1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



54 l 



his interest in forestry by contribut- 

 ing $10,000 to cover the cost. The 

 building is of great interest to tour- 

 ists, and attracts as many as 500 vis- 

 itors a day. 



Montana 

 Code 



F. H. Ray, assistant 

 state bank examiner and 

 member of the irrigation 

 code commission of Montana, recently 

 announced the details of a code sub- 

 mitted to Gov. John K. Toole to be 

 sent to the incoming legislature. These 

 points are emphasized: 



The just and early adjudication of 

 the many conflicting, uncertain water 

 rights now recorded, and this at the 

 least possible cost ; the full and prompt 

 protection of water right users with- 

 out costly litigation ; to afford the per- 

 sons of companies now owning or 



hereafter acquiring a water right clear 

 and indisputable title to the same; to 

 make of beneficial use the basis, meas- 

 ure and limits of rights ; to prevent 

 waste; to have all records relating to 

 water rights tabulated by stream sys- 

 tems to the public at the State Engi- 

 neer's office, so that the title may be 

 easily ascertain. 



A Department of For- 

 Schooi a of estr y was inaugurated at 



Forestry the University of Geor- 



gia on November 21. At the invita- 

 tion of Chancellor Barrow, of the Uni- 

 versity, Mr. Alfred Gaskill, of the For- 

 estry Service, delivered an address on 

 the "Progress of Forestry in the 

 United States." Mr. Alfred Akerman, 

 formerly State Forester of Massachu- 

 setts, will be in charge of the courses. 



PRESIDENT CALLS FOR IMPROVED 



LAND LAWS 



Ringing Special Message to Congress Shows 

 Flagrant Abuses and Suggests Remedies 



DRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, in his 

 ^ special message to Congress, trans- 

 mitted December 17, puts up to Con- 

 gress directly the matter of furnishing 

 relief from the workings of the pres- 

 ent pernicious land laws. This message 

 is of such wide importance that it is giv- 

 n in full herewith : 



To the Senate and House of Represen- 

 tatives : 



PUBLIC LAND LAWS. 



The developments of the past year 

 emphasize with increasing force the 

 need of vigorous and immediate action 

 to recast the public land laws and adapt 

 them to the actual situation. The tim- 

 ber and stone act has demonstrated 

 conclusively that its effect is to turn 

 over the public timber lands to great 

 corporations. It lias done enormous 

 "harm, it is no longer needed, and it 

 should be repealed. 



The desert land act results so fre- 

 quently in fraud and so comparatively 

 seldom in making homes on the land 

 that it demands radical amendment. 

 That provision which permits assign- 

 ment before patent should be repealed, 

 and the entrymen should be required to 

 live for not less than two years at home 

 on the land before patent issues. Oth- 

 erwise the desert land law will con- 

 tinue to assist speculators and other 

 large holders to get control of land and 

 water on the public domain by inde- 

 fensible means. The commutation 

 clause of the homestead act, in a ma- 

 jority of cases, defeats the purpose 

 of the homestead act itself, which js 

 to facilitate settlement and create 

 homes. In theory the commutation 

 clause should assist the honest settler 

 and doubtless in some cases it does so. 

 Far more often it supplies the means 

 by which speculators and loan and 



