ASPECTS OF THE PRESENT FORESTRY AGITATION. 133 



or, to what will priietically come to the same thing, a prohibition 

 against the removal of timber from the States where it grows to the 

 States where it does not grow. And this, as any one may see, 

 opens avenues to many serious national troubles. The great 

 West poured its blood and its treasure into the war for the open- 

 ing of the Mississippi Valley in 1861, because its prosperity 

 demanded an open channel to the Gulf. So Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and Utah will demand of Colorado, one of these days, that they 

 shall receive their share of the life-giving flood of the Platte and 

 Grand Rivers to irrigate their otherwise worthless plains, and to 

 support their increasing population in comfort. But back of all 

 this water supply, even in Colorado, we find the forests of the 

 Rock^' Mountains, which help to collect and moderate the flow of 

 water into the fertile valleys below, and all plans for irrigation, to 

 be of permanent benefit, must be based on the care of these 

 forests. Among the problems of the future, growing out of the 

 dependence for water suppl}' for purposes of irrigation on 

 timbered mountain area, will be the one of State boundaries. To 

 say the least, it is a mistake that any State should have such a 

 natural boundary' as the crest of the Reeky Mountains extending 

 through its centre. Such natural lines, it has become a political 

 axiom, should be state limits. This becomes more than ever 

 clear when we consider its bearing in the light of irrigation and 

 water suppl}-. We might approximate natural boundaries by a 

 line, for instance, extending from longitude 117° west in Idaho, 

 southeast to Laramie in Wyoming, and thence about due south 

 toward El Paso. This, while it would not entirely obviate the 

 trouble, would at least diminish the extent to which several 

 States could be held at the mercy of one. Of course, I only 

 allude to this as a matter for Congress and the States interested, 

 to settle among themselves. It does not directh' concern us, 

 though it maj- yet be a pressing problem for that region. 



Look at it from whatever stand-point we may, the forest problem 

 must, sooner or later, enter into the policy of the nation. 



It is, of course, easy to find fault with our law-makers, but the 

 fact remains that they never, in this republican government, dare 

 run far in advance of the people. So soon as we can convince 

 them that this question must be faced, and can indicate with 

 reasonable clearness what the national desire is, our State and 

 national legislators will act as we wish. It has ever been so, and 



