40 6 
BOARD  OF  COMMISSIONERS  OF  AGRICULTURE 
AND  FORESTRY. 
ROUTINE  REPORTS. 
DIVISION  OF  FORESTRY. 
Honolulu,  Hawaii,  September  30,  1909. 
Board  of  Commissioners  of 
Agriculture  and  Forestry, 
Honolulu. 
Gentlemen : I have  the  honor  to  submit  herewith  the  regular 
report  of  the  Division  of  Forestry  for  the  months  of  August  and 
September,  1909. 
NATIONAL  IRRIGATION  CONGRESS. 
For  the  seven  weeks  from  July  28  to  September  14,  I was 
away  from  Honolulu,  detailed  on  the  special  mission  of  officially 
representing  the  Territory  as  a delegate  at  the  Seventeenth  Na- 
tional Irrigation  Congress  at  Spokane,  Washington,  August  9 to 
14,  and  also  at  the  First  National  Conservation  Congress  at  Seat- 
tle, Washington,  August  26  to  28. 
The  special  purpose  in  view  in  having  Hawaii  represented  this 
year  at  Spokane  was  to  secure  the  endorsement  by  the  National 
Irrigation  Congress  of  a project  for  which  the  officials  of  the 
Territorial  Government  are  earnestly  working — the  extension  of 
the  Federal  Reclamation  Act  to  Hawaii.  To  every  one  who  gives 
even  passing  attention  to  the  needs  of  Hawaii,  it  is  apparent  that 
efficiently  to  fulfill  the  duties  that  are  placed  upon  it  by  the  Nation, 
this  Territory  must  have  an  increase  in  the  number  of  its  Ameri- 
can homes.  Many  attempts  to  secure  desirable  settlers  have  been 
made  in  the  past,  but  the  need  remains.  It  now  appears  that 
through  the  reclamation  by  irrigation  of  certain  of  the  semi-arid 
public  lands  on  each  of  the  larger  islands  of  the  group,  opportuni- 
ties can  be  made  that  will  attract  to  Hawaii  people  of  the  sort  that 
we  most  need,  that  is  provided  that  along  with  the  opening  up 
of  new  lands  there  can  also  be  secured  improved  conditions  of 
transportation  and  better  facilities  for  marketing  local  products. 
But  the  task  of  reclaiming  the  areas  where  such  development 
is  possible  is  a big  and  expensive  one — too  costly  for  this  little  Ter- 
ritory to  hope  to  carry  out  successfully  with  the  limited  funds 
that  are  available  in  the  regular  channels.  To  finance  such  a pro- 
ject as  this,  help  must  be  sought  from  other  sources.  The  most 
obvious  solution  of  the  problem  is  the  extension  to  Hawaii  of 
the  Federal  Reclamation  Act  of  June  17,  1902,  under  which  simi- 
lar projects  are  being  successfully  carried  out  in  the  states  and 
territories  west  of  the  100th  meridian  and  in  Texas,  in  which  state 
conditions  are  in  many  ways  similar  to  our  own. 
