The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-07-26
FORESTRY AND DROUGHT.
The Action of One Upon Regarded as a
Cause for the Other.
st. Louis Globe Democrat

st. Louis GLOBE Democrat
On the first day of the present month
bureau of forestry came into exist
ence as part of the agricultural de-
partment. Formerly forestry in it's
national bearings was looked after by
a division now it is bureau consist
ing of three divisions. Public senti-
ment in behalf of systematic forestry
has grown fast, and practical steps to
advance it have been taken by several
states as we'll as by congress. The
forestry appropriation allowed by con-
gress for the new fiscal year is $1S5,
440, against $2S, $50 three years ago.
During the same time the personnel
has been increased from eleven in the
forestry division to 1875 in the forestry
bureau. In this work the departments
of the interior and agriculture are cor
daily cooperating. Some of their ex-
pert representatives are now in the
west and have been present this week
at the trans Mississippi congress held
in Colorado. Their mission is to rec
ommond plans to properly preserve and
extend the forests of the country and
devise general scheme of irrigation
in the arid region. In his last annual
report Secretary Hitchcock gave the
number of forest reservations created
by presidential proclamation as thirty
eight, embracing an area of As, 772, 1879
acres. Since then the secretary has
secured another reserve of 5S, 600
acres, in the heart of the Wichita
mountains, in Oklahoma.
The western states especially this
year have suffered from an insufficient
rainfall. In the spring the ground
was dryer than usual. and severe
drought, not yet broken, set in with
the beginning of hot weather. A few
showers fell here and there, but are too
light to be of much benefit There will
be loss of hundreds of millions in
corn, oats, hay and potatoes. while the
usual abundant vegetable crop, SO
important to health and cheap living,
is scanty and poor. Great masses Of
sluggish, heated air cover large areas
and usual rain conditions seem power
less to make an impression upon them.
In some localities the water supply
has failed. Every observer knows that
the wholesale removal of forests modi
lies the climate and impairs the water
supply. In some parts of the world i'm
mense districts have been reduced to
sterility by the complete destruction
of the forest growth. No Saharas have
yet been created in the United States,
but the reckless slashing of trees in all
directions will bring about that result
unless the havoc is stopped by scien-
tific forestry.
Forestry is the best friend, not the
enemy, of the lumber interests of this
country. The forester cuts trees as
well as grows them, but does it inteIli
gently. He differs from the reckless
lumberman by looking after reproduce
ton while taking off the harvest. 1t
has been proposed to make an Appa-
lachian forest reservation at the head
waters of certain rivers that flow
through Virginia, the Carolinas. Geor-
gia, Alabama and Tennessee, and a
report on the subject says: Zone prob
lem is whether, by the destruction of
this magnificent forest area, the streams
now furnishing water power to vast
industries, having hundreds of unde-
veloped powers and feeding many Of
our great rivers shall be shrunken to
insignificance or dried up" The
trans Mississippi congress in session
this week passed a resolution in favor
of the construction by the United
States government of reservoirs and
canals to reclaim arid lands and ma
tional and state storage dams to in
crease the rainfalls. With this move
ment forestry in all its branches is in
separately connected. The key to the
battle against drought is forestry and
irrigation.