1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



521 



when not reserved, they will recom- 

 mend that it be added to an adjacent 

 reserve or form a new one. 



Often the hardest task of the Bu- 

 reau agents is in reconciling conflict- 

 ing local interests. Sheep and caitle 

 men may be disputing over the same 

 grazing grounds, or each class ma\ 

 be at war over individual grazing 

 rights. Again, owners of farms or 

 of water-power plants may object t'; 

 any grazing in the forests, lest the 

 water supply be injured. In all such 

 cases the Bureau experts must exam- 

 ine and report on every phase of the 

 question, that, so far as possible, ab- 

 solute justice may be clone to all in- 

 terests. In perfecting present boun- 

 daries and increasing reserve areas 

 temporary local injury to some inter- 

 est is sometimes inevitable. This is 



most unfortunate, but these occasional 

 injuries can not weigh against the 

 importance of the general purpose of 

 forest reserve establishment. 



In all of this work one large fact 

 is to be recognized. It is that in the 

 execution of the policy of reserving 

 from private acquisition such parts 

 of the public domain as are suited to 

 forest growth and most useful under 

 permanent forests, a far-reaching and 

 beneficent policy is being carried out. 

 Under it the government is acting to 

 secure perpetually in the interests of 

 the whole people vast wealth-produc- 

 ing resources which otherwise, under 

 the stimulus of immediate private prof- 

 its from lumbering, grazing, and the 

 like, would in no long time be lost 

 forever. 



A TRIP THROUGH THE SAN BER- 

 NARDINO FOREST RESERVE 



BY 

 GEORGE BELLIS 



HE San Bernardino Forest 

 Reserve is located in the 

 San Bernardino range of moun- 

 tains and in San Bernardino 

 County, California. It was establish- 

 ed in 1893 largely as the result of the 

 persistent efforts of the late Col. Adolf 

 Wood, manager of the Arrowhead 

 Reservoir Company, and other public 

 spirited men of San Bernardino. It lies 

 in a north and northeasterly direc- 

 tion from the San Bernardino Valley, 

 famed as producing one-third of the 

 orange crop of the entire State, and 

 also noted for its irrigation systems, 

 which are far advanced and nearer 

 perfection here on the whole than at 

 any other place in the United States. 

 Enormous pumping plants, miles of 

 concrete-lined canals, and tunnels 

 through the mountains are very much 

 in evidence throughout the valley. 

 Thousands of dollars are here invest- 



ed for the maintenance of the present 

 water supply. Costly pumping plants 

 have been installed in some sections 

 of the valley, in all over eight hun- 

 dred, and money has in no wise been 

 spared to continue, and in hope of in- 

 creasing the water supply as it was 

 at the beginning of the present dry 

 spell, which has lasted about six years. 

 Despite all this, water has become 

 scarcer and scarcer, each year since 

 1898. Some of the big canal compa- 

 nies who are distributing water for 

 domestic purposes do so provided cer- 

 tain economical rules for its use of wa- 

 ter are strictly adhered to. One com- 

 pany furnishing water to be used on 

 lawns in Riverside make a special con- 

 tract for this use of water. It re- 

 serves the right to discontinue it with- 

 out notice should it be deemed neces- 

 sary, and allows its use before 7 A. M. 

 and after 6 P. M. only, so that the 



