140 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



Coulter, and knobcone pine was sown, 

 but this was damaged by the rabbits. 

 Further experiment with these species 

 will be made this spring, and incense 

 cedar and Jeffrey pine will also be 

 sown. 



Experimental seed-spot planting of 

 Mexican walnuts and acorns from the 

 oaks native to the region was made 

 last fall. Spring planting on seed 

 spots will also be tried. Next spring 

 the western yellow pine sedlings will 

 be transplanted to their permanent sit- 

 uations, in open places on the water- 

 shed. 



The small group of re- 

 Reserves 6 serves on the checker- 

 board pattern, just south 

 of Bozeman, Montana, known as the 

 Gallatin Forest Reserves, has been re- 

 cently merged into a much larger re- 

 serve, under the name of the Gallatin 

 Forest Reserve, composed of a com- 

 pact body of land, containing about 

 850,000 acres. 



This new reserve, which entirely 

 surrounds the former group, embraces 

 the mountainous region bounded by 

 the Gallatin Valley on the north, the 

 Yellowstone and Madison Valleys on 

 the east and west, and the Yellowstone 

 Park and Madison Forest Reserve on 

 the south. 



The fact that this area is traversed, 

 north and south, by the Gallatin 

 Range, which sheds east and west into 

 the Yellowstone and Gallatin Rivers, 

 and the Madison Range, which drains, 

 in like manner, into the Gallatin and 

 Madison Rivers, make the region one 

 of great importance in connection with 

 the agricultural development of the 

 valleys watered by those streams. 



This is especially true as regards the 

 Gallatin Valley, which is the most im- 

 portant irrigated valley in the state of 

 Montana. While nothing can be raised 

 in the valley proper without water, it 

 already produces annually more than 

 ' me-fourth of the cereals, and contains 

 more than one-eighth of the total irri- 

 gated area of the state, and with a suf- 

 ficient water supply this area can be 

 doubled. 



Approximately 90 per cent of the 

 available water for the 112,000 acres 

 of arable land in this valley comes 

 from the tract embraced in this new 

 reserve, while both the Yellowstone 

 and Madison Valleys are also largely 

 supplied by streams flowing from this 

 region. In fact, the importance of pro- 

 tecting the watersheds within this re- 

 serve, upon which all three of these 

 valleys depend, can not be overesti- 

 mated. 



The forests on these slopes, more- 

 over, represent a timber supply for the 

 railroads running through the treeless 

 plains to the eastward, and also for the 

 neighboring ranchers. While consid- 

 erable lumber is shipped into this sec- 

 tion, the supply of fence posts, rails, 

 house logs, etc., must necessarily be 

 obtained from the nearby mountains, 

 and one of the chief objects of this 

 reserve will be to perpetuate this sup- 

 ply. The demand for timber in the 

 coal mines that have been discovered 

 in the Gallatin Basin, on Taylor's 

 Fork, also causes a heavy draft on the 

 timber resources of this region. 



The government will at once pro- 

 ceed to take efficient measure to pro- 

 tect and increase, as far as possible, 

 the water, timber, grazing, and all 

 other resources of this region. As fire 

 is the greatest danger to be guarded 

 against, a patrol force will be placed 

 on the mountains to protect the timber 

 from further injury from that cause. 

 Danger from this source will be fur- 

 ther reduced to a minimum by having 

 necessary regulations thoroughly un- 

 derstood' by all who enter the reserve, 

 and effectively carried out by the re- 

 serve officers. 



While all nossible precautions will 

 thus be taken to protect the forests, it 

 should be understood that the cutting 

 of timber by miners, settlers, lumber 

 concerns, and others will not be pre- 

 vented, but merely regulated; so that 

 the conserving power of the water- 

 sheds will , not be injured, and the 

 young growth of timber will be so 

 protected and aided that a continuous 

 supply will be guaranteed for the use 

 of the public in the future. 



