76 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



made from 1873 to 1876 show that 

 one-half of the upland within these 

 reservations is third-class, sandy and 

 of little or no value for farming. It 

 was the intention of the Morris Bill to 

 embrace within the reservation as 

 large a percentage of these sandy 

 lands as possible, leaving outside 

 thereof all lands of agricultural value ; 

 and this policy has been pursued. 



While there is some land within the 

 present reserve which might possibly 

 make good farm land, the larger por- 

 tion has a deep, loose, sandy soil which 

 many years' experience in older farm- 

 ing communities has shown to lack 

 lasting productiveness. The stored- 

 up fertility, which is released when 

 these lands are cleared of timber 

 makes a quick and fertile soil for three 

 or four years ; but rains soon wash 

 this plant food deep into the sub-soils ; 

 artificial fertilization becomes neces- 

 sary, but the effect of the application 

 of manures does not last; clover will 

 grow well at first but will not suffice 

 to maintain the productiveness of such 

 deep sandy soil. This worn-out con- 

 dition does not, however, become ap- 

 parent to the settlers, who locate upon 

 such lands, until they have exhausted 

 the original capital which they brought 

 with them. 



Neither is it generally understood 

 that existing general statutes provide 

 that lands within forest reserves, 

 which are suited to agriculture can be 

 eliminated therefrom ; therefore, if 

 there has been included within this re- 

 serve land which should be used for 

 farming, it will not be necessary either 

 to amend the Morris Bill or pass any 

 new legislation to eliminate it ; but the 

 fitness of such land will be determined 

 fr" specialists, whose judgment it is 

 believed will be unbiased. Speculators 

 and town-site men, whose only interest 

 often seems to be only to bring in set- 

 tlers regardless of their future wel- 

 fare, will not be allowed to influence 

 the selection and elimination of such 

 land from the reserve. 



VALUE OF THE SEEDLING PINES. 



The value of this small nucleus of a 

 future pine forest becomes apparent, 

 when we consider that before these 

 pine seedlings reach an age at which it 

 will be profitable to cut them for lum- 

 ber, the entire timber resources of the 

 United States will, according to the 

 best authorities, be completely ex- 

 hausted. Substitutes for timber, no 

 matter how numerous and effective, 

 have so far failed to lessen the ever- 

 increasing consumption of wood, 

 made necessary by our advancing civ- 

 ilization. 



At the American Forest Congress 

 in Washington in 1905, President 

 Roosevelt stated that if the American 

 people did not now provide for a fu- 

 ture timber supply, there would ensue, 

 before trees could be grown to large 

 enough size to meet the demand, a pe- 

 riod of great hardship and depriva- 

 tion. 



WHAT SHALL MINNESOTA DO? 



Shall the State of Minnesota and 

 the nation at large stand aside and 

 allow a small group of speculators, in 

 pursuance of a more than question- 

 able policy, to hinder and perhaps pre- 

 vent forever the best and possibly the 

 only practical effort now being made 

 in the Mississippi Valley to provide 

 for this future timber supply? The 

 government maintains, upon the head 

 waters of the Mississippi, a costly sys- 

 tem of reservoirs to regulate the flow 

 of that stream and to deepen its chan- 

 nel. Last summer, the same selfish 

 interests which are now attacking our 

 forest reserve attempted to bring 

 about the abandonment and destruc- 

 tion of the reservoir system, but failed. 

 The forest reserve supplements the 

 work of the reservoirs ; and the same 

 interests, which then so emphatically 

 declared for their maintenance, should 

 now as cordially support the reserve. 



MINNESOTA NATIONAL PARK. 



Perhaps the most important feature 

 to the people of the Mississippi Valley, 

 as well as to the public of the whole 



