Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-24

settlers will be able to acouire # di-
rectly from the government without
COST instead of having to pay from
S4O TO $50 an acre to land spectators.
For example, on the Kaniksu National
forest in Idaho and Washington, the
governments timber sales have been
made to include much of the remain
ing timbered agricultural land. With
IN eight years fully 10000 acres will
be made available for settlement Per-
manent homes will be established by
the settlers, and there will b avail
able Tor the use of communities. ap-
proXimately $225.O0O for roads and
schools, their legal share of the pro-
ceeds from the timber sales. Private
ownership of heavily timbered agri-
cultural land blocks farming develop
ment, says the article: government
ownership insures such development
under conditions that give opportuni-
ties to the small settled whose only
capital is his strength and courageous
perseverance,
one of the most serious agricultural
problems of the northwest to-day is
the development of the logged-off
lands in private ownership. In Ore
son and Washington alone more than
three millions acres of such logged
off lands are lying idle, although much
or this area has fine agricultural soil
and climate that insures abundant
crops and the development of thriv-
ing communities. Yet in this same
region hundreds of settlers are seeking
to find places in the national forests,
nigh in the mountains, where the eli
mate is harsh and the soil relatively
poor, simply because the good lands at
the lower levels outside the forest are
held by the spectators at prohibitive
prices. The true solution of the prob
lem of agriculture in such sections is
to develop the rich logged-off private
land that lie outside the forests, and
not to throw open the nonagricul-
tural lands within the forests.
To show how thorough is the land
classification work of the Forest Ser
vice, the Kootenai Valley in Montana
may be taken as an example, continues
the article. Here a large river winds
for $50 miles through the national
forest At many points steep, densely
forested hills drop down to the wa
.ter's edge, making the valley a gorge
or canyon. Here and there bars in the
river have resulted in deposits of silt,
forming long, narrow bottoms, or level
islands, which are very fertile. Part
way up the mountain slopes occasional
benches of land afford few acres of
fertile soil. At first it was proposed
to throw out the entire valley. a strip
three miles in width on either side of
the river. Ninety-five per cent. of
this belt, however, is nonagricultural
land whose cultivation should not be
attempted. Its best use to a local
community, as we'll as to the country
at large, is for timber growing. So in
stead of opening the whole valley to
public entry by settlers, the Forest
Service has painstakingly surveyed
every little river bottom, island, or
bench. which contains enough arabic
land to support a home. Many of
these patches are small, but their soil
is so fertile that homes can be main
tanned on them by intensive truck
farming or orcharding. In this fash
ion, more than three hundred farms
have been carved out of this valley of
the Kootenai National Forest.