion of White Pine, on old fields and 

 pastures, for the purpose of determining 

 the best conditions for seed germination. 

 In addition, a party will study the re- 

 sults of planting to reclaim the sand- 

 dunes along the Atlantic Coast. A great 

 deal of work has been done for this pur- 

 pose on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts, 

 and some in New' Jersey. A thorough 

 study is also being made of the drifting 

 sand along the Columbia River, in the 

 vicinity of The Dalles, Oregon, to devise 

 means for controlling it by planting. 



In Corneirs Attorney General Davies 

 Favor. has decided that the New 



York State College of For- 

 estry has not violated any provisions of 

 law on the land held b}' it in the Adiron- 

 dack Preserve, and he has made public 

 an opinion in which he holds that there 

 exists no cause for the commencement 

 of an action to dispossess from lands 



which the college holds for forest 

 purposes. 



In his opinion Attorne}- General 

 Davies says : 



" This contention rests entirely upon 

 the assumption that the lands in ques- 

 tion are 'the lands of the state,' and 

 this assumption is wholly unwarranted. 

 The lands are the property of Cornell 

 University. The act in pursuance of 

 which they were purchased provides 

 that ' the university shall have the title, 

 possession, management, and control of 

 such land,' for a period of thirty years. 



' ' The argument that the state is the 

 equitable owner rests, of course, wholly 

 upon the tneory that the moneys of the 

 state were unlawfully employed in their 

 purchase. 



" This is not the fact. The doctrine 

 of equitable ownership and resulting 

 trusts has no application. Any corpo- 

 ration or individual owning lands within 

 the forest preserve may cut and destroy 

 the timber upon it at will. It is only 

 the lands of the state which are pro- 

 tected." 



New Forest A state forest association 

 Association, was recently organized at 

 Cheyenne, Wyoming, 

 with the following officers : H. B.Hen- 

 derson, president ; W. H. Holliday, 

 vice-president ; W. C. Deming, secre- 

 tary ; F. Chatterton, treasurer. The 

 association recommended that a super- 

 intendent of forestry be appointed for 

 each county in the state. A resolution 

 was also passed asking the trustees of 

 the University of Wyoming to consider 

 at their next meeting the advisability 

 of establishing a department of forestry 

 in that institution. 



Southern On June 24 the Sen- 



Forest Reserve, ate passed a bill for 

 the purchase of 4,000, 

 000 acres of land in the southern Ap- 

 palachian Mountains for the creation of 

 a national forest reserve. The bill pro- 

 vides that the cost shall not exceed 

 $10,000,000, and that the Secretary of 

 Agriculture is to designate the lands to 

 be purchased and take measures to pre- 

 serve the forests. 



There was not time for this bill to be 



