138 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



scarcely second in importance to the ir- 

 rigation work. It means that tens of 

 millions of acres of the most fertile 

 land imaginable, which has lain idle 

 for ages, may be converted from dis- 

 mal and pestilential swamps and use- 

 less bogs into highly prosperous homes, 

 to become the garden spots of the na- 

 tion. 



The Dutch have reclaimed vast areas 

 in Holland from the encroachments of 

 the ocean. Thousands of families live 

 and farm below sea level, gaining their 

 security by magnificent feats of engi- 

 neering and persistence. They now 

 contemplate the drainage of the Zuy- 

 der Zee, reclaiming some 1,350,000 ad- 

 ditional acres of meadowland. Ameri- 

 can drainage in most cases would be 

 far more simple and less expensive ; it 

 is simply a question as to whether the 

 nation will see the wisdom of setting 

 its hand to this work. 



ANOTHER INLAND EMPIRE. 



In Florida the everglades alone 

 almost solid muck beds would afford 

 an empire of some 7,000,000 acres ; in 

 New Jersey and Virginia are vast 

 swamps, among them the famous Dis- 



mal Swamp. In Illinois, which is gen- 

 erally regarded as a well-settled agri- 

 cultural state, there are 4,000,000 acres 

 of swampland ; in Michigan there are 

 nearly 6,000,000 acres. Fertile Iowa 

 has about 2,000,000 acres of swamp- 

 land. In Minnesota there are almost 

 5,000,000 acres of rich surveyed 

 swamplands and huge swamp areas 

 not yet surveyed. Arkansas has tre- 

 mendous swamp areas which could be 

 drained and made habitable, and in all 

 there is a swamp area in the eastern 

 half of the United States which is 

 equal in extent to the great agricul- 

 tural states of Indiana, Illinois and 

 Iowa, with three or four smaller east- 

 ern states thrown in. 



If the Steenerson bill demonstrates 

 that the government can transform 

 swamps into fertile farmland and that 

 the settler or owner will pay back to 

 the government the relatively small 

 cost of the improvement, there seems 

 to be no reason why this work of crea- 

 tion of value out of worthless waste 

 should not go on indefinitely and pro- 

 vide homes for millions more of rural 

 population. 



THE FOREST SERVICE 



History of a Month's Work in Government Forest Matters 



Planting 

 Work 



In connection with the 

 proposed development of 

 the barren lands along 

 their new line of railroad, the Nevada 

 Northern Railway Company has made 

 application to the Forest Service 

 for assistance in establishing ex- 

 perimental forest plantations. These 

 plantations will be made at each of the 

 water tanks to determine what trees 

 can be grown to advantage, and by 

 what methods. The general aim is to 

 encourage the settlement of the region 

 by demonstrating that the lands are of 

 agricultural value or will, at least, pro- 

 duce timber. Experimental planting 

 is proposed along the eighty miles of 



new road which will be completed next 

 summer, most of it being located in 

 Elko and White Pine counties, Ne- 

 vada. 



The Frick Coke Company, of Penn- 

 sylvania, which applied to the Forest 

 Service for plans to utilize part of its 

 land for growing forest trees, has just 

 received a report with recommenda- 

 tions upon the project. The object of 

 the company is twofold. First, to add 

 to the sale value of coal lands now 

 worthless for agriculture; and second, 

 to raise for its own use trees suitable 

 for mine props. 



Among the lands acquired by the 

 company in connection with the un- 



