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For its proper conservation great areas of the range must be re-seeded and kept from the cattle until the grasses have made a fresh start and have choked out the sage-brush. Then it must be grazed under lease, for at least a nominal rent, so that every tract may be controlled and supervised and the supervision paid for by the cattle-owners. This must be so arranged as to prevent overstocking, and the number of cattle to a given area must be prescribed. These methods are so simple that it would appear that a child would appreciate them; yet the simple statement of them is enough to arouse the old cattlemen to anger; and to obtain the passage of such laws in western states in coöperation with the government will prove difficult. This difficulty is, in a measure, lessened, however, by a recent court decision holding that the cattle-owner, and not the federal authorities, is responsible if cattle enter unfenced public domain.

Like the range, the lands suitable for irrigation add another to the problems. Their improvement is already well advanced under the direction of the Reclamation Service, and several million acres either already have been or are about to be furnished with water. Under the new laws these lands are divided into small tracts for individual farmers, and the full benefit to the nation of the responsible land-owning electorate is being obtained, at the same time that the soil is being retained in place and developed. The swamp lands offer a question more immediately for the states to solve. Most of these lands, which are spread over a very large area, and aggregate more than 75,000,000 acres, were originally given by the federal government to the states, to be sold to create a fund for their own drainage. This has never been done, except in the lower Mississippi valley, where levee systems have been erected and the lands thus drained have been found to be enormously fertile. Minnesota is now engaged on a heroic task of drainage, and has withdrawn from

sale much of its undrained land because it can be sold at a much higher rate when drained, and gives a considerable profit to the state. Swamps often lie in more than one state, however, and the outfall stream often runs through a different state from that in which the swamp lies, so that coöperation or federal direction becomes necessary.

Our mineral fuel supply, the remaining "land" element in the natural resources of the country, is at present being exhausted at the rate of 400,000,000 tons a year; at which rate it will not be a generation before it will become an economical problem how to supply cheaply some parts of the country. Large and unexploited areas of bituminous coal still remain in the public domain in the western states, and these have been withdrawn from entry by the President until such time as the existing frauds could be stopped and the laws so modified as to enable him to force the conservative use of these fuels. There are also large areas of lignite, this softer coal cropping out in many places and in thick veins on nearly every tributary of the Missouri in North Dakota and on the Big Muddy itself. It is in these lignite fields that the government has taken the most active steps toward the proper conservation of fuel, in developing the mine-central power-station. As the transportation of coal is costly, and as it deteriorates badly in shipping, there is a great deal of the cheapest grade which it does not pay to ship from the mine, and which yet contains a considerable source of power. It has always been a matter of prophecy by electrical engineers that in the future power-stations would be erected at the shaft, and power, not fuel, shipped about the country. To test the value of this system and give a working basis for computation, the government has installed a mine-central station at the side of a lignite mine on the upper Missouri. There power is generated, which is distributed to moto-pumps, some of them forty or fifty miles away.

These pumps elevate the water of the river to high-level canals, eighty feet or more above the river surface, whence it successively irrigates the lower levels. The plan has been found economical, and there is no doubt that a great saving will be made eventually in this way. The mine-central of the Buford-Trenton project contains another new development, or rather a somewhat novel factor, in a gas-producer, consuming lignite coal. Experiments with producers and internal combustion engines show that the present average expenditure of two pounds of coal per horse-power hour can be decreased to a horse-power hour for each pound of coal consumed; which, if generally followed, would double the duration of our coal supply. In addition, the producer will make gas from the dust and slack in the waste heaps, so that there remains a vast source of power in these unshippable materials.

Such developments as these, together with methods of mining less wasteful than now practiced, will not only go far to conserve our fuel supply but will lighten the congesting burden of our railways. There is a third factor to be considered, however, in the water-power from our running streams. And this brings us to consider the other types of resource, those which lie in running

water.

Though the administration has been extremely agitated by the threatening approach of a timber famine, there is probably no other element in this new conservation policy which has so stirred it as the fear of a monopolization of the waterpowers of the country. Not a day goes by which does not bring to light the activity of some big corporation to secure rights in a public stream. Bills are now pending in Congress giving to such concerns rights in perpetuity, without any return whatsoever, in public streams, and depriving the government of the power to benefit from any of the improvement by forestation or river improvement. Sites for dams are being surveyed, and there is

indication of a race to secure “vested” rights in order that capital may fatten on the results of the public work. Already large corporations have combined their holdings into larger corporations; and it is not hard to imagine a single concern, like the Steel Company, in complete possession of our natural powers and able to utilize and direct them as it will.

It is because of the extreme importance of this feature of our situation, and the general tendency to ignore it, that I have chosen to present here the stories of two typical streams, developed, one under the old give-away policy, the other under the new policy of conservation in the highest degree to which it has yet been carried. These are the upper Mississippi and the Wisconsin. The upper Mississippi heads in Minnesota in a level plateau, rock-rimmed, full of lakes and ponds and containing several million acres of swamps, generally heavily wooded. The stream for about five hundred miles after leaving Itasca flows alternately through still deep reaches and over abrupt rapids and falls, culminating at St. Anthony's and in the rapid water between that point and the mouth of the Minnesota River. Any comprehensive plan for the development of this stream should take into consideration the maintenance and well-being of the forests, first for timber supply and second for the retention of a forest cover to aid in storage of water; the drainage of the swamp area, so that better forests might grow on some of it and the rest be used for agriculture; the enlargement of the lakes and ponds, so as to provide storage of the snow and flood-waters during high months; and the release of the stored waters during the low season, so as to obtain the greatest benefit to navigation and at the same time to water-power. Any private concern undertaking this work and it would be futile to deny that the government should in such activities approximate the economies of a corporation for profit-would first have obtained the coöperation of the owners

of water-powers, or would have bought them out altogether. Then it would have called upon states and individuals to coöperate in the control of the forests, or would have bought and managed for itself these timber tracts as far as possible. Then, as it developed its storage reservoirs, it would have placed them so that the greatest amount possible should be discharged at low water from the highest point upstream-so that all the falls should have the benefit of it. The progress of the work thereafter would have involved straightening and improving the stream and its approaches in order to bring about simplicity in the drainage problems - the whole aim being to prevent an excess of water where and when it was not wanted, and to direct an abundance where it was wanted.

The government began the care of this region at the close of the Civil War, at a time when practically every dam site was still held in federal or Indian fee, and when almost or quite all of these woods were under government ownership except the swamp tracts which had by law been transferred to the state. In the development of the river no interest whatever except navigation has been considered, and that navigation below the falls. Accordingly, the reservoirs have been placed at points where they would discharge above St. Anthony's without regard for their effect upon the several powers above; and during the progress of the reservoiring the mill sites and the forests have been steadily alienated without regard to sharing the cost of improvements. There exist now almost innumerable privileges granted without cost by Congress for dams across the upper Mississippi, many of these dams being in actual operation. The government has provided 2,000,000 acre-feet of storage, - 90,000,000,000 cubic feet, from which the water is released at low water to maintain an increased flow of 1000 cubic second feet over the falls of St. Anthony, and an added depth of one foot at St. Paul at low water. All this has

been done at government expense, and solely with attention to the reservoirs. Every dam site on the upper river owes its value to the government pondage above it, and commands value according to the proportion of pondage above and below, because it is peculiarly this pondage which gives value at the busy lowwater season. Yet not one cent of the cost of the work has come on the millowners; these mill-owners have themselves steadily cut off the forests and reduced the value of the storage, cutting the lumber by government power; they are now continually complaining because all the water is not released above them; and the State of Minnesota, having the swamp lands to drain, is in a quandary as to how to go about the development of a river already in government hands in order to attain drainage channels to and through it. The falls of St. Anthony, always a valuable power, have been nearly doubled in value by government storage, and powers immediately above this fall, aggregating 100,000 horse-power, have been acquired by a thrifty individual who is preparing to bond the value of the federal pondage and sell electricity at Minneapolis. Not one cent has been repaid to the government for its addition to these private fortunes, given away free originally by the government, -- and neither state, nation, nor individual has yet obtained the highest good which can be obtained by proper forestation, reservoiring, and drainage of the headwaters country.

Exactly the opposite policy is now being developed upon the Wisconsin, a river which in its early days was easily. navigable during most of the year, but which with the rapid destruction of the forests became so unreliable, so subject to extreme changes, that it was abandoned by the government engineers and pronounced unnavigable. Millions of dollars spent in connection with its development return not one cent of interest to the people. This river heads with the Menominee and some other streams in

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a mountainous region on the northern, Michigan, border; and there, for his purposes the strategic centre of the state systems, the forester, Mr. Griffiths, has chosen to make his principal campaign. He has begun the establishment of a forest reserve which is expected to reach a total of 3,000,000 acres, and of which a tenth is already in possession of the state. Whatever lands suitable for agriculture the state owns, or whatever isolated forest tracts not suitable for reserve, he is selling at high market prices to buy up the remaining cheap, rocky, mountain lands of the proposed forest

reserve.

It is inevitable that this reforesting will have a great effect upon the rivers which drain it. During all its upper course, as far down as Kilbourne, the Wisconsin plunges over fall after fall, creating water-power which is of especial value because there is no fuel in or near the state. These powers, which are drowned out now in freshets and almost idle at low water, are depended upon to drive the rapidly growing manufactories of the state, just as the forest-reserve timber must eventually be relied upon to supply the high-grade lumber for these manufactories. Some time ago the power owners - that is, following the old idea that whoever owns the land beside a waterfall owns the right to use the power of the running water - began to agitate and at last presented a bill which enabled them to enter upon the forest reserve, impound water, and do as they pleased with state property for the benefit of their private powers. This was opposed by the forester, supported by the enlightened sentiment which Mr. Roose velt's new policy embodies. As a result there was eventually passed a coöperative bill which provides in large measure for all the interests involved. The forester is empowered to indicate what lakes and ponds can be used for storage, to designate the location of the controlling dam, and to establish, with his surveyors, stone monuments marking the level

to which the impounded waters may be raised without injury to the forests. Authority is also given the state railway commissioners to appoint engineers who shall compute, from a careful survey, the drainage area from which every power site collects its water, the amount of flow now in every week of the year, and the horse-power developed or capable of development. The power owners are authorized to incorporate as the Wisconsin River Valley Improvement Association, and to issue bonds for the purpose of obtaining money with which to establish the dams designated by the forester, and to operate the storage system. These bonds are, if memory serves me, guaranteed by the state. At any rate the law carefully safeguards the control of the corporation, to prevent monopolization.

The dams being installed, the railway commissioners are required to examine each power each year, and to determine the total and the proportionate amount of betterment; from which the owner has a right of appeal. Upon their findings the commissioners then determine the amount to be paid by each power owner that year toward the interest and sinking fund of the bonds and toward the maintenance of the somewhat elaborate system necessary for operation.

As a result of all this activity, of course, the Wisconsin will again become a navigable river. Some years ago the government engineers examined the stream, selected reservoir sites, and made a report upon the feasibility of storing water and thus aiding navigation. But by the reversed process now in operation navigation obtains its full flow needing only the channel work to complete it; the forest interests of the state are conserved; the greatest possible power is obtained; the private as well as the public interests are all safeguarded, and the whole cost is to be paid by a small proportion of the betterments received by individuals. This is conservation of resources in a high degree, and I have gone into it at length because it is almost the only in

stance of this magnitude which one can quote.

It is just such a plan which is in the minds of those who are advocating the establishment of the Appalachian forest reserve for which a bill may have passed before this appears in print. In the Appalachian forests there head some of our most important rivers: the Tennessee and the Cumberland, already navigable; the Big Sandy, the Tombigbee, the Catawba, the Neuse, Peedee, Santee, Coosa, and many, many more. The estimated horse-power of these streams is, all told, about 5,000,000, of which three-fifths is capable of easy development. With the reduction of the forests, however, this waterflow becomes even more capricious than on northern streams, and the value is made very small. Three million continuous horsepower represent the consumption by present methods of more than 26,000,000 tons of coal a year, or one-sixteenth of our total fuel consumption; and as the increase in water-power economy may expected to keep pace with coal economy, this proportion may be considered a fairly stable one. That is, an amount of power equal to one-sixteenth of our total coal consumption including steamships, railways, and dwellings, as well as factories is in jeopardy through the cutting of the forests on the southern mountains.

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The question has many other sides. Thus the Tennessee River, already navigable after a fashion, is interrupted by a long series of rapids and falls in northern Alabama and by swift water near Chattanooga. A power company owning the bank, and therefore claiming the running water, offered to allow the government to erect for it a dam across the river below Chattanooga and put in a lock, from which the power company would furnish power to operate the lock. Even the final settlement, by which the company builds the dam and furnishes the power for the privilege of obstructing a navigable stream, gives this company

free of charge the full amount of betterment which may accrue from the improvement of conditions on the upper waters; and other companies are already endeavoring to get into similar favorable positions at Bee Tree and Muscle Shoals. On the Cumberland another concern has already been formed to secure the privilege of damming and using all the waters above the present government dams, and we as a nation have taken no steps toward using the power at the dams we

own.

One of the most intricate problems involved, and one which must be cleared before we have gone far with the management of water-power, is that of the ownership of running water, a matter to which both Congress and the Supreme Court have given considerable time with very inconclusive results. Under old conditions, when the erection of a dam was the whole apparatus of power-development, the man who owned the dam site was considered by that possession to own the power in the water during the time it was passing his land. When water-power was the only power, and larger development was necessary, this dam-owner was given the right to take for flowage the lands of his immediate neighbors, for a fair price. But now that we have passed far beyond that stage, to a time when the improvement of a river begins at the fountain from which it springs and in the forests which cover the slopes of the surrounding hills, we can no longer follow this old procedure.

The work which is done at headwaters actually creates a power, since it enlarges and steadies the flow; and that power is possible of utilization over and over again, for every foot of fall from the fountain to the sea. The Supreme Court has often held that the government has but a navigation right in streams, and that the states themselves own the water, and the land-owners the use for power. But old usage must give way to new needs, and a new body of law describing and establishing the owner

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