330 Proceedings oe the 



rock and the sluice box, or carried on with the most 

 advanced dredging or hydraulic elevator machinery. 

 Moreover, as shown by the history of placer mining 

 in California, Montana, and other great gold-producing 

 States, there is a diminishing supply of water in every 

 mining locality. The barren hills, once clothed with 

 timber, tell the tale of repeated fires and testify to the 

 reduced water-storing capacity of the drainage basin 

 involved. The methods of practical forestry as carried 

 out in the administration of forest reserves make it 

 easy for miners of all descriptions to secure adequate 

 supplies of timber to satisfy their needs, and wherever 

 a reserve has been established a sufficient length of 

 time, the honest miner is ever the friend of the reserve 

 system. 



Like any other innovation, the introduction of 

 forestry methods in a mining camp commonly arouses 

 apprehension and antagonism ; but experience cures the 

 troubles. The conservative business administration of 

 the forest reserve quickly results in the appreciation 

 of the beneficent purposes of the reserve system, and 

 converts enemies into friends. The honest prospector 

 and the bona fide miner have nothing to fear from the 

 forest reserve. As the forest policy shall be elaborated 

 and adapted to the varying local conditions, the ad- 

 ministration of the reserve will be improved, and the 

 interests of the mining industry more enhanced. Ex- 

 amined from the viewpoint of experience, the relation 

 of forest reserves to the mining industry appears so 

 intimate, the success of one so directly interwoven with 

 and dependent upon the continued prosperity of the 

 other, that the possibility of real antagonism between 

 them cannot be entertained. The forest reserve system 

 has come as a benefactor of the mining industry, and 

 when properly understood, it gives every incentive 



