390 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



September 



structure of the United States, and will 

 thus assist in obtaining knowledge 

 which can not fail to be of ultimate bene- 

 fit to well drillers. 



It may sometimes be necessary to re- 

 gard the records as confidential. In 

 such cases the information will be care- 

 fully guarded, and used only under the 

 conditions stipulated by the informant. 



The Director of the Survey will be 

 glad to have an expression of opinion 

 regarding this work from well owners 

 and drillers, and will be grateful to them 

 for any suggestions. 



A Good Rec- In a letter from Mr. 

 ommendation. Hutchins, Conservator 

 of Forests at Cape 

 Town, mention is made of a student 

 who comes from South Africa to attend 

 the Yale Forest School this fall. This 

 is a feather in the cap of American forest 

 school work and its practical applica- 

 bility to all conditions, as well as a 

 special tribute to the reputation and 

 value of the institution at Yale. 



Irrigation Everything promises well 

 Congress for the irrigation con- 

 Notes. gresstobeheldatEl Paso, 



November 1 5 to 1 8. This 

 is the twelfth national gathering, and 

 Executive Chairman Boothe expects 

 not less than 3,000 delegates, besides 

 a great number of persons who will take 

 advantage of the trip. It has been sug- 

 gested that President Roosevelt and 

 President Diaz, the " grand old man " 

 of Mexico, may meet at the congress, 

 held near the international boundary 

 line. It would be a unique occasion 

 and the first of its kind in American 

 history. At any rate, it is practically 

 assured that President Diaz will be 

 present, for he is deeply interested in 

 irrigation and the reclamation of large 

 arid tracts of land in the northern and 

 central portions of Mexico, and is will- 

 ing to encourage any movement tending 

 to the betterment of agricultural condi- 

 tions in his domain and along the adja- 

 cent Rio Grande borders. It is his 

 intention in November to visit Europe 

 after touring the United States, and it 



is his purpose, as already signified, to 

 stop at El Paso and attend the National 

 Irrigation Congress. 



During his absence from Mexico, Vice- 

 President Ramon Corral will occupy 

 the office of chief executive, and Presi- 

 dent Diaz'will be permitted, for the first 

 time since his ascendency to power in 

 the Republic, to leave for an indefinite 

 period the country whose destinies he 

 has controlled for more than a genera- 

 tion. 



Proposed -Mr. E . M . Griffith, 



Reserve in superintendent of the 

 Wisconsin. state forests of Wiscon- 

 sin,, has requested the 

 Land Commissioners to withdraw from 

 sale, pending a detailed examination as 

 to their suitability for the purposes of 

 a forest reserve, some 24,000 acres of 

 land in Iron count} 7 , that state. The 

 land being considered adjoins some 

 10,000 acres of forest reserve in Vilas 

 county, and also the Lac du Flambeau 

 Indian Reservation, which contains over 

 80,000, making a total of over 114,000 

 acres, all of which should be protected 

 from fire and logged conservatively. 

 Much of the Iron County area is swamp 

 and marsh land which should be re- 

 planted to forest, provided that they 

 can not be made fit for agriculture by 

 proper cultivation and drainage. Mr. 

 Griffith is having a careful examination 

 made of all these lands in order that he 

 may report to the legislature which 

 should be retained for reserve and 

 which should be re- offered for sale. 

 Both the Department of Agriculture 

 and the Geological Survey of the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin are assisting in the 

 work of examination and survey. 



Wisconsin Undoubtedly the great- 



and Fires. est forest problem in 



Wisconsin, as elsewhere, 

 is found in forest fires. During most 

 of this year, however, there were no 

 bad fires, except in May, which was 

 very dry. The forest fire or fire war- 

 den law of Wisconsin has been found a 

 good one, except for the defect that the 

 compensation is so small that it is hard 

 to get the best men to serve. About 



