The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-07

The soils of the country are getting attention from the farmers standpoint, and interesting results are following We have duplicates of the soils that grow the wrapper tobacco in Sumatra and the filler tobacco in Cuba. It will be only question of time when the large amounts paid 10 these countries will be paid to our own people. The reclamation of alkali lands is progressing to give object lessons to our people in methods by which worthless lands may be made productive.
 The insect friends and enemies of the farmer are getting attention. The enemy of the San Jose scale was found near the great wall of China, and is now cleaning up all our orchards. The fig-fertilizing insect imported from Turkey has helped to establish an industry in California that amounts to from fifty to one hundred tons of dried figs annually, and Is ex- tending over the Pacific coast. A par asitic fly from South Africa Is keeping in subjection the black scale, the worst pest of the orange and lemon .ncustry in Cal ifornia.
 Careful preliminary work is being done towards producing our own silk. The mulberry is being distributed in large numbers, eggs are being imported and distributed, improved reels were im- ported from Europe last year, and two expert reelers were brought to Washing ton to reel the crop of cocoons and teach the art to our own people.
 The crop reporting system of the de- partment of agriculture is being brought closer to accuracy every year. It has two hundred and fifty thousand reporters selected from people in eight vacations in life. It has arrangements with most Eu- ropean countries for interchange of esti- mates, so that our people may know as nearly as possible with what they must compete.
 IRRIGATION.
 During the two and a half years that have elapsed since the passage of the re- clamation act rapid progress has been made in the surveys and examinations of the opportunities for reclamation in the thirteen states and three territories of the arid west. Construction has all ready been begun on the largest and most important of the irrigation works, and plans are being completed for works will utilize the funds now available. The operations are being carried on by the reclamation service, a corps of engineers selected through competitive civil-service examinations. This corps includes expe- rienced consulting and constructing engi- neers as well as various experts in me- chanical and legal matters, and is com posed largely of men who have spent
 
 connected with irrigation. The larger | problems have been solved and 1t now re- mains to execute with care, economy and thoroughness the work which has been laid out All important details are being 1 carefully considered by boards of con- sulting engineers, selected for their thor ough knowledge and practical experience. Each project Is taken up on the ground by competent men and view from the | 0f hp of prO homes, and of promptly refunding to the | treasury the cost of construction. The reclamation act has been found to be remarkably complete and effective, and so broad in It's provisions that wide range of undertakings has been possible under 1t. At the same time economy Is guaranteed by the fact that the funds must ultimately be returned to be used over again.
 FORESTS.
 It is the cardinal principle of the forest reserve policy of this administration that the reserves are for use. Whatever in- terferes with the use of their resources Is to be avoided by every possible means. But these resources must be used in such ! a 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
 
 est reserves themselves are of extreme value to the present as well as 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 importance because they preserve the water supply and the supply of timber for domestic purposes, and so promote settlement under the reclamation act. Indeed, they are essential to the | xVp of Of O ests of the west
 Forest reserves are created for two principal purposes. The first is to pre- serve the water supply. This is their most important use. The principal users of the water thus preserved are irri- gation ranchers and settlers, cities and towns to whom their municipal water supplies are of the very first importance. users and furnishers of water power, and the users of water for domestic, manu- facturing, mining and other purposes All these are directly dependent upon the forest reserves.
 The second reason for which forest re- | serves are created Is to preserve the tim Der supply for various classes of wood users Among the more important of these are settlers under the reclamation act and other acts, for whom a cheap and accessible supply of timber for do- mestic uses is absolutely necessary; min CTS and prospeetors, who are in serious danger of losing their timber supply by fire or through export by lumber com panies when timber lands adjacent to their mines pass into private ownership; lumbermen, transportation companies, builders and commercial interests in gen. eral.
 Although the wisdom of creating forest reserves is nearly everywhere heartily recognized, yet In a few localities there has been misunderstanding and com plaint. The following statement is there fore desirable:
 The forest reserve policy can be suc- cessful only when it has the full sup port of the people of the west It can not safely, and should not in any case, be imposed upon them against their will. But neither can we accept the views of those whose only interest in the forest what they have not sown and then move away, leaving desolation behind them. On the contrary. it is everywhere and all ways the interest of the permanent set tier and the permanent business man the man with a stake in the country, which must be considered and which must decide.
 The making of forest reserves within railroad and wagon road land grant lim- it's will hereafter, as for the past three years be so managed as to prevent the issue, under the act of June f. 1897, of base for exchange or lieu selection (ns- ually called scriptl In all cases where forest reserves within areas covered by land grants appear to be essential to the prosperity of settlers. miners, or others