1 904 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 123 



We summarize our recommendations of lands owned by the state in forest- 

 as follows : preserve counties outside of the park 



First. The passage of an act definitely limits when unsuited for a forest pre- 

 fixing the limits of the Adirondack Park serve, and the application of the pro- 

 so as to include the contiguous forests ceeds to the purchase of lands in the 

 which the park was established to pro- park, 

 tect. Sixth. The passage of an act defining 



Second. A resumption of the state the boundaries of the Catskill Park, 



policy of purchase of lands in the forest Seventh. An appropriation of $10,000 



preserve. this year and $5,000 next year, to be 



Third. The enactment of laws requir- used with a like amount appropriated 



ing adequate precautions against fire set- by the national government in defining, 



ting by steam engines, a stricter ac- classifying, and describing the forests 



countability in damages of all parties in the forest preserve, 



setting fires carelessly or wantonly, and As your special committee is identical 



the establishment of a system of fire with the Senate Committee on Forest, 



patrol. Fish, and Game, committee bills will 



Fourth. The adoption and execution be reported during this session to cover 



of a plan of reforestation of denuded the recommendations made, 



state lands in the Forest Park. ELON R. BROWN, 



Fifth. A constitutional amendment WM. W. ARMSTRONG, 



empowering the legislature to pass laws J. P. ALLDS, 



for the destruction or removal of dead FRANK J. LEFEVRE, 



timber and debris on burned areas W. L,. BROWN, 



through agencies and employes of the WM. TOWNSEND, 



state, and not by contract, for the pur- LUKE A. KEENAN, 



pose of reforestation, and for the sale Special Committee. 



RECLAMATION OF SALT AND ALKALI 



LANDS. 



SHOWING APPLICABILITY OF RECENT TRIALS OF SOIL- 

 WASHING IN EGYPT TO SIMILAR PROBLEMS IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. COMPILED FROM RECENT PUBLICATIONS 



OF 



THOMAS H. MEANS, 



IN CHARGE OF ALKALI RECLAMATION, BUREAU OF SOILS. 



THE soils of Egypt have been were broken, and large areas were 

 farmed for thousands of years, flooded with salt water or left idle. The 

 There are at the present time 6,250,000 land thus abandoned was subject to 

 acres of irrigated land, and it is supposed evaporation from the surface, as a con- 

 that under the Pharaohs a much larger sequence of which over 1,500,000 acres 

 area was under cultivation, for at the of land have been so damaged by the 

 present time one-third of the irrigable rise of salt and alkali that their cultiva- 

 land is uncultivated. At the time of the tion is no longer possible. These lands 

 Arabian conquest, in the seventh cen- lie in a fringe around the lower edge of 

 turyA. D., a large portion of Egypt was the Delta and extend from Alexandria 

 devastated, the banks of the old basins to Suez. 



For the use of the illustrations in this article we are indebted to the courtesy of the Bureau 

 of Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture. EDITOR. 



