Forest Reserves of North America 



In the United States something over 100,000 square 

 miles of the public domain has been set aside and 

 reserved from settlement for economic purposes. 

 This vast area includes reservations of four different 

 kinds : First, National Forest Reserves, aggregating 

 some 63,000,000 acres, for the conservation of the 

 water supply of the arid and semi-arid West ; second, 

 National Parks, of which there are seventeen, for the 

 purpose of preserving untouched places of natural 

 grandeur and interest; third, State Parks, for places 

 of recreation and for conserving the water supply; 

 and fourth, military wood and timber reservations, to 

 provide Government fuel or other timber. Most mili- 

 tary wood reserves were originally established in con- 

 nection with old forts. 



The forest reservations, as they are by far the 

 largest, are also much the most important of these 

 reserved areas. 



Perhaps three-quarters of the population of the 

 United States do not know that over nearly one-half 

 of the national territory within the United States the 

 rainfall is so slight or so unevenly distributed that 

 agriculture cannot be carried on except by means of 

 irrigation. This irrigation consists of taking water 

 out of the streams and conducting it by means of 

 ditches which have a very gentle slope over the land 

 which it is proposed to irrigate. From the original 



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