December 20, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



961 



irrigation structures permanently public 

 works. These, it is urged, should not be 

 owned by private parties, and the argu- 

 ment produced in favor of constructing 

 reservoirs by act of Congress is the same 

 which justifies setting aside forest reserves 

 and the maintaining of a force to control 

 them. On the other hand, the Secretary 

 points out that an appropriation of money 

 by Congress to construct such irrigation 

 works will bring the country face to face 

 with a new Government policy and will 

 carry a larger measure of public control 

 over the water resources of the West than 

 has hitherto prevailed or been sanctioned 

 by public sentiment. 



Land Laws affecting Irrigation. — He re- 

 views the influence of land laws on irriga- 

 tion development, stating that laws which 

 control the disposal of 500,000,000 acres of 

 arid public lands must have a vital influ- 

 ence upon the success of irrigated agricul- 

 ture. He condemns the desert-land act, 

 stating that 640 acres is more land than a 

 man of moderate means can cultivate under 

 irrigation. Cutting down the entries from 

 640 to 320 acres is an improvement, but he 

 believes in the entire repeal of the desert- 

 land act and in requiring settlers or home- 

 steaders to cultivate as well as live on their 

 land. 



The Grazing Lands. — Referring to the 

 grazing lands, he says probably 400,000,000 

 acres of the public domain has no agricul- 

 tural value except for pasturage. It is at 

 present an open common, with no laws for 

 its protection or disposal. He refers to 

 the frequent conflicts of the farmers under 

 irrigation with the range stockmen, and 

 recommends, as a remedial and beneficial 

 measure, the leasing of the grazing land in 

 such a way as not to interfere with the 

 homesteader. The rentals, he believes, 

 would amount in the aggregate to a large 

 sum, which could be appropriately applied 

 to the reclamation of the irrigable lands. 



He points out that such leasing is not an 

 experiment, as it has been successfully 

 tried, although in a limited way, in Colo- 

 rado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Utah 

 and Wyoming. He winds up the discus- 

 sion of this subject by presenting the fol- 

 lowing conclusions : 



1. That private enterprise will have, to 

 be supplemented by public aid in the con- 

 struction of certain classes of irrigation 

 works if we are to secure the largest devel- 

 opment of Western agriculture. 



2. That reservoirs located in the chan- 

 nels of running streams should be public 

 works, 



3. That the first step toward national 

 aid for irrigation should be the passage of 

 enlightened codes of water laws by the 

 States to be benefited. 



4. That the land laws should be modi- 

 fied by repealing the desert act and by re- 

 quiring cultivation as well as residence on 

 a homestead. 



5. That the non-irrigable grazing lands 

 should be leased in small tracts so as to 

 unite the irrigable and the pasture lands. 



WORK IN ENTOMOLOGY. 



Under this head the Secretary reports the 

 successful introduction and establishment 

 in California of the fig-fertilizing insect, 

 with the result that it has been thoroughly 

 established at several points, and that the 

 Division of Entomology is now ready to 

 supply fig insects to any grower after he 

 has succeeded in raising to the bearing 

 stage caprifig and Smyrna fig trees. The 

 discovery is reported, by an expert of the 

 Division sent to Asia for the purpose, that 

 the San Jose scale is not indigenous to 

 Japan, but that it is so in north China. It 

 has been found in a section of that country 

 where there have been no fruit importa- 

 tions, and all fruits are of native sorts. 

 Further, in this district, it was found to 

 have a natural enemy — a ladybird beetle, 



