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The National Geographic Magazine 



ment the area assigned for each family 

 shall be sufficient to support it. When 

 once the farms have been fully tilled by 

 freeholders, little danger of land 

 monopoly will remain. 



This great meeting of practical irriga- 

 tors should give particular attention to 

 this problem and others of the same kind. 

 You should, and I doubt not that you 

 will, give your effectual support to the 

 officers of the government in making the 

 reclamation law successful in all respects, 

 and particularly in getting back the orig- 

 inal investment; so that the money may 

 be used again and again in the comple- 

 tion of other projects and thus in the 

 general extension of prosperity in the 

 West. Until it has been proved that 

 this great investment of $40,000,000 in 

 irrigation made by the government will 

 be returning to the Treasury, it is useless 

 to expect that the people of the country 

 will consider direct appropriations for the 

 work. Let us give the Reclamation 

 Service a chance to utilize the present in- 

 vestment a second time before discussing 

 such increase. I look forward with great 

 confidence to the result. 



By the side of the Reclamation Service 

 there has grown up another service of 

 not less interest and value to you of the 

 West. This is the Forest Service, which 

 was created when the charge of the 

 forest reserves was transferred from 

 the Interior Department to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The forest policy 

 of the Administration, which the Forest 

 Service is engaged in carrying out, 

 is based, as I have often said, on the 

 vigorous purpose to make every resource 

 of the forest reserves contribute in the 

 highest degree to the permanent pros- 

 perity of the people who depend upon 

 them. If ever the time should come when 

 the western forests are destroyed, there 

 will disappear with them the prosperity 

 of the stockman, the miner, the lumber- 

 man, and the railroads, and, most im- 

 portant of all, the small ranchman who 

 cultivates his own land. I know that you 

 are with me in the intention to preserve 

 the timber, the water, and the grass by 

 using them fully, but wisely and conserv- 



atively. We propose to do this through 

 the freest and most cordial cooperation 

 between the government and every man 

 who is in sympathy with this policy, the 

 wisdom of which no man who knows the 

 facts can for a moment doubt. 



It is now less than two years since the 

 Forest Service was established. It had 

 a great task before it — to create or reor- 

 ganize the Service on a hundred forest 

 reserves and to ascertain and meet the 

 very different local conditions and local 

 needs all over the West. This task is not 

 finished, and of course it could not have 

 been finished in so short a time. But the 

 work has been carried forward with 

 energy and intelligence, and enough has 

 been done to show how our forest policy 

 is working out. 



The result of first importance to you 

 as irrigators is this : The Forest Service 

 has proved that forest fires can be con- 

 trolled, by controlling them. Only one- 

 tenth of 1 per cent of the area of the 

 forest reserves was burned over in 1905. 

 This achievement was due both to the 

 Forest Service and to the effective as- 

 sistance of settlers and others in and near 

 the reserves. Everything the govern- 

 ment has ever spent upon its forest work 

 is a small price to pay for the knowledge 

 that the streams which make your pros- 

 perity can be and are being freed from 

 the ever-present threat of forest fires. 



The long-standing and formerly bitter 

 differences between the stockmen and the 

 forest officers are nearly all settled. Those 

 which remain are in process of settlement. 

 Hearty cooperation exists almost every- 

 where between the officers of the Forest 

 Service and the local associations of 

 stockmen, who are appointing advisory 

 committees which are systematically con- 

 sulted by the Forest Service on all ques- 

 tions in which they are concerned. This 

 most satisfactory condition of mutual 

 help will be as welcome to you as it is 

 to the Administration and to the stock- 

 men. To the stockmen it means more, 

 and more certain, grass ; to you, because 

 of the better protection and wiser use of 

 the range, it means steadier stream-flow 

 and more water. 



