GOVERNMENT CONTROL OF THE FORESTS. 99 



Sec. 5. That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to make such 

 detail of troops for the purpose of protecting said reservations as the 

 Secretary of the Interior may require. 



Sec. 6. That any public lands embraced within the limits of the forest 

 reserve which, after due examination, shall be found better adapted to 

 agricultural than forest uses, may be restored to the public domain upon 

 the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, with the approval of 

 the President, after sixty days' public notice in two newspapers of general 

 circulation in the state or territory where the reservation is situated. 



Sec. 7. That any timber on the public lands, not within a forest reser- 

 vation, may be sold by order of the Secretary of the Interior in the same 

 manner as is heretofore provided in this act: Provided, That it shall be 

 first shown that such cutting will not be injurious to the public interests: 

 And provided further, That no timber on the public lands shall be disposed 

 of except in accordance with the provisions of this act. 



Sec. 8. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions 

 of this act are hereby repealed. 



It might be added that Secretary of the Interior, Hon. Hoke Smith, 

 approves of the bill, and Hon. W. M. Stone, Commissioner of Public 

 Lands, has recommended its passage. The original bill did not contain 

 all the above, but several amendments have been inserted, which make it 

 satisfactory to the officials named. Let the reader apply above bill to the 

 needs of Minnesota. Shall we act or shall we be supine respecting a forest 

 reserve? 



FORESTAL IRRIGATION IN MINNESOTA. 



There is such a dearth of water during the dry seasons these years, and 

 when our agricultural and tree crops most need it, resulting in poor 

 harvests, that the matter of irrigation must be considered. Necessity 

 drives us to provide some way by which the surplus water in the spring, 

 usually rushing in destructive floods and reacting into severe drouths, can 

 be conserved and economically distributed. The state legislature has not 

 estimated geodetic surveys as of practical importance enough to have it 

 done on the scale which our necessities demand. It is certain that were all 

 the water falling from the clouds and gushing from the springs and running 

 to waste, harbored in ample reservoirs at or near our numerous watersheds, 

 and thence made to flow over our lower lands, under proper management, 

 the uncertainty and cankering anxiety about our crops and trees would be 

 ended, and their abundance increased almost beyond measure. Where the 

 reservoirs should be established, will have to be determined by competent 

 surveyors. 



RESERVOIRS IN WESTERN MINNESOTA. 



According to the annual report of Maj. W. A. Jones, of St. Paul, engineer 

 in charge of the government works on the rivers of the Northwest, a great 



