494 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



November 



tion. Their special significance will 

 be in showing what can be done by 

 forestry where ax and fire have done 

 their worst in impoverishment of both 

 soil and timber. As very much of the 

 country, not only in that part of the 

 State, but in many other regions of 

 the East, shows the effects of the 

 same evils, the reclamation of this 

 tract of land will offer a splendid object 

 lesson, and should be encouragement 

 for work of the same kind elsewhere. 



Timber 



Seasoning 



Stations 



The Bureau of Forest- 

 ry has recently signed 

 an agreement to make 

 extensive timber seasoning tests in two 

 Western States, in cooperation with two 

 telegraph and telephone companies. 

 Experimental stations will be located at 

 Marinette, Wis., and Escanaba, Mich. ; 

 and probably a third station will be 

 established at Ashland, Wis. The ex- 

 pense of the experiments will be borne 

 jointly by the Bureau and the compa- 

 nies. Cedar and tamarack telephone 

 and telegraph poles will be furnished 

 by the State of Wisconsin free of cost, 

 and two railroad companies have 

 agreed to haul them to the experiment 

 stations without charge for freight. 



The object of the experiments is to 

 determine how many years can be add- 

 ed to the life of each pole by proper 

 seasoning. Since millions upon mill- 

 ions of poles are used along telegraph 

 and telephone lines, even one year's 

 extra service for each pole will amount 

 to a tremendous saving in expense. 

 Unseasoned cedar poles last from 

 twelve to fifteen years. Seasoning ex- 

 periments have shown how to increase 

 this time by three or four years, and 

 it is now expected to improve on this 

 increase. Past methods of seasoning 

 have effected a drying out of 20 per 

 cent of the original weight of the 

 poles. 



The Second Annual 

 Report of the Recla- 

 mation Service, which 

 was compiled under the supervision of 

 Mr. F. H. Newell, chief engineer, is 



Report of 



Reclamation 



Service 



now available. It is a continuation of 

 the First Annual Report, which was 

 completed on November 29, 1902, and 

 transmitted at the opening of the sec- 

 ond session of the Fifty-seventh Con- 

 gress. The statements made in the 

 first report are supplemented in the 

 second by an account of the results 

 accomplished during the field season 

 of 1903 by Mr. Newell and his as- 

 sistants. 



The present report opens with a dis- 

 cussion of the reclamation law and the 

 application of its various provisions 

 under existing conditions. In trans- 

 mitting the report to the Secretary of 

 the Interior, the Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey states that a 

 practical application of the provisions 

 of the law has shown them to be ef- 

 fective, and that so far as can be seen, 

 at the present time, no further legis- 

 lation is required, as the law seems to 

 have sufficient scope to accomplish its 

 purpose. Following the exposition of 

 the law comes a statement of decisions 

 made by the Secretary of the Interior 

 relating to the Reclamation Service. 

 These refer to withdrawal of lands, 

 limitation of the areas of homestead 

 entries, the establishment of water 

 rights, the purchase of lands, the res- 

 ervation Of rights of way, supervision 

 over, right of way applications, the or- 

 dering of public-land surveys, etc. The 

 various State and local agencie? or- 

 ganized ' to assist in carrying out the 

 reclamation law are also briefly de- 

 scribed. 



The bulk of the report consists of 

 detailed descriptions, arranged in al- 

 phabetical order, by States and Terri- 

 tories, of the operations in the field. 

 These descriptions are by the district 

 engineers in charge of the operations. 

 Mr. Arthur P. Davis writes of the in- 

 vestigations made in Arizona and New 

 Mexico; Mr. J. B. Lippincott, of the 

 work in California ; Mr. A. L. Fellows, 

 of the investigations in Colorado ; Mr. 

 D. W. Ross, of those in Idaho; Mr. 

 W. G. Russell, of those in Kansas ; Mr. 



