t.

In my last annual message I called attention to the necessity of
protecting by suitable legislation the forests situated upon the public
domain. In many portions of the West the pursuit of general agriculture
is only made practicable by resort to irrigation, while successful
irrigation would itself be impossible without the aid afforded by
forests in contributing to the regularity and constancy of the supply of
water.

During the past year severe suffering and great loss of property have
been occasioned by profuse floods followed by periods of unusually low
water in many of the great rivers of the country.

These irregularities were in great measure caused by the removal from
about the sources of the streams in question of the timber by which the
water supply had been nourished and protected.

The preservation of such portions of the forests on the national domain
as essentially contribute to the equable flow of important water courses
is of the highest consequence.

Important tributaries of the Missouri, the Columbia, and the
Saskatchewan rise in the mountain region of Montana, near the northern
boundary of the United States, between the Blackfeet and Flathead Indian
reservations. This region is unsuitable for settlement, but upon the
rivers which flow from it depends the future agricultural development
of a vast tract of country. The attention of Congress is called to the
necessity of withdrawing from public sale this part of the public domain
and establishing there a forest preserve.

The industrial exhibitions which have been held in the United States
during the present year attracted attention in many foreign countries,
where the announcement of those enterprises had been made public through
the foreign agencies of this Government. The Industrial Exhibition at
Boston and the Southern Exposition at Louisville were largely attended
by the exhibitors of foreign countries, notwithstanding the absence of
any professed national character in those undertakings.

The Centennial Exposition to be held next year at New Orleans in
commemoration of the centenary of the first shipment of cotton from
a port of the United States bids fair to meet with like gratifying
success. Under the act of Congress of the 10th of February, 1883,
declaring that exposition to be national and international in its
character, all foreign governments with which the United States
maintain relations have been invited to participate.

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