120 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



"Nor shall anything herein prohibit 

 any person from entering upon such 

 forest reservations for all proper and 

 lawful purposes, including that of 

 prospecting, locating, and developing 

 the mineral resources thereof : Provid- 

 ed, That such persons comply with the 

 rules and regulations covering such 

 forest reservations." 



This law, therefore, places the min- 

 eral lands within forest reservations 

 on the same footing with mineral 

 lands outside of forest reservations, 

 and in addition provides the free use 

 of timber and stone. 



By the rules and regulations pre- 

 scribed by the Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior (see circular of December 12, 

 1901) companies and corporations are 

 held not to come within the meaning 

 of the act ; and they are, therefore, not 

 entitled to the free use of timber and 

 stone ; but a company or corporation 

 may use the timber on its own claim, 

 or on any one of its group of claims, 

 in development work. The said act 

 of June 4, 1897, however, provides for 

 the sale of certain timber within forest 

 reservations, so that mining compa- 

 nies and corporations are provided 

 with material at their very doors at 

 a minimum of cost, and in a legitimate 

 business-like way. 



The utility of this sale provision of 

 the law, and its great advantage to 

 mining companies within forest reser- 

 vations is forcibly illustrated in the 

 Black Hills Forest Reserve in South 

 Dakota, where the Homestake Mining 



Company alone has used under pur- 

 chase millions upon millions of feet 

 of timber from the reserve. Where 

 would this company get an adequate 

 supply of timber except for the forest 

 reserve and the timber sale provision 

 of the act under which the reserve is 

 administered by the Interior Depart- 

 ment? The cost of this timber to the 

 company is practically nominal ; the 

 advantage to the reserve is the sys- 

 tematic method of cutting required 

 and in handling the tops and lops. My 

 understanding is that the mining com- 

 panies in the Black Hills Reserve 

 would consider it a calamity to have 

 the reserve abolished, and that they 

 have a full appreciation of the advan- 

 tage to their industry of reserved over 

 non-reserved lands. 



In the Prescott Forest Reserve, in 

 Arizona, where considerable mining 

 is done, the mine owners are at pres- 

 ent face to face with the adverse con- 

 ditions brought about by the unsys- 

 tematic methods and destructive forces 

 obtaining before the reserve was cre- 

 ated, and now find it difficult to obtain 

 a sufficient quantity of timber for their 

 uses. 



It should be evident to those who 

 give the subject careful consideration, 

 that a well protected supply of material 

 right at hand at normal cost is more 

 advantageous to the mine owner than 

 an uncertain, unprotected supply to be 

 obtained, if at all, from the speculator, 

 or by questionable means. 



YELLOW PINE IN THE SOUTHWEST 



The Bureau of Forestry has Been Studying This Im- 

 portant Tree in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico 



COMMERCIALLY, the most im- 

 portant tree of Arizona, New 

 Mexico, and southwestern Colorado is 

 the western yellow pine. It is known 

 locally as Black Jack, and in the lum- 

 ber trade is frequently called white 

 pine. The tree furnishes material for 



all kinds of local construction ; the 

 towns of Durango, Albuquerque, and 

 Flagstaff are monuments to its exceed- 

 ing usefulness and value. The quan- 

 tity of western yellow pine lumber 

 shipped to other parts of the country 

 at present is small, but it is rapidly in- 



