1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



395 



servative use of forest resources, whether 

 in public or in private hands, and in 

 particular the creation and manage- 

 ment of forest reserves under practical 

 business-like rules and regulations, to 

 the end that local timber supplies may 

 be maintained for mining and other 

 uses ; and, 



' % Resolved, That the interest of the 

 mining industry, to which timber and 

 water alike are essential, the care and 

 management of all government forest 

 reserves, except as to titles, should be 

 transferred from the General Land 

 Office to the United States Department 

 of Agriculture in accordance with the 

 recommendations of the President, the 

 Secretary of the Inteiior, and the Com- 

 missioner of the General Land Office." 



Trial of As the result of investi- 



Forestry. gations and representa- 



tions of Mr. E. A. Ster- 

 ling and Mr. W. F. Hubbard, of the 

 Bureau of Forestry, the Madera Sugar 

 Pine Lumber Company, a large lumber 

 concern in the middle Sierras, has de- 

 cided to try forty acres of woodland 

 tinder forestry regulations as an experi- 

 'ment. Upon this tract a system of fire 

 protection and a method of conservative 

 lumbering will be put into practice im- 

 mediately. It is the intention to lum- 

 ber this land in such a manner that the 

 maximum amount of timber can be re- 

 moved and at the same time assuring a 

 reproduction of the valuable species and 

 a subsequent protection of the same 

 from fire. Only the simplest and cheap- 

 est methods will be experimented with, 

 but if definite results can be obtained 

 the knowledge gained will be of great 

 value to practical work. 



Progress Mr. D. W. Ross, Engi- 



in Idaho. neer in charge of the 



reclamation work in 

 Idaho, reports active operations in that 

 state during the month of August, as 

 follows : 



Minidoka Project. During the month 

 the topographic parties finished taking 

 topography on the north side of Snake 

 River ; final location was made of the 



North Side Canal down to the first main 

 branches, test pits being sunk every 300 

 feet and borings made about every 100 

 feet. Investigations were completed at 

 the site for the power-house, and a map 

 prepared showing by lo-foot contours 

 the lay of the bed rock at this place. An 

 examination was made of lands near the 

 upper river to be flooded by backwater, 

 and estimates of their value made. 

 Preparations for actual construction will 

 be pushed rapidly during the coming 

 month. 



Payette- Boisf Project. The assistant 

 engineers in charge of field parties in 

 this section completed surveys of the 

 preliminary location of the main canal 

 systems of the Payette-Boise project, be- 

 sides doing considerable line topography 

 on same. 



Dubois Project Surveys for reservoir 

 sites were made during the month on the 

 headwaters of Fall River and in the vi- 

 cinity of Lewis and Shoshone lakes on 

 the South Fork of Snake River. In the 

 opinion of the engineers in charge of 

 this work, it will be feasible to divert the 

 waters of South Fork into Fall River 

 drainage, converting Lewis and Sho- 

 shone lakes into a reservoir which may be 

 used in connection with either stream. 



Reservoir surveys were made in Au- 

 gust on the Big and Little Wood rivers 

 and Big Lost River, and reconnaissance 

 surveys on the Payette River were com- 

 pleted. The engineer in charge of this 

 work is now engaged in platting up the 

 results of his investigations on the Boise 

 and Payette drainage. 



Stream-gaging work was kept up 

 throughout the month and a great deal 

 of canal-measurement work was done on 

 the upper Snake River. 



Altogether the progress made in Idaho 

 by the engineers of the Reclamation 

 Service is most gratifying, not only to 

 the members of the Service, but to every 

 citizen who has the welfare of this section 

 at heart. 



Modern Mr. Morris Bien, of the 



Irrigation Law. United States Reclama- 

 tion Service, at the re- 

 quest of the two commissions appointed 

 by the governors of Oregon and Wash- 



