28 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



January 



vigorous commonwealth will doubtless 

 do effective work in this line through 

 its present legislature. 



Even in states whose irrigation 

 codes are considered as being up to the 

 standard of modern development, 

 amendments for further improvement 

 are under consideration and will 

 doubtless be passed. 



NEW IRRIGATION LEGISLATION. 



Xew legislation will be required, 

 however, in nearly every one of the 

 states in order to facilitate the opera- 

 tions of the Reclamation Service in 

 several of its various lines of work, 

 involving changes which are necessary 

 to remove obstacles appearing in the 

 local laws which were formed in the 

 absence of such a movement as now 

 exists under the Reclamation Act for 

 large mutual corporations to manage 

 and control extensive irrigation works 

 and to distribute great supplies of 

 water. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE OF 

 1901. 



The striking point of interest in con- 

 sidering this subject is the earnest ef- 



fort in each of the states and terri- 

 tories of the arid region to carry out 

 the sentiment of the message of Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt which was sent in De- 

 cember, 1901, to the Congress which 

 passed the Reclamation Act, which 

 pointed out the need for these changes 

 in irrigation laws, and which sounds 

 the keynote of modern development in 

 irrigation legislation : 



"In the arid states the only right 

 to water which should be recognized 

 is that of use. In irrigation this 

 right should attach to the land re- 

 claimed and be inseparable there- 

 from. Granting perpetual water 

 rights to others than users, without 

 compensation to the public, is open 

 to all the objections which apply to 

 giving away perpetual franchises to 

 the public utilities of cities. A few 

 of the western states have already 

 recognized this and have incorpo- 

 rated in their constitutions the doc- 

 trine of perpetual state ownership 

 of water." 



The strength, directness, and accu- 

 racy of this declaration by the Presi- 

 dent should not be lost sight of in the 

 present activity along these lines. 



POCONO PROTECTIVE FIRE 

 ASSOCIATION 



Description of an Interesting Pennsylvania Organization that Has 

 Achieved Good Practical Results in Fighting the Forest Fire Evil 



BY 



THOMAS L. HODGE 



""THE Pocono Mountain, which occu- 

 * pies a considerable part of Mon- 

 roe and a small portion of Wayne 

 county, Pennsylvania, embraces rough- 

 ly two hundred thousand acres of land. 

 This was originally covered with hem- 

 lock forests, the last of which were cut 

 down twenty-five or thirty years ago. 

 Some of this land has been covered by 



a second growth of timber ; much of it, 

 however, has been burned over every 

 few years, so that most of the trees 

 which are left are of very inferior qual- 

 ity, principally bull pine, scrub oak, fire 

 cherry, and sumac. These fires have 

 been so frequent that in places even the 

 sod has been destroyed, the earth being 

 baked and cracked, so that it has been 



