1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 





hostile critics may carp at the neces- 

 sary delay, but within a reasonable 

 time we may hope to see all forest re- 

 serve lands which is suitable for home- 

 making-, occupied by thrifty families. 



It is hoped and believed that these 

 settlers will find that their own best 

 interests are bound up in the protec- 

 tion of the forest reserves from fire 



and trespass, and that they will be- 

 come a great supplementary and vol- 

 unteer ranger force, helping to protect 

 and improve the reserves, and ulti- 

 mately finding employment and a mar- 

 ket for their farm products in the lum- 

 ber and wood industries, which will 

 soon and continuously be carried on 

 within the National forests. 



IMPORTANT IRRIGATION 



LEGISLATION 



Bills Passed by Congress Which Affect 

 the Working of the Reclamation A<5t 



QN JUNE 1 8, the Senate adopted 

 ^ the conference report on what may 

 the conference report on what may 

 be called a sort of Omnibus Bill re- 

 lating to the Reclamation Act. The 

 bill (H. R. 18536) is entitled, "An 

 Act providing for the subdivision of 

 lands entered under the Reclamation 

 act, and for other purposes." 



The first section provides that the 

 Secretary of the Interior may estab- 

 lish farm units of not less than ten nor 

 more than 160 acres whenever by rea- 

 son of market conditions and the 

 special fitness of the soil and climate 

 for the growth of fruit and garden 

 produce under a project, a smaller 

 area than forty acres may be sufficient 

 for the support of a family. 



This corrects a serious defect in the 

 original Reclamation Act, which made 

 the smaller limit of the homestead 

 entry forty acres. In many cases, such 

 as projects in the southern part of the 

 country, or projects elsewhere, when 

 the conditions of soil and climate were 

 favorable to fruit and the higher grade 

 of products, a farm of forty acres is 

 far more than would be necessary for 

 the support of a family, and, indeed, 

 too great an area for one man to prop- 

 erly irrigate under the intensive form 

 of cultivation necessary to produce the 

 more valuable crops. 



This section also permits the Secre- 

 tary of Interior to have the necessary 

 subdivision surveys of the public lands 

 for farm units less than forty acres 

 made by the Reclamation Service. 



Section 2 provides that whenever it 

 has been necessary under the provi- 

 sions of the Reclamation Act to ac- 

 quire by relinquishment lands covered 

 by a bona fide unperfected entry, the 

 entryman may be permitted to make 

 another entry as though his former 

 entry had not been made. 



This meets a condition, which in 

 some cases is a hardship upon a set- 

 tler who might otherwise lose his 

 homestead right, because the land in- 

 cluded in his entry is necessary for a 

 reclamation project. 



The Secretary of the Interior has 

 already decided that under certain 

 conditions an entryman, who is re- 

 quired to give up his land, could make 

 another entry. This proposed act 

 bases the right of the entryman upon 

 a statute rather than upon the inter- 

 pretation of the Secretary of the In- 

 terior. 



Section 3 provides that townsites 

 which have been set apart by the 

 President under the provisions of Sec- 

 tions 2380 and 2381 of the United 

 States Revised Statutes, within or 

 near any reclamation project may be 



