492 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



November 



formed, the Reclamation Service has 

 demonstrated in a thoroughly practi- 

 cal way that the Government can re- 

 claim successfully broad acres of des- 

 ert and create therein prosperous and 

 happy agricultural communities. 



It is but natural, therefore, that the 

 advocates of national drainage works 

 for the vast swamp land areas of the 

 United States should look to the Re- 

 clamation Service to take charge of 

 the work. Irrigation and drainage go 

 hand in hand. Most of the large irri- 

 gation projects now under construc- 

 tion by the Government provide for 

 elaborate drainage systems, so that the 

 problem of draining the swamps of 

 the country can be solved without dif- 

 ficulty whenever Congress in its wis- 

 dom shall authorize the beginning of 

 the work. 



Much of the preliminary work in 

 the several States has been done al- 

 ready. Detailed surveys of vast areas 

 of submerged lands have been made 

 and maps and other data are on file in 

 the office of the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey. The engineers and topographers 

 who have been preparing these maps 

 of partly submerged areas, and who 

 have been measuring the water which 

 flows into or away from them, are en- 

 tering heartily into the plans for re- 

 clamation and are greatly pleased at 

 the awakening of public interest in 

 the matter. The National Drainage 

 Congress will find in the well or- 

 ganized body of men in the Geological 

 Survey and the Reclamation Service 

 willing assistants to any general plans 

 that may be proposed. 



According to the San 

 Francisco Chronicle 



President Roosevelt will 

 be asked to protect the miners of Del 

 Xorte County, Cal., against land grab- 

 bers. A petition has been framed and 

 signed and sent to State Mineralogist 

 Anbury to be forwarded to Gilford 

 Pinchot, chief forester of the United 

 States, who will be asked to transmit 

 it to the President. 



According to the Chronicle hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres of land 

 in P>utte. Plumas and other counties 

 been grabbed up by timber men 



on one pretext or another. The scan- 

 dal has grown to such proportions 

 that a special commission from Wash- 

 ington is in this State, rigidly instruct- 

 ed to learn all the facts and to report 

 them faithfully. Old mineral claims 

 upon which there are mining plants 

 have been grabbed under one law, 

 and the placer location law has been 

 used in another way to grab vast areas 

 of the finest timber land. 



The Del Norte miners, having set 

 about the development of gold and 

 copper deposits, formed a mining dis- 

 trict. The by-laws adopted provide 

 that no land can be held finally as 

 mineral land until a shaft ten feet deep 

 has been sunk, until mineral has been 

 discovered and until assessment work 

 has been regularly and fully perform- 

 ed on each claim. 



Then, not satisfied that they were 

 protected against the land grabber 

 after these precautions, the miners 

 have resorted to the new and striking 

 expedient of putting in shape a peti- 

 tion, intended finally for the President 

 of the United States, in which the 

 request is made that 161,280 acres, in- 

 cluded in seven townships in Del Norte 

 Country, shall be made a part of the 

 Klamath forest reserve by the Gov- 

 ernment. No such action has ever 

 been taken before by miners in the 

 United States. At no time before have 

 miners thus confessed fear that their 

 holdings would be made unstable 

 through the agency of land sharks. 



Mineralogist Aubury has recom- 

 mended to Forester Pinchot that the 

 petition be granted. 



Miners Ask 

 Protection 



In 

 Mississippi 



Some idea of the for- 

 estry work at the Mis- 

 sissippi Agriculture Col- 

 lege may be gained from a recent 

 letter from Prof. George L. Clothier, 

 who says: "I have to plant 40 to 50 

 bushels of hickory nuts if I can get 

 them, transplant about 50.000 forest 

 trees, get my nursery ready for next 

 spring's planting, order p'ecan trees 

 for planting in December, and get 

 seed corn from farmers over the State 

 to start my breeding experiments, be- 

 sides teaching th r ee hours per day." 



