1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



499 



to longer continue mereh'' withdrawing 

 a hody of land here and there and polic- 

 ing it, when all forested areas need to 

 be withdrawn and protected, would be 

 to close the eyes to the obvious fact that 

 the system of establishing occasional 

 reservations in wideh' scattered locali- 

 ties falls short of securing proper pro- 

 tection to our public forests. The leg- 

 islation in 1 89 1 authorizing the estab- 

 lishment of individual reserves has 

 proved of inestimable value in affording 

 this office a 'testing ground,' so to 

 speak, in respect to the benefits of a 

 forest service. A considerable expan- 

 sion of that provision is, however, now 

 needed to take in, as above shown, all 

 forest lands of the government. 



' ' To work upon narrower lines would 

 be to reduce a so-called national system 

 to serving, to a large extent, merely 

 local purposes, at various points where 

 bodies of land may be set apart as for- 

 est reservations. Under existing legis- 

 lation the condition of affairs at this 

 time presents the anomaly of the gov- 

 ernment setting apart certain isolated 

 tracts of land and bestowing upon them 

 rational protection while abandoning 

 the great sweep of its forested area to 

 waste and destruction from ever}' 

 source. 



' ' Unchecked conflagrations and the 

 inroads of lumbering companies are 

 rapidly sweeping bare these unreserved 

 lands, while, with full knowledge of the 

 fact, this office stands powerless to check 

 the evil. 



"And, clearly, until the polic}- of with- 

 drawing lands and placing them under 

 a forest force is adopted, such must con- 

 tinue to be the case. Conflagrations 

 which could be prevented or checked in 

 their incipiency by forest guards are 

 now, in the main, given full sweep, 

 while corporations and others have prac- 

 tically little or no limit placed upon their 

 spoliation of public timber lands. 



' ' The proved efficiency of a forest 

 system in protecting and administering 

 the reserves that have been set apart 

 leaves no room to doubt the advisability 

 of extending such a system as will pro- 

 tect all our forested lands." 



The failure to do so heretofore has 



resulted in the whole of the timbered por- 

 tions of the public domain, and especially 

 the portions lying west of the Mississippi 

 River, being practically thrown open to 

 pillage and to the far worse ravages of 

 fire. To stay or check the tide of de- 

 struction there has been nothing be- 

 yond a petty force of special agents, 

 averaging at present little more than 

 fifty a year, with areas to protect scat- 

 tered through a territor}' stretching over 

 more than two-thirds of the entire 

 country lying south of the British pos- 

 sessions. With such a force nothing 

 can be attempted in anywise commen- 

 surate with the gigantic scale upon 

 which the work of destruction has gone 

 on a work which, moreover, yearly in- 

 creases in proportion to the rapid devel- 

 opment of the country. 



The inefficiency of this present sys- 

 tem has been f airh^ tested for more than 

 twenty-five years. During this time, 

 had the three millions of dollars appro- 

 priated for the protection of these unre- 

 ser\'ed lands been expended in connec- 

 tion with establishing a forest service 

 over the forested portions, incalculable 

 benefit would have resulted, not only in 

 connection w4th preventing unlawful 

 destruction of the forests, but in furnish- 

 ing required supplies of timber to meet 

 the legitimate and growing needs of the 

 country. For this timber the govern- 

 ment would have received proper com- 

 pensation, which would long since have 

 m9,de the work more than self-support- 

 ing. The timbered area of our public 

 domain should undoubtedly be so ad- 

 ministered as to be no longer a burden 

 upon the revenues of the country. The 

 timber itself is capable of producing a 

 revenue far more than ample to cover 

 all expenses connected with its care and 

 management. 



Undoubtedh', since the only rational 

 course to pursue in connection with svich 

 of these lands as are more valuable for 

 forest uses than for other purposes is to 

 withdraw them from disposal, and to 

 protect and administer them in accord- 

 ance with the principles of forestry, no 

 just reason can be adduced for delaying 

 such action. Preservation of the for- 

 ests, water conservation, the legitimate 

 supplying of public needs in respect to 



