Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-12-09

bacco In Cuba 1t will be only question OF |
time when the large amounts paid 70 tnSss %
countries will be paid to our own people Ine
reclamation Of alkalf lands Is progressins
to give object-lessons to our people IN metn.
DDS by which worthless lands may De "aoe
The insect friends and enmies of the farm
are getting attention The enemy OF .ne
San Jose scale found near the Great
Wall of China. and is now cleaning up All
orchards. The fg-fertilizing insect I'M
ported from Turkey has helped to estaohsn
an industry in California that amounts 70
from so to 100 tons of dried hgs annuahy'
and Is extending over the Pacific Coast A
parasitic fly from South Africa is keeping
in subjection the black scale. the worst pest
of the orange and lemon industry IN Cah-
fornia.
Careful preliminary work is being done
towards producing our own silk. The null
berry is being distributed in large mum oers'
eggs are being imported and distributed. I'm.
proved reels were imported from Europe
last year. and two expert reelers were
brought to Washington to reel the crop OF
cocoons and teach the art to our own peo-
ple
The cro-reporting system of the Depart
ment of Agriculture is being brought closer
to accuracy every year. 1t has 2oO.ooo re-
porters selected from people in eight voca-
tiors in life. 1t has arrangements WIN
most European countries for interchan.e
of estimates, that our people may know
nearly possible with what they must
compete
During the 2M years that have elapsed
since the passage of the reclamation act
rapid progress has been made in the sur
veys and examinations of the opportunities
for reclamation in the 13 states and three
territories of the arid West CONSTRUCTION
has already been be-
Irritation, gun on the largest and
most important of the
irrigation works, and plans are being com
pleted for works which will utilize the funos
now available. The operations operations ,.,be are being
corps. of engineers selected through competl-
tive civil-service examinations This corps
includes experienced consulting and con-
| or fnO anCin oC w
perts in mechanical and legal matters. ana
| is composed largely of men who have spent
lected with irrigation. The larger problems
have been solved. and it now remains to
execute with care. economy, and thorough.
ness the work which has been laid out. All
| important details being carefully con-
| sidered by boards of consulting engineers,
| selected for their thorough knowledge and
practical experience Each project is taken
up the ground by competent men and
| viewed from the standpoint of the creation
| of prosperous homes, and of promptly refund
| ing to the Treasury the cost OF construction
! The reclamation act has been found to De
| remarkably complete and effective, and SO
! broad in its provisions that wide range OF
| undertakings has been possible under it. At
| the time. economy is guaranteed by
| the fact that funds must ultimately be re-
! turned to be used over again.
| 1t is the cardinal principle of the forest
reserve policy of this Administration that
| the reserves are for
| Forests. use. Whatever inter-
| feres with the use of
| their resources is to be avoided by every
| possible means. But these resources must
| be used in such way as to make them
| permanent.
The forest policy of the Government is
just now subject OF vivid public interest,"
| throughout the West and to the people OF
| the United States in general. The forest re-
| serves themselves are OF extreme value to
the present as well to the future welfare
of all the Western public-land states. They
powerfully affect the use and disposal OF
the public lands. They are of special inn
| supply and the supply of timber for domestic
purposes and SO promote settlement under
the reclamation act Indeed. they are es-
| sential to the welfare of every one of the
| great interest of the West
Forest reserves created for two prin-
cipaI purposes. The first is to preserve the
water supply. This is their most important
use. The principal users of the water thus
preserved are irrigation ranchers and set
tiers, cities and towns to whom their mu-
nicipal water supplies are of the very first
Importance, users and furnishers of water
power, and the users of water for domestic
manufacturing, mining, and other purposes
All these directly dependent upon the
forest reserves.
The second reason for which forest re-
: serves are created is to preserve the timber
supply for various classes of wood users
Among the more important of these are set
tiers under the reclamation act and othel
, acts, for whom a cheap and accessible sup
ply of timber for domestic uses is absolutel!
| necessary; miners and prospectors, who ar
: in serious danger of losing their timber sup
| ply by fire or through export by lumber com
panes when timber lands adjacent to thef
/ mines pass into private ownership; lumber
v men, transportation companies builders, ant
s commercial interests in general.
Although the wisdom of creating forest re
y serves is nearly everywhere heartily recog
nized, yet in few localities there have beel
n misunderstanding and complaint. The fol
e lowing statement is therefore desirable:
: Th< forest-reserve policy can be successful
e only when it has the full support of the peo
= pie of the West 1t cannot safely and shoul'
t not in any case, be imposed upon then
= cept the views of those whose only interes
e in the forest is temporary; who are anxiou
: to reap what they have not sown and the
: move away, leaving desolation behind them
h On the contrary, it is everywhere and alway
d the interest of the permanent settler an
e The permanent business man. the man with
k stake in the country, which must be con
n .sidered, and which must decide.
: Ths making of forest reserves within rail
e road and wagon-road land-grant limits wi
hereafter, for the past three years, be
S managed as to prevent the issue, under tn
= act of June 4, 1897. of base for exchange G
: lieu selection lusually called scrip: In a
# covered by land grants appear to be essen
r tial to the prosperity of settlers miners. c
e others the Government lands within sue
n proposed forest reserves will, in the recer
IS past, be Withdrawn from sale or entry pend
s ing the completion of such negotiations wit
the owners of the land grants as will prever
d the creation of so-called scrip.
y 1t was formerly the custom to make fore:
y, reserves without first getting definite an
J. land and timber within their boundaries. TIL
j. | method of action often resulted in bad
a chosen boundaries and consequent injustit
is to settlers and others. Therefore this Ae
e, ministration adopted the present method
lie first withdrawing the land from disposa
Is followed by careful examination on til
d ground and the preparation of detailed maj
of and descriptions. before any forest reser'
II is created.
re 1 have repeatedly called attention to tt
* confusion which exists in Government fore
matters because the work is scattered amor
Of three Independent organizations. The Unite
n States is the only of the great natiol
m in which the forest work of the Governme
lie is not concentrated under department
90 in consonance with the plainest dictates
p good administration and common sense. tt
e. present arrangement is bad from every poll
ir of view. Merely to mention 1T is to pro'
te that 1t should be terminated at once. AS
Id have repeatedly recommended all the fore
IN work Of the Government should be conce
IS. trated in the Department of Agricultur
t where the larger part of that work is alreat
ds done. where practically all of the train'
OF foresters of the Government are employe
n. where chiefly in Washington there is cor