1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION, 



447 



be reclaimed just as fast as settlers will 

 take the land and pay back to the gov- 

 ernment the cost of the irrigation works 

 built for their reclamation. This and 

 the merit of each project, and nothing 

 else, should be the test of whether any 

 given project should be built. Unless 

 we can establish this broad policy as the 

 policy of the national government, the 

 result will be that at the end of a couple 

 of years the western states will inevita- 

 bly be fighting among themselves for the 

 small sum of $2,000,000 or $3,000,000 a 

 year, which is all that will be available 

 under the present act. 



In the next two years there will be 

 about $10,000,000 available for con- 

 struction, because we started with a fund 

 of nearly $6,000,000 when the bill was 

 passed. This fund of $10,000,000 is as 

 much as can be wisely expended during 

 the next two or three years. 



It will be enough to build a few great 

 reservoirs and main-line canals as object 

 lessons to prove the truth of our claims 

 to the eastern people of what can be 

 accomplished by national irrigation. It 

 is not material where these projects may 

 be located. Our association will back 

 up the Interior Department in any selec- 

 tion they may make. But the people 



of any section of the west who unite 

 their forces can do much to promote the 

 construction of any particular project if 

 it possesses every merit and promise of 

 success. 



I would urge the organization of a 

 section of The National Irrigation Asso- 

 ciation in every city and town in the 

 west to study and to teach the true 

 principles of this whole irrigation prop- 

 aganda. 



It is not limited to governmental con- 

 struction. It covers the whole field of 

 private irrigation enterprise ; of the or- 

 ganization of water companies ; of the 

 betterment of our laws of water along 

 right lines ; of artesian development and 

 of pumping for irrigation from every 

 underground source. 



And last, but not least, it takes in 

 the whole field of forestry. The bleak 

 plains of western Nebraska should be 

 dotted with forest groves planted by 

 Uncle Sam. Every farmer should be 

 induced to plant trees, and then to 

 plant more trees The children in your 

 schools should be taught to love the 

 trees and to preserve those we have, and 

 plant more every year, until the whole 

 State of Nebraska is dotted all over with 

 groves of beautiful trees. 



THE MESQUITE: A DESERT STUDY. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE HABITS AND USES 

 OF A VALUABLE TREE OF THE SOUTHWEST. 



BY 



S. J. HOLSINGER, 



GENERAL LAND OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 



ONE of the most perplexful ques- 

 tions in Arizona is the proper 

 classification of the Mesquite, Prosopis 

 juUflora. The Supreme Court of the 

 Territory in 1897 decided that this hard 3^ 

 pioneer of the desert was not " timber," 

 in the meaning of the United States 

 Statutes, and was not entitled to the 

 protection afforded by the public timber 

 laws. 



Some of the judges went so far as to 



declare that this tree was not a tree at 

 all, but a recumbent shrub. From this 

 one judge dissented. Not satisfied with 

 this decision, the Commissioner of the 

 General Land Office directed that a test 

 case be prepared, and if necessary an 

 appeal be carried to the United States 

 Supreme Court. However, the terri- 

 torial courts modified the former de- 

 cision, holding that the question as to 

 whether Mesquite w^as timber was one 



