JOHN -WIvSIvSY POWELL DAVIS 



tion, has not been adopted. He scouted the idea that any 

 operations of man can have brought about increased precipi- 

 tation, but added, "if it be true that increase of the water sup- 

 ply is due to increase in precipitation, as many have supposed, 

 the fact is not cheering to the agriculturist of the arid re- 

 gion. . . . Usually such changes go in cycles, and the 

 opposite or compensating change may reasonably be antici- 

 pated," for if the increase of streams results from an increase 

 of rainfall, "we shall have to expect a speedy return to ex- 

 treme aridity, in which case a large portion of the agricultural 

 industries of the country now growing up would be destroyed" 

 (91). Powell plainly stated that only a small fraction of the 

 arid lands was available for agriculture, and pointed out that 

 the redemption of the areas that could be irrigated would in- 

 volve difficult engineering problems far too large for indi- 

 vidual farmers, and possible only through co-operative labor 

 controlled by carefully considered legislation ; he saw, further, 

 that when all this should be accomplished only a small portion 

 of the arid region could be cultivated. These principles are 

 well enough understood now, after a generation of experience ; 

 but they were novelties when published, and served as needed 

 corrections of exaggerated stories then current. 



The report on the arid region proposed a fivefold classifi- 

 cation of the Western public lands, not based on the traditions 

 of the East, but on the facts and conditions of the West. The 

 five classes were named mineral, coal, irrigable, pasturage, and 

 timber lands. With mineral lands the report had nothing to 

 do. The abundance and importance of lignite coals was briefly 

 stated ; they were, indeed, regarded as "inexhaustible by any 

 population which the country can support for any length of 

 time that human prevision can contemplate;" it was recom- 

 mended that their area should be determined by a thorough 

 geological survey. The areas classified as timber lands were 

 chiefly the higher plateaus and mountains, which have prac- 

 tically no value aside from their forests ; but it was explicitly 

 stated that these areas were by no means wholly occupied by 

 standjng timber, because of the terrible devastation by forest 

 fires. Emphatic warning was given of this danger in the arid 

 region. Most of the fires were ascribed to intentional burning 



