1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



331 



take sheep into lands actually owned by 

 the United States, much injustice will be 

 done by the court decisions. 



The rules of the Department of the 

 Interior relative to the use of private 

 lands within a forest reservation for 

 grazing purposes are as follows : 



" Persons who own, or who have 

 leased from owners, lands within an}' 

 reserve which they desire to use for 

 grazing purposes, and who must cross 

 the reserve lands with their stock to 

 reach such private holdings, must make 

 application to the supervisor for the 

 privilege of crossing. The application 

 mu^t be accompanied with an abstract 

 of title showing the ownership of the 

 land and, if leased from an owner, a 

 certified cop\' of the lease, and must 

 state the number of stock to be taken 

 in, the length of time required to cross 

 the reserve land, the route over which 

 the stock is to be driven, and the date 

 of starting, and the time when the stock 

 will start out again ; also how much 

 stock the owned or leased lands will 

 carry during the period it is proposed 

 to keep the stock thereon. When any 

 such application is made to the super- 

 visor, he will examine it with care, and 

 if he finds it reasonable and just and 

 made in good faith for the purpose of 

 utilizing such private holdings only, he 

 will approve the same and forward it to 

 the Commissioner of the General Land 

 Office. After the Secretary approves 

 the application, due notice thereof will 



be given the applicant, through the 

 supervisor, and he may then take his 

 stock in . . ." 



These rules and a statement showing 

 the doubts as to ownership of the lands 

 claimed were before the court when it 

 decided to accept the evidence of the 

 defendants, and to give them the bene- 

 fit of the doubt as to ownership. 



The order of the court, made without 

 applying the test required by the de- 

 partment rules, gives these four defend- 

 ants the right to take 28,784 sheep into 

 the reserve, with the right to cross the 

 public lands back and forth to reach 60 

 disconnected tracts of land located in 

 65 different sections and in 15 different 

 townships. 



Any man having a meritorious case 

 who will comply with the rules will ob- 

 tain all his rights promptly without 

 going to court. The General Land Office 

 recognizes the right of ingress and 

 egress to private holdings within a for- 

 est reserve, and any good-faith use of 

 these holdings is in no way discour- 

 aged ; but when a man wants to take 

 4,000 sheep to 1,000 acres which would 

 not support 500 sheep during the graz- 

 ing season, and applies to go over the 

 public lands for a distance of 50 miles, 

 when he could reach the land b}- a reg- 

 ular route of not over 25 miles, and 

 when he is not certain that he has the 

 right to use more than one-half of the 

 1,000 acres he is going to, the Land 

 Office is not the place to apply to. 



NOTABLE IRRIGATION WORKS. 



II. A MODEL FARM IN TEXAS.* 



ON the outskirts of San Antonio, 

 Texas, is located possibly one of 

 the most successful, as well as one of 

 the most lucrative, small farms in the 

 entire South. 



In addition to being a practical dem- 

 onstration of the success of irrigation 

 as applied to the growing of garden 

 truck in the semi-arid district of Texas, 



it is a monument to the enterprise and 

 faith of Mr. F. F. Collins, its promoter 

 and owner. It is an object lesson in 

 intensive agriculture, and, aside from 

 manifesting the fertility of soil and the 

 presence of artesian water in great sup- 

 ply, it has proven to the growers and 

 others of western Texas the wonderful 

 element of profit which attends intelli- 



* The text and illustrations of this article are reprinted here throiii^h the courtesy of the 

 Southern Pacific Railway Company. 



