512 



CONSERVATION 



With this may be coupled M. Jusserand's 

 famous declaration, ''It is an absolute prin- 

 ciple: No forests, no waterways * * * If 

 the Mississippi is the 'Father of Waters,' the 

 forest is the father of the Mississippi." 



Conservation of Water-power and Public Land 



It will be recalled that Taft recently called 

 down Secretary of the Interior Ballinger for 

 revoking orders of Roosevelt withdrawing 

 lands from speculative land-grabbers. There 

 is no doubt that a water-power trust in the 

 West is working hard to get possession of 

 the water-power of the upper Missouri 

 River. Taft will protect the consumer 

 rather than the man who consumes the 

 country's resources. It is understood that 

 Pinchot, with the assistance of other experts, 

 has drawn up a plan for a general control 

 of water-power including the proper royalty 

 companies shall pay the Nation for use of 

 water-power. In Europe governments have 

 invoked the Roosevelt safeguards. Taft 

 will stand for the consumer. Lewiston (Me.) 

 Journal. 



Irrigation Desired for Eastern States 



On June 23 the American Seed Growers' 

 Association met at Niagara Falls, N. Y. The 

 special committee appointed to inquire into 

 the irrigation situation presented a report 

 recommending irrigation in the Eastern 

 States. So successful has the scheme proven 

 in the West that the seed men are desirous 

 of testing it extensively along the Atlantic 

 coast. 



Burnett Landreth, of Bristol, Pa., advanced 

 a novel idea in his paper on ''Irrigation of 

 Old Eastern Farms." He pointed out that 

 the Government had spent some $14,000,000 

 for developing irrigation systems in Califor- 

 nia, Nevada and Arizona, changing their 

 foimer arid wastes to flowering gardens. It 

 was high time, Mr. Landreth thought, that 

 some attention was given to the farms of the 

 Eastern States. In times of drought, he said, 

 the eastern farmer suffered to such an 

 extent as to make his fruitful years hardly 

 balance the loss of dry years. A system of 

 irrigation reservoirs from Maine to Florida 

 would insure the farmers against loss from 

 droughts. As a beginning, he suggested that 

 the Government appropriate $70,000, with 

 which to buy a farm of about TOO acres near 

 Washington, in charge of the Department of 

 Agriculture, as an "irrigation kindergarten." 



The expense of establishing such a system 

 along the Atlantic coast, he said, would be 

 great, but it would pay tenfold on the invest- 

 ment. In the West the water for the irriga- 

 tion ditches is had from the mountains, grav- 

 ity being the power. In the East it would be 

 necessary to establish pumping plants at great 



cost. But only some such plan would make 

 farming in the East profitable to-day. New 

 York Commercial. 



Progress in Reclamation Work 



The big dam on the Belle Fourche irri- 

 gation project, South Dakota, contains ap- 

 proximately 1,000,000 cubic yards of mate- 

 rial. When completed this dam will be one 

 of the largest earth embankments in the 

 world, and will contain about 1,700,000 cubic 

 yards of material. 



The project presents a most imposing 

 scene. Eleven trains of ten cars each loaded 

 with dirt are constantly in view. As the 

 earth is dumped on top of the embankment it 

 is sprinkled and rolled with heavy rollers. 

 The dam is now seventy feet high and 6,200 

 feet long. A great change has taken place 

 in the valley since the initiation of Govern- 

 ment work. From a region given over al- 

 most wholly to stock raising, with individual 

 holdings as high as 1,000 acres, the valley is 

 being transformed to a thickly-settled com- 

 munity. New settlers, principally from the 

 Mississippi Valley, are coming in steadily. 

 This is one of the best opportunities in the 

 Northwest to secure a farm at a reasonable 

 price. Land can be bought at from $15 to 

 $35 per acre. A new creamery has just been 

 opened, and all lines of business in the town 

 of Belle Fourche are increasing in volume. 



The progress of settlement on the Sun 

 River and Huntley projects, Montana, is 

 most satisfactory. Many of the new entry- 

 men have been induced to go to these sec- 

 tions by former neighbors who settled there. 

 Thousands of shade and fruit trees have been 

 set out at the demonstration farms, and the 

 good example is being followed by the 

 farmers, who are planting sufficient numbers 

 to insure plenty of shade. 



The schools throughout the Huntley proj- 

 ect are well attended. Consequent upon the 

 heavy settlement around Simms on the Sun 

 River project, a large number of children 

 of school age have come to that vicinity, and 

 active steps are being taken toward the es- 

 tablishment of a school at that point. A two- 

 room building will soon be erected, and ar- 

 rangements will also be made for a school at 

 Fort Shaw. The grading of the streets is 

 adding much to the general appearance of 

 the towns. Stores and other business houses 

 are being erected. At Huntley a skimming 

 plant, which is to be operated in connection 

 with the Billings creamery, is ready for op- 

 eration. 



One hundred eighty men were em- 

 oloyed during May at Laguna Dam, Yuma 

 irrigation project, California-Arizona, Sixty 

 of these men were at work on the Arizona 

 side of the river excavating for the canal 

 ?nd protecting the bank below the mouth of 

 the sluiceway. The walls and bottom of 

 the canal heading were also concreted. On 

 the California side the crew was engaged in 

 canal excavation with the steam shovel, the 



