2 7 6 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



this site free of rent to any enterprising 

 American who will establish a modern 

 sawmill here. He will promise the 

 American all of his own sawing, and no 

 doubt he would receive the \vork of the 

 many large plantations in this province 

 and that of the new Cuban Central Rail- 

 road. Mr. Hunter says that there is a 

 great local demand for doors, window 

 frames, and moldings at very profitable 

 prices, these articles being now im- 

 ported from the United States under 

 heavy rates of duty. 



' ' The fact that an American firm 

 has established a good sawmill in Ha- 

 bana and is now buying logs in this 

 port and shipping them to the mill, pay- 

 ing freight rates equal to a shipment to 

 the United States, makes it apparent 

 that the establishment of a mill in this 

 city under the conditions mentioned 

 would be very profitable. My own 

 investigations along this line substan- 

 tiate Mr. Hunter's conclusions. 



"In connection herewith, I would 

 mention that the two principal export 

 woods of Cuba mahogany and cedar- 

 are steadily enhancing in value, and the 

 holders of the choicest timber lands on 

 the north coast, as well as those holding 

 lands adjacent to the new Central Rail- 

 road, are advancing their prices. Never- 

 theless, there are good mahogany lands 

 on the south coast of Cuba that may yet 

 be bought at a low figure." 



Operations of Surveys will be made by 

 the Bureau the Bureau of Soils of 

 of Soils. the Department of Ag- 



riculture under Milton 

 Whitney during the current year to 

 cover 27,850 square miles, distributed 

 generally throughout the country. 

 About 33,785 square miles have already 

 been surveyed, and these embrace al- 

 most every phase of agricultural indus- 

 try in the United States. These sur- 

 veys are valuable, particularly in the 

 West, where the soil types, with their 

 origin and processes of formation, are 

 described, with recommendations as to 

 crops grown, possible yields, adapta- 

 bility of certain soils to crops, special 

 soil problems, irrigation and drainage, 

 location, origin, and composition of 



alkali, and the reclamation of lands 

 from alkali, swamps, or sand. It can 

 be seen that these surveys cover a mul- 

 titude of important details, and requests 

 are daily pouring into the Bureau for 

 surveys in particular localities. In ad- 

 dition to the regular survey work in 

 charge of field parties, Mr. Thomas H. 

 Means, head of the soils surveys of the 

 United States, is making practical dem- 

 onstrations of the reclamation of alkali 

 lands, and is at present in the Yakima 

 Valley, Washington, installing a system 

 of drainage which will make available 

 a large acreage now worthless. The 

 Yakima Valley has but 10 inches annual 

 rainfall, and irrigation has everything 

 to do with its development. If the al- 

 kali problem can be solved, there will 

 be a manifold increase in farm values 

 there. 



Irrigation in In view of the great ir- 

 India. rigation works being 



planned by the federal 

 government, the report of irrigation 

 works for India recently published by 

 the British Government is of interest. 

 According to this report, the " product- 

 ive works " that is, those constructed 

 out of loan funds in the expectation 

 that they would prove directly remuner- 

 ative yielded a net revenue of about 

 $8,000,000, the largest on record, equiv- 

 alent to a percentage of 7.36 on a total 

 capital outlay of $110,000,000. This 

 percentage has only once been exceeded, 

 viz., in 1 897-' 98, when it was 7.50. The 

 most profitable results were obtained in 

 the Punjab and Madras, where the per- 

 centages were 11.24 and 9.05, respect- 

 ively. Out of 35 works classed as pro- 

 ductive, 13 (including all the canals in 

 Bengal, the Deccan, and Gujarat) are 

 never expected to cover the interest on 

 the capital outlay. The 22 actually 

 productve works yielded 10. 1 1 percent. 

 One canal, the Cauvery delta in Madras, 

 returned 34.81 per cent. If the total 

 surplus profits realized up to the end of 

 1900-1901 be added together, the open 

 canals have produced 27 ^ per cent, after 

 paying all charges for interest and work- 

 ing expenses. 



No new productive works were opened 



