1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



321 



known as the richest in the world, and 

 its cities, Nineveh and Babylon, were 

 the centers of a magnificent civiliza- 

 tion, built upon the great agricultural 

 resources of the valleys in which they 

 were situated. It is pointed out that 

 although desolation now reigns over a 

 large part of the area under considera- 

 tion, yet the land has steadily been 

 gaining in fertility from the annual 

 overflows of the rivers and from the fact 

 that no extensive agricultural opera- 

 tions have taken anything from the soil. 

 With the Bagdad Railway completed to 

 form a method of transportation, and a 

 rebuilding of old irrigation works, the 

 country could again take its place at 

 the head of the agricultural regions of 

 the world, for no other place is more 

 favored for the production of cereal 

 crops. Cane, cotton, and tobacco will 

 grow in tropic abundance, and it is con- 

 fidently expected that capital can be in- 

 terested from the financial centers of 

 Europe. Labor can be had in abun- 

 dance and at a low wage from India. 



In this connection it may be noted 

 that the Carnegie Institute has taken 

 steps looking toward an investigation 

 of the causes of present aridity in that 

 part of Syria which was the biblical 

 Palestine, and was at one time marvel- 

 ously fertile. Various reasons have 

 been assigned for its present barren 

 conditions, among them being the in- 

 crease of alkali and the injurious effects 

 which have followed complete deforest- 

 ation. 



For an We present in this issue 



Appalachian an address by the Hon. 

 Forest Reserve* James Wilson, Secretary 

 of Agriculture, on the 

 advantages to accrue from the estab- 

 lishment of a national forest reserve in 

 the southern Appalachians. The dis- 

 cussion of this subject brings up no new 

 matter, as FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 

 has remarked upon it frequently in the 

 past, and will continue to do so until 

 the reserve stands as an assured fact. A 

 bill to establish it has been twice before 

 Congress and has been favored by two 

 Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt. 

 The latter especially has been strongly 



in favor of it, and sent a special mes- 

 sage concerning it to Congress at the 

 last session. In June, 1902, a bill pro- 

 viding for the purchase of lands for the 

 proposed reserve w r as passed by the 

 United States Senate, but not in time 

 to be considered by the House before 

 adjournment. At the next session the 

 bill was not allowed to come to a vote 

 in the House, which was highly regret- 

 table, since the Senate had passed it 

 almost unanimously, and it was known 

 that a majority of the Representatives 

 were in favor of it. 



The reasons for such a reserve are 

 ably set forth in the address printed 

 elsewhere in the Magazine, but it is 

 worth while to call renewed attention 

 to the value of preserving the forested 

 areas of the mountains to prevent the 

 rapid run-off of the spring rains and the 

 annual floods, which destroy so much 

 property along the Atlantic Coast rivers 

 from Virginia southward. It is an as- 

 sured fact that the bill will again come 

 up in Congress, and the necessity of 

 action is urged on every community to 

 instruct its Congressional delegation to 

 \vork for an Appalachian reserve ; and 

 it is particularly incumbent upon the 

 people of the Southern Atlantic States 

 to see that their Representatives and 

 Senators present a solid front in this 

 matter. 



Water Users The Bear Valley Water 

 to Buy Plant. Company, which sup- 

 plies water to orange 

 orchardists in the neighborhood of Red- 

 lands, California, is considering a propo- 

 sition by which the users of the water 

 may buy out the company, which at 

 present is formed of men who have little 

 direct interest in the irrigation except 

 the collection of water rents of the or- 

 chardists. The Bear Valley Company. 

 by the terms of an agreement now pend- 

 ing, will sell its reservoir in Bear Valley 

 and its dam site in the ' ' narrows ' ' of 

 the Santa Ana Canyon, together with 

 its entire system of distribution, for 

 $625,000. The water users who form 

 the contemplated new company will 

 issue bonds to the amount of $900,000, 

 to mature in 50 years and bearing in- 



