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Titles included in this collection are listed in the volumes published by the Cornell University Press in the series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, 1991-1996, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. Fore4:t and Water. COPYRIGHT BY ABBOT KINNEY B. R. BAUMGARDT^&^CO. PRINTERS, Los Angeles, Cal. GRIZZLY GIANT Height 2^4 feet ; diameter 35 feet ; lowest branch 100 teet from soil: Showing how this Species, Sequoia Gigantea, Dwarfs the other Magnificent Sierra Forest Trees Forest and WsLter BY ABBOT KINNEY "VMce-President of the American Forestry Association; Presidentof the Southern Californij Forest and Water Society; President of the Southern California Academy of Sciences; AUTHOR OF "Eucalyptus;" "Conquest of Death;" "Tasks by Twilight," Ktc. With Articles on Allied Subjects BY EMINENT EXPERTS ILLUSTRATED THE POST PUBLISHING COMPANY, LOS ANGELES, CAL. 1900 11 CONTENTS FOR IvIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS see Pages 249 and 250. CHAPTER I Definition and History. CHAPTER II Practical Forestry. CHAPTER III Origin and Continuance of Forests. CHAPTER IV Proportion of Lands in Forests. CHAPTER V Destruction of Forests Admits No Adequate Compensation. CHAPTER VI Forest Fires. CHAPTER VII. Forest Fire Districts. CHAPTER VIII. Pasturage in Forests. CHAPTER IX Pasturage in Different Districts. CHAPTER X Damage to Forest Lands from Sheep. CHAPTER XI Government Control Required to Abate Evils. CHAPTER XII The Forest Problem in the West. CHAPTER XIII Forests in Relation to Torrents. CHAPTER XIV Sources of Water Supply. CHAPTER XV A System of Forest Management a Necessity. CHAPTER XVI Outline of a Forest System for Southern California. 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII Physical Qualifications and Condition of Patrol. CHAPTER XVI n Dietary in Detail. CHAPTER XIX Suggestions to Improve the Efficiency of the Forest Patrol in Southern California. CHAPTER XX. Principal Authorities on the Forest Trees of the California Reserves and Forest Growths. CHAPTER XXI Study of Trees and the Pines. CHAPTER XXII Cedar and other Forest Trees. CHAPTER XXIII Fish and Game of the Forest Reserves, by C. F. Holder, Author. CHAPTER XXIV Some Relations Between Forests and Water Supply, by H. Hawgood, M. Inst. C. E. CHAPTER XXV Practical Irrigation, by S. M. Woodbridge, Ph. D., Director of the Agricultural Department of the Academy of Sciences of Southern California. CHAPTER XXVI Irrigation in the Southwest, by Jas. D Schuyler, Hydraulic Engineer. CHAPTER XXVII The Underground Waters of Southern California, by T. S. Van Dyke, C. Engineer and Author. CHAPTER XXVIII Forest Reservoirs, by Geo. H. Maxwell, Ch. National Irrigation Com. CHAPTER XXIX Relation of Stream Flow, and Suspended Sediment Therein, to the Covering of Drainage Basins, by J. B. Lippincott, Resident Hydrographer, U. S. Geological Survey. CHAPTER XXX Forestry and its Relations to the Watersupply of Southern California, by A. H. Koebig, Consulting Engineer. CHAPTER XXXI The Reclamation of Drifting Sand Dunes in Golden Gate Park, by John McLaren, Supt., and Memorandum from Hon. Wm. Alford, of San Francisco. CHAPTER XXXII Reports from Special Agents on Forest Fires. 13 IJ^mOWC TlO/f. There is a notable lack of forest literature in the English language Recent works on Forestry in English are the "Primer of Forestry, " a public document and a most valuable work by the Government For- ester, Mr. Gitford Pinchot, and a volume received by us, as this treatise is going through the press, entitled "North American Forest and For- estry," by Ernest Brucken. The circulation of other works has been inadequate to awaken any general interest. Yet in the Far West, forestry is closely related to the development and to the life of the country. The improvements and occupation of the vast empire of the arid public lands are dependent upon the preservation of the water- holding power of the forests on the mountains. These are the natural reservoirs. In the Western Forests the prevention of torrents and the preserva- tion of perennial water supply overshadow all other forest questions, except in the western part of Washington and Oregon and in North- western California. In these districts the timber supply is paramount. The rapid exhaustion of the Forests in other portions of the United States is forcing attention to this rich timber resource. It is a pleas- ing thing to note that the general tendency throughout this district is toward a more rational and scientific system of lumbering. There is plenty of room for improvement. The lumbering in these superb forests has been on most reckless and wasteful methods. The forests have been cut and burned without regard to the future, neglecting even present safety. Sheep packing Forest land so that it sheds water and cannot absorb it is demonstrated by the practice formerly prevalent in Southern Cal- ifornia of puddling and rendering the reservoir bottoms water tight by driving sheep into the excavations. This method was effective. From this we can perceive the effect of large bodies of sheep on watersheds. Fires diminishing water-holding power of mountain water sheds is well understood by all forest students. There is another effect that has been recognized in Southern California by a number of careful ob- servers and carefully checked up. This is the cementing up of our torrent-cones by the ashes washed down from the mountains after fires. This detritus fills the interstices of the gravel and sand and 14 INTRODUCTION. thus allows the water delivered to flow across and beyond the great natural reservoirs of our largest springs and streams. These are what we call the second tier springs. One o£ the largest of these is a tier of springs supplying the Los Angeles river and constituting the do- mestic supply of this large city and of the irrigated vegas to the south. Whenever a watershed is burned over we see the mountain streams ex- tend their flow beyond the usual limits because of this channel cement- ing. Thus on a light rainfall we see streams flowing clear across the natural reservoir when without such fires only long and continuous rains produce this result. In this country it is a misfortune to have storm water flow off. We want it to sink in so that the perennial springs can be supplied. It requires a heavy flood rolling the gravel and boulders about to break these ash-cemented channels up so that they can again absorb the torrent flow. This is one of the serious dangers growing out of our mountain forest fires. The watershed fires affect the first tier of mountain springs disastrously. The reduc- tion in permanent water flow from these springs by such fires is from one quarter to three-quarters of the regular supply. Comparing the flow from the Deer Creek Springs with water-shed unburned with springs on each side of it and on burned districts for the past two years of light rains we find a slight shrinkage in the Deer creek supply and a frightful shrinkage in the springs from the burned water sheds. The exact figures are: Burned watershed, Cucamonga Canyon — Ordinary flow, 210 miners' inches; after fire, reduced to 29 inches. Burned over and second growth again burned on Alder canyon — Former flow, 6 inches; after fire, — or absolutely nothing. Deer creek canyon, un- burned, ordinary fiow, 48 inches; in present dry year flow, 40 inches. These and other cognate subjects on which I have extensive notes are more fully discussed in this volume under appropriate heads. Tree planting in Southern California has been more general than in any district with which I am acquainted. The entire aspect of the country has been changed. The objects of the forest tree planting were for roads, wind breaks and fuel. At present the large eucalyptus groves have become valuable for piling. The leaves of the Eucalyptus are also used by several local establishments for the medicinal oil and for eucalyptol. These trees and the Acacias grow with wonderful rapidity and insure a fair fuel crop at seven years and a good one at ten years. The Forest societies of the South have this year started to replant portions of the burned areas of the Sierra Madre with indigenous INTRODUCTION. 15 forest. This is being done by seed planting. About seventy thousand seeds will be set out. This work is in charge of Mr. T. P. Lukens and immediately under the auspices of the Los Angeles Society. Mr. T. H. Douglas of the Waukegan Nurseries gives an encouraging report on forest tree planting in the Middle West. Railroad companies appear to be the largest planters. Mr. Douglas has been unable to give me the statistics of forest tree planting In his section, but he reports the interest to be increasing. This year he says the largest demand for seedling forest trees within his experience has occurred. The distinguished writers and engineers who have contributed to this work speak tor themselves in their chapters. Every forest lover will thank them as I do for their work and co-operation. Special thanks are due to Prof. W. R. Dudley, holding the chair of Botany at Stanford University, for his aid in the chapter on trees of the Re- serves. Dr. John Woodbridge of South Pasadena also receives my hearty thanks for his arduous work in the detail and editing of this book. Los Angeles, September, 1900. NOTE. Arizona Petrified Forest. — Lest mistake be made in regard to the age of the Arizona Petrified Forest alluded to in this work, the following note is made : These stone trees of agate, amethyst and other beautiful crystal izations, that have replaced the wood tissue, grew in the Mesozoic age. Buried in ancient seas they were covered and petrified. The bed of this ancient ocean was raised. Untold ages of erosion have brought these beautiful and strange mementoes of an extinct forest again to light. Geologists estimate that the age of the petrified trees approximates fifty million years. 17 FOREST AND WATER. CHAPTER I. DEFINITION AND HISTORY. Forestry is a broad term covering the subject of forests in all re- spects as they exist in large outlying and uncultivated districts. (The Latin Foris — foresta.) Questions of every sort connected with the natural growth, care and uses of forest trees appeal for answer to the forester and subjects allied to forestry occupy many fields of thought and study. • The origin of forestry may have been in man's instinct. There was a point beyond which forest destruction was man's destruction. Amongst primitive men, game and fish and the natural products of the forest glades and streams formed their food resources and In fact all their resources. These resources required large forest areas for their life and reproduction. This reason for the evolution of an instinct for forest preservation was. in addition to the less proximate one of the destruction of the earth's life-supporting power growing out of undue forest cenudation. The instinct In favor of trees was first formulated in primitive re- ligions. Trees were made sacred in themselves at first and later groves became sacred to both religion and learning. Religious feeling favorable to trees is still perpetuated in Gothic architecture. The great Gothic cathedrals of Europe are in imitation of great forest groves. Their interiors clearly show this origin. Learning in early times was a religious monopoly. We have the Greek word "Academy" meaning a grove to perpetuate the connection of forestry with learning. In Mediaeval times forestry was perpetuated by the Kings and nobles for their hunting and pleasure. These forest reserves were found to have l8 HISTORY. other value. Their products could be taken and sold under judicious re- strictions without injury to them as game preserves or to their per- manence as forests. Here we find the first evidence of the use of for- ests as a continuous source of revenue. Both kings and nobles counted their forests as income bearing resources. The evolution of European society gradually diminished the value of the feudal system and finally made it an impediment to human progress. The power of the nobles went first and that of kings or hereditary rulers is gone in some coun- tries and with the present social movement continued, will go every- where. With the elimination of the useful action of the feudal lord went his fortune also. Forests were sold for court expenses or other extravagance, 'i hese forests were first cut off and then in many cases entirely destroyed as to new growth by continuous sheep pasturing. RESULTS OF FOREST DESTRUCTION. Observers and travelers had already commenced to note the serious results of forest destruction in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Men like Arthur Young have left us accounts of what was happening in Europe at that time. The center and south of France and Spain are the principal countries in which injury was then noted as resulting from forest destruction. The creation of torrents and intensification of flood action and the reduced navigability of rivers due to deposits of detritus and diminished perennial flow of water were first observed. Later came the appreciation of climatic change, especially the increase of fro.sts and warm winter spells. These changes continually moved the northern limit of profitable growing of various fruits and crops to the south. Amongst the more notable instances of this is the shrink- age of the olive-growing area in France. At the time of the French revolution the causes of forest destruction were rapidly increased. The lands of the nobles were appropriated and forests were cut wher- ever there was a market for wood. This market was best of course in those districts with the least wood — the very ones where the forests were at a minimum and where in many cases the forest cutting meant total denudation of the water sheds. The results of this forest de- struction were disastrous in Provence. Districts were depopulated, ex- tensive productive areas became deserts of wash, boulders and detr.tus from torrent action and the productive output of the district was ma- terially diminished. It was a series of such serious results that finally forced the great central European powers into a rational system of forestry. Commencing with France forestry has spread even to India CHAPTER I. 19 and Australia. Canada has a fair forest system. In fact about the only civilized country in the world today without a forest system is the United States of America. SYSTEMATIC FORESTRY REQUIRED. The attention of Central Europe once attracted to the need of ra- tional forestry the students of forest conditions commenced to note the disastrous results of undue forest denudation in Persia, Palestine, Macedonia, Greece and North Africa. Every series of observations showed the need of rational forestry. It is now admitted to be estab- lished that every country requires a certain proportion of its territory to be reserved in forest for the highest productive agricultural results. This proportion to preserve in forest varies with the topography and climate of the country. As to Europe, it is now the accepted opinion that the minimum forest area requisite for the largest agricultural pro- duce of the whole country is one quarter. Southern California, like all of our semi-arid territory, has far less than this proportion of forest and has immense desert territory in proportion to its productive area. We certainly cannot safely reduce our forest area at all. In the United States forestry has been discursively discussed since 1834 and even earlier. In 1885 California established a State Board of Forestry. This was an attempt in the United States to deal practically with forestry. This board did a great deal of good work. Amongst the things it accomplished were the following: Making forest maps of the State based on actual surveys; botanical and popular account of all native trees of California; examination of lumbering; methods and saw \alue of timber; presentation of results of torrent action and reduced springs consequent upon forest fires in Southern California; introduction of exotic trees suited to California, especially species of eucalyptus; arrest and prosecution of those starting forest fires; stopping of unauthorized timber cutting on public lands. Under Governor Waterman the Board of Forestry was used for the reward of political partisans and neglected forestry entirely. The Board was shortly after abolished and its experimental forest stations and property were turned over to the University of California. Noth- ing has been done for forestry by the State since, but the work done by the State Board did great good. Its efforts helped the movement which has resulted in the reservation by the Federal government of nearly all the important mountain" water-sheds south of Lake Tahoe No. ] ^yr No. 2 The Forest at Mt. Shasta. No. 1 is from a photo taken in 1887, Before Lumbering. No. 2 was taken in 1892, After Lumberin By courtesy of W. H. Mills, Esq. S- CHAPTER I. 21 in California as forest reserves. Last year (1898) was the first time that the Federal government has recognized its duty to manage and care for these reserves. While the patrol appointed under the usual rolitlcal methods was imperfectly organized and not effective, still it was a step in the recognition of a plain duty. We have opened in Los Angeles this year (1899) the first forest school in California; the first on the Pacific Slope, the first west of the Alleghenies. It is an auspicious event and hopefully the pre- cursor of a new era. It is high time for us to make a study of our forests and of their importance and proper treatment. We are without foresters in America. We need foresters. The forest conditions of California and the arid West are different from those in any other country. They are entirely different from those of the Adirondacks where the Cornell students are studying and where they will be employed. They are different from those of Bilt- more, N. C, where apprentices are taking up forest work. Our condi- tions both of water-sheds and forests, of climate and government or- ganization are to different from those of Europe that an educated for- ester fitted for European work would have to learn much of his busi- ness over again to be fitted for California work. There is then a need of foresters educated to meet California and Western conditions. There is from this fact the promise c: a career to young men in taking up this work. The study of Forestry ought to find a place in every State of the Union. Next year we hope to have the students of the Los Angeles school recognized and made the basis of the local forest patrol. CHAPTER II. PRACTICAL FORESTRY. ADVANTAGKS OF FORESTED WATER-SHEDS. Forestry has two distinct objects: 1st. The management of the forest so as to secure the largest returns consistent with permanence of crop. Under such a system the ripe timber is judiciously marketed and the other products econom- ically treated. 2nd. The guarding of water-sheds as natural forest reservoirs to secure perennial flow of springs and streams and to prevent torrent and flood action. A denuded water-shed delivers the rainfall on it suddenly and always with detritus, such as sand, gravel and boulders. This fills the lower channels and is often deposited upon agricultural lands to their great damage. This is the feature of forestry that is of para- mount importance to Southern California and to much of the arid West. To these main objects of forestry there are cog- nate interests that may properly come within the scope of forestry. Of these the provision for mountain resorts and for the preservation of fish and game are of importance to us. But the most important is the storing of the surplus winter rains in arti- ficial reservoirs. The Federal government is committed to this action. It has reserved numerous reservoir sites in Southern California from sale and private development. It is consequently bound to go on and provide these reservoirs for the development of the country. Under a Judicious land policy this can be di-ne without any permanent cost. The increased v-alue of otherwise desert lands will pay for the reser- CHAPTER II. 23 FOREST DESTRUCTION AFFECTING RAINFALL. Amongst matters that must be considered in the study of forestry is the effect of forest destruction upon the rainfall. This is still an open question. Does forest destruction diminish the rainfall is niie question, and another in this connection is: Does forest destruc- tion change the character of the rainfall? Does the rainfall in denuded districts become more diluvial than when these were forested? Other questions for our study and investigation are: The delivery of rain- fall through forest leaves and branches to the soil; the evaporation area; the retentive power for water of the forest soil mixed with humus; the detaining effect upon rainfall off-flow of forest humus, leaves and roots; the electrical effects of forests; the chemical ef- fects upon air and soil of forests; the climatic effects of forests; the radiation of heat from forested as compared with bare areas; the ef- fect of forests on winds; botany, geology and biology all come into the study of forestry. Replanting desolated districts and the selection of trees for these must not be overlooked. QUESTION OF TORRENTS. The immediate and paramount question for us now in Southern California is the prevention and extinction of forest fires. A close sec- ond to this is the management of torrents already created and the prevention of these in the water-sheds where they arise. In the Austrian Tyrol the policy of diking and valley protection has been followed to deal with the dangerous torrents, while In France the policy has been more to extinguish the torrent by dealing with its source. These methods we will contrast. In dealing with all these subjects remember that it is cur own eyes with which we see. We have the opportunity like all students of Increasing our horizon by mounting on the shoul- ders of thosu who seek to instruct us. Or to take another simile. They who address us are in resemblance to sign boards on roads. They point the way, wo hope the best and shortest way to the goal, but it is we ourselves who travel the road. We will never reach the goal by simply sitting and studying the sign boards. I have been around the world, yet I have never seen elsewhere a union of fertile soil, steep boundary mountains, delightful climate and light ram.Call with periodic diluvial dovnipours such as exists in South- em California, nor have I seen elsewhere any land so clearly demanding protection and management of mountain forests. Forestry here means the life of the community. 25 CHAPTER III. ORIGIN AND CONTINUANCE OF FORESTS. In the study of forestry it becomes a matter of interest to inquire into the conditions under which a forest can come into existence. The theory of evolution takes us bacK to the single cell from which to im- agine the building up of cells and combinations of cells into our tree growths as a preliminary to past and present forests. A long and in- teresting inquiry opens along these lines. While the evolution of our trees from s.mple vegetable forms or from the cell is not proven the theory follows the lines of least mental resistance. Besides this, evo- lution offers us a reasonable hope for further development and im- provement for life especially in its human form. This adds greatly to the attractiveness of the theory. If life has evolved from the single cell to the present varied and complex forms it is easier to assume further progress than to assume that life has reached its highest limit. With this doctrine we have a just expectation of better things for our descendants if not for ourselves. The first land that appeared in this world could not have had forests on it "ab initio." We must take a mental flight from the times of the first appearance of land, covering aeons of time, before we can arrive at forests like those we now have. The erosions and vicissitudes of tide, flood and tornado in the earliest history of the earth's land would of themselves preclude at that time the possibility of any forests whatever. We are forced to the opinion that great extremes in these matters of air and water movement existed. How vegetation first had a start and hold on land is an interesting subject for speculation. It is probable that the con- ditions under which the earth's life, including vegetable life, took its evolutionary initial movements no longer exist. This presumption is probable as to all present forms of life. If the world was without life today it Is reasonable to assume that any life developed would be in 26 FOREST RENEWAL. entirely different form from forms now existing. In fact the eartti has probably passed the point where life could originate at all. The first conditions under which vegetation occurred were doubtless such as to have proved fatal to later and especially to present forms. It is not only the extraordinary tidal action and storm power but also a probable difference in the chemical composition of the atmosphere that would have made primitive conditions fatal to present forms. Tne vio- lent and frequent upheavals and subsidences that the location of the coal strata demonstrate to have taken place during the carboniferous epoch indicate a rapid growing and dense forest and one taking pos- session of new soil easily. These coal forests were of a different char- acter of growth from any forest now existing. They were probably produced on alluvial deltas subject to elevation and submergence and to a coincident heavy deposit of detritus during the periods of subsi- dence. Thus the fern like forests grew, were destroyed, were covered with rock-making detritus, were compressed and carbonized and then the delta elevated above water again produced forests; and again going through such histories we find veins of coal alternating with veins of rock one above another. We can then feel confident from the rock rec- ords of the coal forests that a forest destroyed may be renewed by natural means. In fact we know that in most forested districts a mere absence of human action will insure a new forest growth. Perhaps this growth will not be as valuable as the primeval forests but for its effects in conserving the water holding power of water-sheds there would be little if any difference. Man by aiding nature can increase the certainty and rapidity of reforestation. He can also secure a more valuable crop and determine what the forest shall be within limits. A FOREST DESTROYED MAY NOT ADMiT OF RENEWAL. We noted the presumption that conditions in the world were chang- ing. However slow these changes are we cannot escape from the conclu- sion that changes are going on. There comes a time then when condi- tions may be so close to the limit of permitting forest life that a very slight change may determine the issue. The change may be so slight that man or animals may make it. That a time does come in changes of climate and perhaps in other conditions when a forest destroyed can- not renew Itself nor be replaced by any growth is subject to positive demonstration. I have visited two petrified forests in which the stone trees lay thick on the desolate desert valleys. These petrified trees 28 PETRIFIED FORESTS. produced beaut. ful sections when cut and polished. One such petrified forest is in the Sahara in Africa and the other in the Territory of Ari- zona. In these cases forests had existed where there is now only desert. A modern instance of somewhat similar purport is the burnt and dead forest on a southeast spur of San Bernardino. This forest was killed by fire nearly fifty years ago. It is now without renewal. Valuable forms of our forest vegetation in Southern Cali- fornia probably had their origin somewhere else and have been intro- duced here from the north. It is reasonable to assume that all forest forms were evolved on comparatively level plains and that mountain forms have been modified by slow elevation and change of climate and condition. In most parts of Southern California we are too near the edge of conditions favorable to forest growth to take any chances on allowing important forests to be destroyed. All our forests are on steep watersheds, all are of the highest importance and therefore with us the demand is for the preservation of all our forests. Arizona Desert Native Growth. 3° CHAPTER IV. PROPORTION OF LANDS IN FORESTS. In most countries it is reasonable to examine the area occupied by forests with a view to an intelligent determination of how much land is to be or should remain permanently cleared to secure the largest agri- cultural returns. We have seen that in the countries of the temperate zone this question has been looked into with the average result of a de- termination that one-fourth of the total area should be in forest for the highest crop results. This determination is without regard to the agri- cultural value of the land held in forest. In other words one hundred million acres of agricultural land in a body would produce more annual crop for periods of ten years with one-quarter in forest than all under the plow. Topography and climate alter these judgments. An amount of clearing on level land that would be advantageous to the general producing power would on steep mountains like our Sierra Madre be without any possible benefit and would be certain to Increase torrent action and diminish springs, and so diminish the output of the true agricultural lands. If we should take the east line of the principal mountain chains of Southern California and consider the land between this and the Pacific ocean we will realize what a large proportion is unavailable for agri- culture because of its mountainous character. Part of these mountains is covered with chaparral or brush; part is in trees and another part is either very scantily and scatterlngly covered with brush growth or is bare of any verdure at all. The nearer the sea, other things being equal, the denser the growth. This growth is usually brush on the lower hills and moun- tains. On the higher levels open forests of spruce, pine, fir and cedar exist. The golden live oak is prominent on the lower edge of these forests and is replaced by the black oak higher up. Portions of this mountain area, always above the four-thousand-foot level, show a prom- ising tendency to renew themselves in forest when occasion occurs to 32 PROPORTION OF FOREST LANDS. invite it. Over another section the tendency is for brush to t&ke the place of trees destroyed. This Is also the case in considerable sections of the Sierra Nevada on the east face of the range. Again there are c'istricts in which the reproductive power of trees and brush are both v.'eak or are entirely absent. The nearer thm >!■! ^ ~o C rti Jl -p- ■%^fmi-*^ ■-— ^tt *?'i#-'*^~-j __ . 66 DAMAGES FROM SHEEP. E. Consequent progressive diminution of agricultural output. F. Diminution of population. G. Finally the desert. With such results as these is there any community that can afford to allow the misuse and abuse of its public forest lands for sheep? Can any community be so indifferent to its interests or so insane as to eign its own death warrant? 67 CHAPTER XI. GOVERNMENT CONTROL REQUIRED TO ABATE EVILS I'he only true and permanent solution of the question of pasture or settlement of private holdings within forest reservations Is expropriation of them by the government. This is what we must work for. Expropriation of private holdings in the forest reserves is a comparatively small question in Southern California. It is a large question in the Sierra Nevadas. A person has, under our present laws, a right to use land to which he has title wherever it may be. Access to it is a part of the right of use. The only limit to this right is that its exercise shall not damage others. In the forests such a damage from pasturage could reasonably be considered to have four forms: 1st. — Destruction to others and to the public lands by Are spread- ing out of private lands. 2nd. — The pollution of springs and streams. 3rd. — The damage by diminished water supply. 4th. — The damage incurred from increased torrent action. The practical question is who would bring the injunction suits to prevent injury, or damage suits to pay for injuries done. The choice lies between the Attorney-General or organized societies. It must be assumed also that the courts would take some time in accepting and applying efficiently this doctrine. It has been so applied in Switzer- land, but with the aid of very severe laws against the use of private or communal forest lands in such way as to threaten the community with Injury. The shortest and safest road for us is expropriation of pri- vate holdings. We can, however, use and continuously use the other more tedious legal remedy for immediate protection against greed and InjusticQ. Along the fringe of civilization, there is always a tendency to re- vert to primitive types of life and to primitive types of government and property holdings. Primitive man was everywhere and is everywhere more or less of a socialist. It may be more strictly accurate to say a communist. Most property and all land is held in common in primi- tive communities. The legal doctrine of "ferae naturae" is a survival 6S GOVERNMENT CONTROL. of this common ownership theory. Property in primitive life is con- fined to possessions in hand; so It is yet with wild things. These are still incapable of private ownership and may be taken wherever found. This is with us limited by the doctrine of trespass. You may raise a trout from the egg, but the taker from a boat or public place, or from any neutral ground, is the owner. This is not so with a cow or horse. The use in common of our public forests is another survival of primi- tive socialism. The results of this system are at first not unfavorable to the general public. With increasing wealth, it becomes more and more unfair in its operation. Besides this, the pasture is of less value than the timber, which its use threatens. It is of less value than the water supply. It is of less value than the valley lands threatened by the torrents forest pasturing finally creates. And the end of it all is the extinction of the mountain pasture itself, as in France, Spain, North Africa and Asia Minor. Thus common pasture in forests destroys far greater values and finally destroys the pasture. In a general way experience uniformly and everywhere is against pasture in the forests for the highest and best interest of the com- munity. Our unregulated pasturage in public mountain forests is un- fair, injurious and immoral. It should be everywhere ended. In the Sierra Nevada there is a condition which justifies investigation with a view to determining whether there is not a district in which reg- ulated pasturage, with payment to the public for such use, could be per- mitted without an injury greater than its returns. In that range there is an alpine district containing extensive natur- al pastures. They are often above the timber belt and nearly all above any commercial timber. It is worthy of careful examination to learn whether a limited amount of stock only allowed to enter at the sea- son when the grasses can seed themselves and hold their own is not compatible with the safety of the forests and of the water-sheds. Sheep probably derive the most benefit by summering in the moun- tains, both as to their health and their wool product. These animals, however, are the ones that do the greatest damage to the forests and water-sheds. Sheep herders are also the class that do the most damage by fire. They are, in fact, the most difficult men to deal with we find In the mountains. Force alone controls them. Pasturage in forests Is a delicate question to deal with and can best be dealt with by restricted experiments with careful water measurements, study of water delivery and forest examination before and after pasturage. CHAPTER XL 69 In Australia large districts have been leased to sheep men there known as squatters. This policy has probably greatly retarded the growth of that community. These sheep ranges are generally in more or less forested districts, called "the bush." In a great many of these ranges, the forest trees still stand, but entirely dead. The death of these mature trees in Australia has been due to the sheep men's prac- tice of ringing — a practice common in our own early growth. But in our case, it was to permit small farms, while there it permits vast lease-holds with a sparse and unsettled population. Australia has been suffering severely for four years from drought. Whether this drought suffering has any connection with the sheep use of forest lands, I cannot say, but the drought has been coincident with extensive forest destruction. The intelligent forest officers in Australia have more power than we have given to any one in forest matters, but they have been unable to deal with the squatter sheep interests at all. They recognize the injury it is doing to their forests and water- sheds. The principal sources of injury both to mountain pastures and water-sheds Is premature and excessive pasturage. Under our present lack of system this cannot be controlled. Even wild animals, when kept in excessive numbers upon a range, injure or destroy the forests and the pasture. Several instances of this are mentioned by Marsh. A striking illustration of the effects of excessive pasture by wild animals exists in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Considerable por- tions of this park have been reclaimed from sand dunes. In a part of this reclaimed district, a large area was fenced in for deer and other wild animals. The number of animals grew and the end of the result- mg over-pasturage has been the destruction of all the grass and shrubs and the death of nearly all the trees. This corral is now as bare and sandy as the worst of the dunes. It is in great contrast to the sur- rounding park. Of browsing domestic animals, the camel does most forest injury, the goat next and then the sheep. Southern California is fortunate in having no vested right to do a wrong fixed upon her mountain water-sheds. We can prohibit pasture in the forest reserves without stepping on too many big men's toes. All we require for the safety of our mountain forests and for the safety of our mountain water-sheds, is an intelligent scheme of man- agement for the forests; an intelligent body of men to carry the scheme out and a forceful leader to see that they do it. 70 CHAPTER XII. THE FOREST PROBLEM IN THE WEST. The economic interest of the American people in their forests everywhere, and especially in the West, is to preserve the integrity and water holding power of the mountain watersheds of the country. This is clearly the public interest, whether these mountain watersheds could or could not support by their products and wise use a system of management guaranteeing the integrity of their water-holding power. The public interest is both economic and humanitarian in preserving the mountain forest covering. Without forest preservation, most of our remaining wild public land districts cannot be settled, and districts already settled are likely to lose In man-sustaining power. This has occurred already over wide areas of the world from undue forest de- nudation, on the one side by the irregular or exhausted water supply, and on the other by the destructive action of flood and torrent through sudden rainfall delivery from bared areas. The proper preservation of forest balance does not require that ripe timber should not be cut, or that other uses, such as mining, should not be enjoyed. The interests and requirements of districts vary in what treatment of forested areas is most advantageous. In most of the West, and in all of the Southwest, the conditions of topography, rainfall and climate exact the highest care and treatment of the comparatively small forested area, all of which in the Southwest is on mountains or high plateaus only. JUDICIOUS USE OF FOREST PRODUCTS ADMISSIBLE. In this district it were better for the country and for its people that no use should be made of forest lands or forest products than to have the forests wasted and burned, as at present is generally being done. However, no such drastic remedy as the isolation of the forests CHAPTER XII. 71 from human use is necessary. Under a proper and intelligent forest system, the integrity of the watersheds can be safely maintained, and yet plenty of use can be found for both land and products; uses that can go en without fatal results to the forested area. It is only in the extreme Southwestern mountains that the condi- tions are such as to counter-indicate the cutting of any timber, or even fire-wood, in the mountains. But even there mining,' resorts, power companies, and irrigation works can be established with no disad- vantage to the trees or chaparral, but rather to their increased safety. The nation can gain by preserving its forests in safe proportion, and can in no way consent to see this proportion of safety to its people diminished. The nation will gain by forest preservation, even though the system be without any resources or power of self-sustenance. While forestry has become a living issue in the Atlantic States, through the depletion of perennial flow of springs and streams and increased flood action, and probably by greater and increasingly in- jurious extremes of frost and heat arising from forest destruction, in the West and Southwest effective forestry is a question of life or death. With irrigated districts, jiresent or prospective, the conservation of the Forest Natural Reservoirs Is at least as important as the con- servation of any part of the rainfall by artiflcial storage, diversion or distributing systems. FEDERAL MANAGEMENT REQUIRED. The lands on the mountains and watersheds in this part of the United States are in large part Federal public lands. By the ex- tensive reservation of forested mountain lands from sale or settlement, the Federal government has committed itself to a rational forest system. What the situation demands, and what the people desire, is a forest management of these important mountain watersheds that will Eorve the highest interests of the entire community. Interests built up under the neglects and waste and abuses of the government's forestal mistakes and laches should be treated with all the consideration the safety of the communities affected and the welfare of the great majority of the people permit. All foresters, and especially all foresters in the Southwest, endorse and must endorse a Federal forestry policy, whether the forest man- agement pays its way or not. The government forestry systems of European nations, of Canada, 72 THE PROBLEM. Algiers, India and Australia, are self-sustaining, and for the most part bring in considerable revenues. Curiously enough, it is in the coun- tries like Spain, Arabia, Persia and Turkey, in ■which forestry is neglected, where national productive power has most diminished, and ui which both nation and people individually are poorest. The success of other countries in maintaining national forest sys- tems invites our attention to this subject. The principal revenue from all forestry systems is from the sale of forest products. These are mainly merchantable timber and fuel. The Western d.strlcts, in which the principal areas of public lands exist, are situated so that one part or another of California would resemble their conditions closely enough for preliminary plans and outlines of forest management appropriate for the entire Western public land area. California contains mountains and plains, valleys, farm lands and deserts. In the Northwest, Its cl.mate is one of, if not the moistest in the United States; in the Southeast, it is one of the most arid. In the Redwood belt there is a very large rainfall, and almost continuous fog and mist between the rain seasons. In the Cocopah desert years pass without a drop of rain, or even a cloudy day. California conditions, carefully considered, can do much to outLne a forest and public land policy for the entire West. What is the public land situation here? California contains 99,301,083 acres of land; of this land, the area appropriated is 40,392,418 acres; the area unappropriated is 43,841.044 acres; the area reserved is 15,127,621 acres. This gives a substantially accurate picture of our land situation. In other states, including and west of the Rocky mountains, the pub- lic lands are in much larger proportion. The above figures, however, do not give the exact facts. Of the appropriated area, some has gone to the State tor taxes. In some of the mountain counties th;s tax area is quite considerable. The State Controller and the county officers thus far have found no general record of this tax land; therefore no one can tell what it amounts to. Of the area reserved, a considerable part is patented and in private hands. In some reserved districts the proportion of private holdings is large, in others very small. The National Yosemite Park, of about one million acres area, is a little more than half in private hands. The San Gabriel Reserve, from the Cajon west, has a very small proportionate area in private CHAPTER XII. 73 Tiands, while the San Bernardino part of the forest reserves of the South has a considerable area in private hands. The reserve system suggests the policy of Switzerland. In that republic experience has demonstrated the immediate and often awful results to lower agricultural lands from forest denudation on steep, high mountains. From this experience has been evolved a forest system which lays out as a part of its functions forest reserve districts. The lands within these, whether public or private, are under public control, and not a tree can be cut without public authority. We may come to this system some day. There are in this State about eighty-three thousand square miles of public lands in the hands of the Federal government. An examina- tion made by expert civil engineers on section lines, and mapped by the old State Board of Forestry, in its reports, shows that the mountain land with merchantable t.mber is substantially all in private hands. There is, generally speaking, little or no timber of merchantable quality and accessibility in California not in private hands. Fuel and small wood costs more to haul out of the high Sierras at present than it will bring. There are restricted districts where the waste and fallen wood, or small standing timber, could pay its way for use as ties, posts, fuel or mining, but no large revenue is in sight from this source at present. Consequently, the sources of revenue and support of foreign systems is in a great degree absent in California. We may asisume that the known condition of California in this respect in one or another of its districts applies to those of the entire West. There is, however, a source of revenue to the government from a rational management of its mountain forest lands, when handled in ■conjunction with the development by public irrigation works of the vast area of arid public land. The reason why there is such a large amount of public land in California, and in the West generally, is that the land is n.U in an arid climate, and that it is therefore incapable of supporting, a farmer or settler, without a secure supply of water for irrigation and often for domestic use. The mountain forested areas are all incapable of agriculture in the Southwest. There is consequently no gain of productive area, as in the settlement of Ohio, for Instance, by denuding them. On the other hand, these forests are the natural reservoirs of the Southwest. 74 FOREST CONDITIONS. The forests in this section are of the highest importance both to the irrigation districts already developed and also to the enormous areas that may by future irrigation works be made fertile. Storage reservoirs, diversion works, ditches, etc., are all safer and more permanent when under a forested watershed than when under a bare one. In the first case, with forest covering, there is a minimum of flood action, and practically no torrential detritus to fill up the works. From a denuded watershed, the water delivery is Irregular, torrential and detritus laden. The public land now at its limits or near its limits of support of population can, by judicious irrigation works, be made capable of sup- porting a population of between fifty and one hundred millions. Irrigated land has always been that capable of supporting the densest population from agricultural returns. We see this in the history of the Euphrates and the Nile. In both of these cases, and in the more modern developments in India, we see that the important works were carried out by the community or government, were managed by the community, are thus managed, and that new work for further develop- ment in the application of water to land in genial and dry climates, such as those of India and Egypt, is planned or being executed solely as government undertakings. There are three good reasons with us for this policy. The first is that the lands susceptible of improvement are largely public lands. The second is that the undertakings are too large for most private initiative, and the third is that a public administration of irrigated lands is the only one in which the land occupants can feel safe in not becoming serfs of the water company, as is now practically the case in the rich Irrigated valley of the Po, where the returns are large, but the people in misery. Governments in the past and governments now recognize the ad- vantage and propriety of making their lands productive by public irrigation works. The peoples who have done this in the past have been amongst the greatest. One of the most powerful governments of the present day, that of Great Britain, is now, as it long has been, engaged in such irrigation development. The dam on the River Nile, near Assouan, will be the greatest land reclamation works in the world. The values created by the application of water to land in Egypt will far exceed the values created by the exclusion of water from land in Holland. Both are government undertakings. In our country the CHAPTER XII. '75 government has undertaken land reclamation by excluding -water, as by the Mississippi dykes. It has also added to land values and product values by the construction of harbors and canals, thus reducing or removing freight tariffs or lighterage and landing tariffs. The states on, or having, rivers have been benefited by this policy. So also the Coast States, or those on the Lakes, or served by the great Saulte St. Marie Canal have been benefited; so has the country generally been benefited. It is eminently proper that the people's government should apply this policy to the development of the rich and sunnj Western lands that cannot produce and serve mankind without water. :fn this case, the benefit is direct to the public. It is the public land that will be most benefited. Homes for the people will be created. It is of course markets and a population of high productiT* power in our own bounds that we thus create. It is the conservative agriculturist that we thus introduce and encourage to balance the more radical bodies of employees in the great manufacturing districts Fifty million such Americans will consume more American product; and support more American trade than all our present foreign trad/ combined. RECAPnULATION. Taking the public land area as a whole, we find some that it inherently worthless, some that can be made good and productive some where forests and their products can be safely used unde; reasonable regulations, some where the forests can only be safeguarded but not used, as in the chaparral mountains of the South, and a widt district that is at present used for pasturage. This pasturage of tht public lands is unregulated. The pasture use is premature ant excessive, i he pastures thus constantly deteriorate and carry lea* stock. The public land pastures have deteriorated and are deteriorat ing in stock and sheep carrying power. Fighting and disorder ii everywhere present amongst the pasture users. Sometimes they have wars. These stock and sheep men, as far as seen, welcomed a proposed system of leasing the public lands appropriate to pasture, under judi- cious restriction as to number of stock permitted on each section and the time of year when the stock should go on. The public lands is California have a present value for pasturage that varies with seasonK It is estimated to have an annual rental value of not less than ?250,- 000, and may exceed half a million dollars. Its rental value variei with the seasonal rainfall. The stock men would be glad to pay rent 76 FOREST CONDITIONS. and thus know upon what feed they could rely, without the present accompaniments of murder and arson. Those districts where pasturage injures the watersheds could have the stock reduced to a safe number by reasonable regulation, or entirely removed. When we consider the vital importance of the entire forest question, and past and present precedent in the matter of forestry and irrigation; when we consider the effect of forest denudation in filling up navigable rivers and harbors, the importance of water to miners, to cities and to irrigators; when we further reflect on the empire at our hand and in our borders to be created by irrigation works, we can agree that forests, reservoirs and public land management all go hand in hand. There is considerable timber in the San Bernardino and San Ja- cinto ranges that might be used for lumber if prices increase. The timber areas, however, are small compared to other Pacific Coast dis- tricts. They are difficult of access. In addition to these drawbacks the forests are open and the timber is therefore more knotty and less clear than that from the North. For these reasons no important lum- bering has been done in our mountains for a long time. Reduction in transportation rates by railroad extension and harbor improvements have removed the profit from local lumbering. Lumbering is recom- mencing in the South because of higher prices. There is also very little pasture in the mountains. The most of this being in the Pine Mountain Reserve. The little pasture that exists is only practically ac- cessible by long detour and entry to the mountains from the less abrupt approaches on the desert. Horses and cattle do comparatively small in- jury to the forests while in these pastures. Under judicious regulation it is reasonable to believe that the natural mountain meadows and high alpine pastures could be used by stock without appreciable injury to the water-sheds. The trouble with this use of the forest now is principally excessive pasture and lack of any regulation. From these causes grow the constant fights, arson and murder in our mountains between stockman and stockman and between sheepman and sheepman and between stockmen and sheepmen. Feuds, fires and assassinations curse our entire western mountain area of public lands used without lease, tax or charge by pasture men. Leaving out the questions of the value and conservative effects of forests, of lumber, mining, water storage and preservation of water-sheds which all demand a rational management of the forests, humanity alone demands a reform In the conduct of the public lands in forests. Present conditions in our CHAPTER XII. 77 western forests give a premium to violence and invite to crime. The forests are important resources of the entire people. The integrity of mountain forest areas must be maintained in the interest of the body of the people. The Nation's strength demands it. Yet here insensibly has come upon us in our western mountains an unmoral condition. In some places in these semi-arid districts a man will enter and pur- chase the few springs over an immense area of territory and fence them in. In this way control is obtained over empires of land by the purchase of a few quarter sections. In all pasture land cases the nation is never paid for more than a fraction of the land used. Generally none is paid for. Taxes to support both the nation and local community are evaded. The herders pay no land tax and rarely any other tax and in addition to all these shortcomings, their usual operations, their carelessness and their vendettas, so often accompanied by setting fire to each other's ranges, all go to destroy the capital and productive power of the com- munity. It is the sheepmen with whom the forester has the greatest quarrel. All over pasture of any district deteriorates the value of the pasture. When these pastures are in forests or brush lands the injury to the pasture by over stocking sinks into utter insignificance compared to the injury of the forests and the injury of the water-sheds. Such in- juries to water-sheds in the south of Europe, in Africa and in Asia have ruined rich districts, depopulated towns and destroyed nations. In no case of these fatal consequences coming from forest destruction on hill and mountain water-sheds is there an instance of topography and climate Indicating more danger from such action than in Southern California. Whatever damage and cost has come elsewhere from a neglect of water-sheds we in Southern California must anticipate greater damage and cost. In fact, we have no reason to expect any- thing short of eventual annihilation in case we go on burning and wasting and baring our steep mountain water-sheds. The public land system as a unit can be self-supporting and reve- nue producing. All interests can be fairly dealt with, and the country brought to its highest productive power. Those who engage in promoting this great work have strenuous efforts before them; They deserve the garlands of reward as civic patriots as much or more than those who foment distant foreign wa,rs. The conquest of this empire within our bounds for our own children is more useful, more profitable, more secure and more glorious than any foreign conquest can ever be. 78 CHAPTER XIII. FORESTS IN RELATION TO TORRENTS. A torrent is an intermittent stream. At times, a torrent is a con- siderable body of rushing water loaded with detritus. At other times, its valley course is a broad belt of boulders or sand, with a thread of water, or no water at all. A torrent is always a destroyer. It is never beneficial. The term is not applicable to rivers, even though these have distinct flood periods, and carry large amounts of detritus, like the Nile, or our own Sacra- mento and San Joaquin rivers. A torrent cannot originate on level land. Man's use of level lands, however, generally increases the volume of torrents. ORIGIN OP TORRENTS. A torrent is caused by rainfall on a broken or steep water- shed in such conditon as to be unable to detain and prolong the de- livery of the rain. There is no record of a torrent arising from a well- vrooded water-shed. A forested water-shed cannot have torrents. This is a fact which the student and the political economist should always bear in mind. To the extent that a water-shed is without forest cov- ering will be the possibility of torrents arising from it. So also will be the destructive power of these. A bare mountain water-shed with any rainfall must produce torrents. The steeper and more extensive the bare mountains are, the more dangerous and destructive will be the torrents arising from them. These points are not guesses. They are facts. They are not matters of theory. They are demonstrated with- out a single break or a single exception. Complete denudation of a mountain water-shed means, with abso- lute certainty, the creation of torrent action. We do not have to sup- pose that this will be the result of mountain denudation. We cannot think that it only may be the result. We know that torrents will result from the destruction of forests on mountain water-sheds. The situation as to torrent extension and creation in Southern Cali- fornia invites our attention. More than this, it demands action. This need grows out of three things: 1st. — Our topography. We have here a series of Sierras. These CHAPTER XIII. 79 are steep, high and extensive. They are almost without foothills. '1 uey rise directly out of the vegas and irrigated valleys that mainly depend on the water delivery from them for life. 2nd. — We have a climate that has a prolonged dry season of sun- shine. This is alternated with a season of possible rainfall that is oc- casionally almost as dry as the summer. From time to time there is a diluvial summer rain on the eastern part of the Sierra. One of these rains produced torrent action that did af considerable amount of dam- age in passing through the City of Redlands. In a decade, there always have been one or more seasons of very heavy rainfall during the period of expected rains. The rainfall increases with the elevation to at least four thousand feet. It is therefore greater in the Sierras than in the valleys. During the season of '84, the rainfall in Los Angeles was 38 inches, most of which fell in a period of six consecutive weeks. At the same time, the rainfall on the Kinneloa ranch, at the foot of the Sierra Madre range was 60 inches. This illustrates the difference of rainfall between mountain and valley. A notable fact in this connection, shown by twenty years' observation on this ranch, compared to the observation at Los Angeles is that the greater the rainfall the greater is the excess precipitated on the mountains. 3rd. — The rainfall in Southern California is so near the limit of a possible support of mountain tree and brush vegetation that forest de- struction, and consequent injury to the water sup/ily and increase of torrent action, is unusually difficult to correct and demands preven- tion. A recent examination of the Guadalasqua, Slques, Malibu and Gar- battan districts in the Santa Monica Sierra illustrates this. This Sier- ra is neither so high nor so steep as the great main ranges. The cov- ering is almost exclusively chaparral. It has long been exploited by wood-choppers and cattle and sheep men. Its stock carrying capacity Is small and is constantly diminishing. To eke the feed out, the cus- tomary methods have been adopted on both private and public lands. Fire is set in the chaparral in the fall, so that the stock can have the new shoots from the roots to feed on the next season. This operation followed two or three times kills the brush. The rains then carry off the soil, and there is neither grass nor brush nor feed of any kind. A report just made to me on these districts shows that there are extensive areas where the native growth is destroyed and the mountains bare. Springs never known to be dry by the oldest American and Spanish set- 80 TORRENTS. tiers, are now entirely gone. The supply of drinking water has for the first time become a vital question. This situation is going to be diffi- cult to improve. If done, it will be quite costly — in fact, it will prob- ably cost more to reclaim than the district is worth. Several cases of what appears to be permanent destruction of for- ests exist on the eastern edge of our reserves. One of the most ac- cessible of these is on the southeastern flank of the San Bernardino range, fronting on the San Gorgonio Pass. This forest was still stand- ing, when I last saw it, twelve years ago. Pire had killed it many years before. The trees stood white and stark, where they had burned to death. The soil must have been burned up at the same time, or else bad been washed away. There was not any. The dead forest had neither grass, flower, bush, or living thing in it. A torrent-wrecked canyon debouched below it off to the desert where it has repeatedly washed out the railroad. The desert is at our door today. It is push- ing up against the mountain barrier that divides us. It Is creeping up on the passes, north and east and conquering a corner now here, now there and even has footings on and inside our mountain wall. The deserts even now come into our lovely valleys for a few days with their fire and furnace breath to look at the rich booty they may some day hold. The armies of the forest, steadfast and true to their posts, are our allies. It is the forest that mans the rampart between our or- chards, fields, flowers and cities and the frost and fire of the glittering wastes of the deserts of death. What shall we do with these forests? Shall we destroy our own friends and protectors? The fact is that this is just what we are doing. Greed, ignorance and crime dominate and destroy our forests. We stand by and fiddle, while the forests burn. Along the Sierra Madre, the fire scars are becoming more and more numerous. They are growing larger and larger. All this is in plain sight from a steam-sped car window. Back in the range, it is a hun- dred times worse. What the next heavy rainfall season will do in tor- rent action is a serious quetion. In level or nearly level lands, within settled districts, the rainfall off-flow becomes more and more concentrated. Ditches for roads and lailroads bring the ofi:-flow together and increase the cutting action of the running water. As the land is more rolling and gullies or in- cipient torrents commence, the land owners block them here and divert them there, and so create considerable torrents within culti- vated districts. A striking instance of this is the torrent created by cleaning off low brush and concentrating small washes, at Altadena. CHAPTER XIII. 81 This place used to be called Las Plores because the old sailors could see the masses of golden poppies on that mesa clear from San Pedro roadstead. I knew the mesa and the entire plain below it well, before settlement. There was no barranca there, when I came early in 1880. There was no wash, no torrent and no sign of any across the plain below Las Flores. Then came settlement and clearing. The first heavy rainfall, after the clearing, started the Monks Hill barranca and carried a newly created torrent out over the valley. That was in 1884. Every heavy rainfall since has increased its force and destructiveness. Orchards, farms and gardens have been cut through and destroyed. Bridges to the number of eight have had to be constructed just for barrancas and cuts and temporary torrent flow. The Monks Hill barranca is twenty-three feet deep in one place. The torrent now extends for miles in uncertain and destructive course. This is a place very easily visited. It is just east of Pasadena, and all the east and west roads cross it. Then there are still the old settlers like Barney Williams, Charles Bell, P. M. Green, T. P. Lukens, and a number of others who remember the time when there was no barranca and no torrent. All along the foothills or mesa, one will find the evidence of Increasing torrent action. There are several forcible illustrations of this action just east of the one just cited. CONDITIONS OF OFF-FLOW. The effect of plowing or cultivation on off-flow seems to vary with soils and grades. On level land, it probably increases the water-hold- ing power of the land. On hilly land, this effect is doubtful. At Kin- neloa there is an apricot orchard on a hillside, with a grade of one in eight and a half feet. It was planted twenty years ago. 'The orchard has always been prepared by grade furroughs for the rainy season and no distinct wash has occurred. A piece of land by its side and with the same grade was not cleared and has remained in chaparral. There is today a difference of two feet between the cultivated and the brush land. Two feet of the orchard surface is gone. The soil in the brush is soft and spongy with the humus. Water does not run on it, steep as it is. The orchard soil is hard, bakes easily and takes water with slowness and difiBculty. A sharp rain will start little rills in the grade furrows. Another interesting thing that has been demonstrated on this ranch, which was originally covered with chaparral, is the fact that when It * Barranca, a deep large gully. 82 DEVASTATION BY TORRENTS. ■was first cleared, it required irrigation mucli less frequently than later for annual crops, such as vegetables. Progressively with the years, the land took in the irrigation water more slowly and the evaporation from the soil was more and more rapid. The reason for this is that at frst the soil was well filled with humus, which the sun and air grad- ually burned out. In a small way and on parts of the ranch water run in a very small stream on the ground will go furthest at first. The soil deprived of humus seems to have to learn to take the water. Thus you can take a little rill of water on hard ground for say fifty feet. As the ground takes the water and softens it, the ground takes more Vi-ater, until your rill will end at thirty-five feet. A fiomewhat contradictory case is that of the torrent bed of the Whitewater on the desert. This stream flows out of the San Bernar- dino mountains and takes its name from a sort of white clay it carries. Out in its boulder bed it deposits this clay and makes a water-tight channel, which extends the flow further and further out towards the desert. This goes on until there is a heavy rain and flood flow. This flow is short. It rolls the boulders about and breaks the clay bottom. As soon as the flood flow is over, the permanent water flow is found to be far back toward the mountain. This is the contrary of what we would expect. It then goes back to zanja building and so again ex- tends its flow desertward. In the usual experience of irrigation, the longer the time of flow, the further the water goes to its limit. This ranch experience of the value of humus in getting land to take and hold water, and its value in preventing on hill lands storm off-flow is being availed of by bringing in and dressing the land with humus-making manures or plowing in green crops. It is astonishing to observe the difference that a good dressing of stable manure will make in the water-taking capacity of clay land. OBSERVATIONS AT THE KINNELOA BANCH. The Kinneloa ranch has its main orchards on mesas one to two hundred feet above the general level on the three sides. The slope is f"om one in eight and one-half feet to one in twenty-two. Before the chaparral was cleared off, there was not a barranca, gully or wash on the mesas, nor on the steep slopes from the mesas to the lower lands. The question of the storm off-flow became important the second year after the clearing. In spite of all the care taken to guard against soil cutting by storm off-flow, several have occurred. One barranca and CHAPTER XIII. 83 juite a number of gullies have been made in the mesa sides by storm waters that before the clearing did no damage. Constant care is re- quired to prevent serious results. Barn yard manure dressing, freely used, Increases the absorbative water power of the land and diminishes the off-flow. In this, it approximates in its effects to the old humus. Two systems have been tried on the ranch to prevent the rain off- flow. The first of these was the basin system. Furrows were run on a water-grade and turned into each basin reached. In this way, no fur- row ran over twenty-flve feet before coming to a basin reservoir. The land, however, took less and less water, as the humus was burned out. At last, in a diluvial rain, delivering three and one-half inches in a short period, every basin was filled to the brim. Several broke, break- ing others and doing some damage. It became apparent that there might be a rainfall that would smasn the whole ranch. There were three other objections to this system: Int. — That the basins would not be broken up. This interfered with team cultivation. 2nd. — They were costly on a side hill. 3rd. — Silt and clay were deposited in the basins. This reduced the absorbative power of the land and made the basins almost water tight, [t also prevented proper soil ventilation. This soured the soil and pro- duced sickness in the trees. The present method is a continuation into the rainy season of the system of irrigation. Five furrows are always kept with the least grade water will flow on, between each row of trees. With this sys- tem, storm off-flow has lost its terror for the steepest cultivated side- hill. At this ranch there was a small alfalfa field on the slope of from •one in ten to one in twelve. A part of this field is still in alfalfa. On no occasion has the rainfall on this field ever flowed off it. More than this, storm furrows, bringing the rain off-flow from the cultivated or- chards above it and terminating in the alfalfa leave their water divided and absorbed in the field. It is in fact a torrent extinguisher on a small scale. I have repeatedly tried the effect of grass on a flow of water. Turn a strong flow of water on a lawn. You will have no cut. The water delivered from a hose concentrated will be sub-divided, and if it fiows off the grass at all, it will do so in a gentle and broadly dif- fused way. With a large lawn and a large enough fiow of water to finally cross, you may have another valuable experience. The water will continue to flow from the lower part of the lawn for a long time. 84 TORRENTS. If now you turn the same force of water on a cultivated field, and let it find its own outlet, at the same distance as in the grass, you will find the flow stop almost the minute you turn the water off. I have tried this in a number of cases. It is easy to try and it is a striking illus- tration of what a difference in water delivery there is between bare land and grass. I tried this experiment in a larger way on my ranch. There is there an orchard in the canyon. Storm water rushed through this, cutting in some places and depositing several feet of detritus in others. I had this storm water conducted out of a channel it was cut- ting and turned into a eucalyptus grove. The stream was immediately sub-divided; its load of sand was dropped in a miniature cone, the water was absorbed; the torrent rushing into this grove was extin- guished. The water absorbing power of the Sierra Madre range, with its chaparral covering is almost incredible. Steep as the range is at my place, I have only once seen a rainfall delivery across the ranch ir the wash of the three canyons. It is very rare that storm off-flow oc- curs in these canyons at all. The brush till last year had been without fire for probably over forty years. The springs have been celebrated for their volume and regularity. The rainfall was absorbed in the mountains almost entirely and slowly percolating to more open quartz ledges, flowed through these to the springs. All the quartz ledges are curiously and conveniently faced on the south and lower side with a water-proof dyke. Mr. Koebig, the distinguished engineer, who has made such a study of the San Gabriel water-shed, indicates what an enormous difference in the Sierras forests or no forests make in their water-holding power. Mr. Koebig states that this fearfully denuded water-shed has a storm off-flow of over 95 per cent, in some places, while it ought not to be over fifty. He speaks of his own observation of the increased storm off-flow from a canyon just burned. He also compares the reduced summer flow due to storm off-flow from this great and much-injured water-shed with the summer flow from the small water-shed of Lytle creek, which has been but slightly injured. Lytle creek, with less than a third the water-shed, has about the same summer flow as the San Gabriel. This Lytle creek is also far more re- liable and steady. Neither has Lytle creek anything like the destruct- ive torrent power of the San Gabriel. An interesting illustration of the soil-holding power of humus can be observed in a forest and on a road in a forest. Where the ground is covered with humus, you will find no mud. The soil does not stick to your shoes. The road soil, if wet enough, will stick to CHAPTER XIII. 85 your shoes. The same thing may ue observed by running water on a grass plat. There will never be any mud. It does not matter how much water is put on. The only effect is to make the soil more re- ceptive and to render the sod soft and elastic. The same water on bare soil, hard or cultivated, will make mud. These experiences can be easily demonstrated, even within the limits of a city. They are all germane to forestry. VALUE OP HUMUS. No one observing these results can overlook the importance of hu- mus in the soil. The forest makes and protects the humus. When the forest is burned so is much of the humus, and sometimes all of it. A burned over forest, whether the trees are destroyed or not, cannot be expected to take care of as much rainfall as an unburned one. Torrent action may and does occur from fire, without the destruc- tion of all the trees. The destruction of the humus alone will account for a large increase in storm off-flow, and a necessary diminution of the springs. There are a number of instances in France of torrents created by forest destruction and of their subsequent extinction by a renewed forest growth. I have seen quite a number of the charcteristic torrent cones at the outlet of mountain canyons to plains not now active, and the stream that made them again perennial. TORRENT CONES. The torrent cones have a very important influence upon the water supply in Southern California. These cones are composed mainly of boulders at the outlet of the canyons and the change of grade from the mountain to the valley. As you go out into the valley, the boulders become smaller and more and more mixed with gravel and sand. At the lower end of the torrent cones there is all sand. Far out at the end of our storm flows, we find silt and clay. Tremendous deposits of clay are found at present and former river outlets to the sea along the county coast. The torrents grind the boulders into gravel, and the gravel into sand, dropping the load both with the diminished grade and the dimin- ished water flow. The water flow diminishes with every foot it runs on the torrent cones and washes. Our storm off-flow is well-known to be entirely of mountain origin. It is not so well known that our entire summer supply is the rainfall of the mountains. Ntve in the Sierra Nevada 87 CHAPTER XIV. SOURCES OF WATER SUPPLY. Our water supply is of two distinct types; First: That derived directly from springs or streams in the mountains. It is plain that this type of supply is due to a rainfall In the mountains. Where the water-sheds are forested, other things be- ing equal, the supply is largest and most regular. The rainfall by the aid of trees, brush and humus gets into the mountains. These mountains are porous and have a great absorbative power for water. The water percolates slowly through these rocks and broken quartz veins or fissures, until it reaches an open vein. Through this, it flows to a low point and appears as a spring. The mountains are a reservoir and require the forest to detain the rainfall long enough to allow it to get into the rocks and soil. Our canyons carry summer water only because they cut at the lowest places the water carrying strata. It is the water-shed of the strata and its size and condition that determines the summer flow of every spring and stream in the Southern Sierra. The water-shed of the canyon carrying the stream is not the govern- ing factor. In a climate like ours, with usually six to eight months without rain, and sometimes without rain of importance for a year or more, there can be no reliable surface flow to supply springs and streams. A careful examination of our mountain springs and streams dem- onstrates the fact that all of them have their summer flow from cut strata. These sources are sometimes masked in cienegas or deposits of detritus and silt. I have demonstrated by experimental tunnels in three of my own canyons that these mountain cienegas in canyons are supplied by quartz ledges, cut by the canyon and not by a bed-rock flow in the canyon. There are canyons, where there is a bed-rock flow, but such flow also originates In an open vein above from the rock. In the high Sierras, there are places like Bear Valley, where from the ex- tensive and comparatively level district, a good year would doubtless rurnish a prolonged summer supply of not deep seepage water. This is never the case in our canyons. Above the Cloud i at Kcho Mountain, Sierra Madre. ^^K. .-^^^^^"^r. ^ '^^^m Below the Clouds at Echo Mountain. Taken same day and just below the Picture Abov^ the Clouds. Eucalyptus Plantalion next to the Mountain. CHAPTER XIV. 89 Second: The water from the tier of springs in the valley. This ■water is also and exclusively derived from rainfall in the mountains. There are in our valley lands between the Sierra and the sea at least two distinct water-bearing districts. One of these is repre- sented by the tier of springs and artesian wells running across the San Gabriel from the Santa Anita to the Marengo ranchos; a second water-bearing strata comes to the surface at Los Angeles and El Monte and a third in the low lands back of Ballona, Long Beach and Newport Landing. The Santa Ana water-shed and its off-flow in that valley, has the same general feature. The waters from our artesian water belt and from such springs as those on the Santa Ana, San Gabriel and Los Angeles rivers are derived from subterannean lakes in which seepage water is upheld by strata impervious to water. Sometimes, this sub- terranean water is under pressure and between double lines of im- pervious strata, as in all of the artesian belts and sometimes it is not, ■ns in most of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. This water comes from the winter rainfall in the Sierra, which coming out of the mountains into beds of boulders, gravel and long sand wash, sinks down into the soil and by slow percolation and large valley areas of storage, forms the reliable supply of our great second tier springs. These again, with surplus winter flow, store the wide lowland valleys with water available in summer. THE RAINFALLS ON THE VALLEYS INSUFFICIENT. The rainfall on the valleys themselves cannot furnish this water. The rainfall is inadequate to do it. There Is a subterranean lake Ir each of our large valleys. These are very generally tapped by wells. We have generally learned what this water level is and can now cal- culate just what the depth of a well must be at any point to strike water. This is found by taking the known water level and calculating the higher or lower land surface level above it, where the well is to be dug. If we take these wells in the San Gabriel, above the line of springs toward the mountains, we will find that they run from forty to three hundred feet deep according to the land-level. In digging these wells, we find the surface moisture to vary In depth with season and treatment of land. There is always dry soil at all seasons between this surface moisture and the water level. It is therefore clear that the rainfall on the valley and above this lake is not the source of its supply. If you go out to the roaring mountain torrents flowing from the Precipice Canyon, Irrigating Stream Sierra Madr CHAPTER XIV. 91 mountains in heavy rains and note tiie waste winter water sinlting in their boulders and gravels, you will see where the water does come from. It Is only in extraordinary years that any of our torrents cross the valley and flow to the sea. The exception to this rule is the water delivery from denuded and burned off water-sheds. More of such rain- fall storm-flow is lost. The moisture on the San Gabriel valley lands this year from the rains in no case penetrated three feet. Eighteen inches is aoout the average penetration. It is very rare that the rainfall moistens more than ten feet down. The water level will average 150 feet in depth. San Fernando wells shows the same condition. Those deriving their water from these lower valley springs and dug or artesian wells derive it in fact from the rainfall on the mountains just as surely as do those whose pipe lines and ditches take the water directly in the mountains. Their interest in the preservation of the mountain water-sheds is equal to that of the mountain system owners. The damage from floods and torrents is as great in the valleys as uear the mountains. The volume of flood water is undoubtedly less th« (urther from the mountains you go. This is one thing that makes the torrent more dangerous while it lias any flow. It cannot carry its load of detritus as its volume de- creases. This deposited in channels however, well defined in the start, must and does raise them constantly. It becomes dilHcult, costly and at last almost impossible to control torrents with water absorbing cones like ours and increasing detritus delivery from burned and denuded mountains. The worse the flres and forest destruction, the worse will be the floods. Besides this, the more damage there is to the mountain water-sheds, the more rapid will be the water delivery from them. This lack of percolating time for the rainfall to get into the mountain rock and soil will also result in a lack of percolating time to go through the cone and washsieves into our subterranean lakes. Run one hundred millions of gallons of water from a mountain water-shed to its cone of boulders, gravel and sand, and the time of its delivery will govern what becomes of it. If this delivery is made in one hour, you will have a flood, most of the waters in which will pass by. If this delivery is over a period of ten days, no water will be wasted at all. It is not necessary to go any further into an argument or detail on this question in Southern California. We have seen the re- sults of unwisdom in forest treatment. We know it from personal ob- servation, and we fear for the future, unless our mountain waier-shedt 92 WATER SUPPLY. are safe-guarded. Every one here is in favor of forest preservation or the mountains. In the matter of the water absorbing power of our tor- rent cones and washes, we can gain an idea of what such porous chan- nels must do by taking the absorbative power of large rivers generally. The Po, a great river of northern Italy, at its junction with the Ticino, has sometimes delivered 19,500 cubic yards per second. This is near its outlet from the mountains or in its upper course. At Ponte Lagoscuro, near Ferrara, pretty well down its course, the measure- ment has never exceeded 6,730 yards. The Mississippi, below the mouth of the Ohio, has had a delivery of 52,000 cubic yards per second. This discharge at Baton Rouge, in spite of many important tributaries, was only 46,760 cubic yards. Marsh, who is my authority for this, states that the Rhone and other large rivers, are affected in the same way by absorption of water in their course. Southern California everywhere shows how near it is to the line of torrent destructive action. Every stream here has a more or less torrential character. Every mountain canyon has its torrent cone now with the beds of boulders, gravel and sand extending valleywards. There is no true perennial stream from mountain to sea in this sec- tion. One has only to take the government contour maps and observe the rise of grade at every canyon outlet due to the deposits of detritus by the streams' torrential action to see the importance of the torrent question. In fact, you do not have to leave Los Angeles City to note this character of action. The river bed has been raising itself and now flows on a sort of ridge between artificial dykes. A great deal of the elegant Southwestern section of the city is lower than the bottom of the river bed. In some places the river bed is over twenty feet above the level of the street grades. A torrential stream, like the combination of the Tejunga and San Fernando torrents, that flows out through Los Angeles, is a dangerous thing. A lot of old rotten wooden dykes do not make it safe. In 1889 the river broke out of its channel and did a great deal of damage about Nadeau and on the Laguna. It flowed out that time to the East. If it took a break to the west, people would commence to take an interest in forestry in the city of Los Angeles. Every year the water-holding power of the water-sheds, the off- flow of which must go through Los Angeles, is diminishing. The city people have an idea that the Southern forests interest the irrigators CHAPTER XIV. 93 most. They think forestry a good thing, but that the immediate in- juries of undue denudation would only fall on them secondarily through the lessened power of purchase of irrigators with less water and there- fore with less crops. The truth is that no part of the community stands in more immediate and greater danger from forest destruction than does Los Angeles city. 1st. — In the loss of its permanent water supply by the flood de- livery of the rainfall suddenly from the burned and bare mountains, every year getting worse, and 2nd. — Because it has a torrent bed running right through the city, which has already, by the deposit of detritus, elevated itself above the general level. Some city people have never seen the Los Angeles river in its tor- rent form. If they do, they will at once realize what a menace it Is tc extensive sections. All our streams gradually diminish in flow of water, as soon as they leave the mountains, or even before. Most of them do not really get clear of the mountains in their normal flow. It is only in flood or torrent time that they go far out toward the sea in a continuous sur- face flow. In the minor streams, you will often find, after rains, a roaring and unfordable stream close to the mountains and hardly any- thing a few miles out in the valley. Torrents are only found where mountainous water-sheds are in part or wholly without adequate covering of forests. Forests with us al- ways include chaparral. After a torrent has been created, the great question is how to deal with it, and how to diminish its destructive ac- tion. All of the methods that have been used in dealing with torrent action are also in use in dealing with floods in general. First is extinction of the torrent. This can only be completely accomplished by reforestation of the denuded water-shed. Reforesta- tion has occurred by the operations of nature. It has also been done by man. Nearly all of this artificial treatment Is in France. The work of replanting denuded mountain water-sheds and the fixation of drifting sand dunes by forestation in the south of France is of the greatest in- terest and value to forest students in the West and especially in the Southwest. An expedition has been proposed by a number of Americans to make an early tour through the German forests. It would be worth every forest student's while to make the trip through intelligently and efficiently managed European forests. For us, how- ever, the trip should be through the south of France and Algiers. r~:-/r\ Native California Palms in a Sierra San Jacinto Canyon on the Colorado Desert side. Spring in a Sierra Madre Canyon— Water for Irrigation. CHAPTER XIV. 95 Extinction of torrents by re-planting forests has been done. It i: au expensive thing to do. However expensive it is, the ultimate cost is far less for any community than palliative measures in the valleys and plains. Second — Dykes to keep the torrent waters within a defined chan- nel is the most general method of dealing with torrents. The draw- backs to dykes are several. In case of a break in the dyke, the injury the torrent can do is concentrated. In this way a flood that without dykes would cause inconvenience and some damage by wide diffusion, would, in concentration and confinement, by a dyke system, do tre- mendous damage in any locality, where it mi^l.l break through th dykes. This possibility is shown in the experience of dyked torrents in Europe and in great river systems, like the Po and Mississippi, as contrasted to the action of unconflned rivers, like the Orinoco ano Amazon. A person who has seen a crevasse on the lower Mississippi knows what a failure In a dyke system means. Dykes work differently in their effects on streams under differeni conditions. At the outlet of the Mississippi a jetty or dyke system scours and deepens the channel. This is not the case at the junction of two materially differing grades. A torrent coming out of a moun- tain range at say, a grade of one to five and then taking the valley or plain grade of one to fifty, is no longer able to carry the load of detritus it brought from the mountain. The dykes cannot always overcome this condition; consequently, the channel in the valley is filled up an* raised. This necessitates raising the dykes. Finally a torrent so treat- ed flows on a ridge. A break must be attended with great destruction. The most striking instance that I have ever seen of this effect of dyk- ing was in the Austrian Tyrol on the Italian side. Above the old city ol Eoetzen, there is a water-shed made naked by communal pasturing. It is large and steep. This denudation created a torrent. To control the torrent, an extensive system of dykes has been erected and from time to time heightened lo control the rise of the torrent channel. This system has cost millions of dollars to a comparatively restricted dis- trict. Several times bad breaks have occurred. From one of these, shortly before my arrival, two valleys had been flooded to the third story of the houses. Cattle, horses, etc., were drowned and many hu- man beings lost their lives. The Tyrol was built up as it now is during the feudal regime. The population was concentrated in walled towns and the houses are therefore high. At Boetzen the houses are four and five stories. The evening that I arrived in that town, I went oui 96 DYKES. lo walk and saw running by the city a very high bank, higher than the top of the houses. At one place, there was a stone stair. Going up this, I found a wide, gravelly stream-bed, quite dry on top, with the inside banks built of stone. This was the torrent. The dyke walls had been raised from time to time to counter the channel raised from debris deposits. The dyke system is not so simple as some people think it is. Surely it is a cheaper thing to prevent your torrent. Dykes are also used to check and diffuse flood water. This is the Egyptian system. Diffusion and division of flood current requires en- gineering skill not easy to flnd. Diversion of torrent channels from localities where they do damage to others where they do less, is a method of treatment that, under fa- voring circumstances, may be effective. An interesting work of this kind exists at the Lake of Thun. in Switzerland. A torrent had been created there which was doing great and frequent damage. It was beyond any ordinary method of control. The plan of diversion was devised and carried out at a large cost, which has proved to be a great economy. The torrent was diverted to an artificial channel on a steep grade, through a hill to the Lake of Thun. The water in the lake at the precipitous point, where the torrent was delivered, was 200 feet deep. In a few years the torrent filled in an extensive area, and has made a delta for itself, where a short time before was deep water. An important and valuable plan of torrent palliation for us is that of artificial rainfall storage reservoirs. A torrent that has once gained volume is almost impossible to deal with on this plan. The reasons are: First, that there can be no efiicient method of flood diversion from a mountain flood in the mountains. If there were, your catchment basin, or reservoir, would soon fill with torrent detritus. Second, that a dam in the canyon of the torrent would soon fill with sand and stones, and might break and deliver an accumulation of flood water. Several dams in creek and river courses have burst, with damage and loss of life. Arizona has a number of such cases. The Johnstown dis- aster is one of the most notable cases in this country, both from the loss of property and of life. It was proposed by the miners to build a dam across the outlet of the Yuba to the plain, by tremendous blasts in the rock at the outlet gorge of the river. The object was to control the hydraulic mine slickens, which is artificial torrent action. The trouble with the plan was that the dam might CHAPTER XIV. 91 burst and do damage, the extent of which could not be foreseen, and that the silckens would soon fill any dam that could be constructed. Reservoirs about the head-waters of our streams, as in such loca- tions as Bear Valley and Hemet, will beneficially reduce flood and torrent action, while furnishing such held back rainfall for summer use. Another method that has been quite extensively used is the cross- filling of canyon torrent channels with large rocks and boulders. This makes what may be called a half dam. It detains the detritus, and does also detain the flow of floods. 98 CHAPTER XV. A SYSTEM OF FOREST MANAGEMENT A NECESSITY. Forestry in the United States is still in its infancy. We have no system of forest management. Forestry with us is ■without form and void. The making of a forest system of management is before us in its entirety. A Forest School, to provide a career for young men in the Ameri- can forests, must formulate a system of management for the forests. We have none, and so we are forced to make it. DEFECTS OF PRESENT METHODS. The Department of Agriculture has had for some years a Division of Forestry. At the head of this division there have been several ac- complished foresters and splendid men. The forestry division, how- ever, has had no power. It has been, so far, little more than a literary bureau for forest missionary work, with an occasional technical mono- graph of value issued. Under its present chief, the work is developing in a promising way, but it can never accomplish results in the gov- ernment forests while these are not in its charge and in no way under its control. The Department of War has sent detachments of the army into those parts of the forest reserve called National Parks, for some years. These army squads merely prevent injury to the parks. There is no pretense that the army is doing forestry work, except in preventing, or extinguishing fires. The power of dealing with the public forests is in the Department of the Interior, and is there delegated to the Land Commissioner, an officer with other large and absorbing duties. We thus have really skilled men in forestry in the Department of Agriculture, without power, and unskilled men In forestry in the Department of the Interior with such power as there is of making rules and regulations or a system, and of appointing a number of executive forest officers. Then in the Department of War is the only body of disciplined men in an organization of sufficient force to execute anything. The forest officers of the Department of the Interior are all un- CHAPTER XV, 99 trained men, without organization or discipline. However good men they are, very little forestry work can be expected of them. This is truly an extraordinary condition of confusion. We must all work to have its radical defects cured. It is clear that the skilled forest officers are the men to formulate forest rules and establish a Federal forest system. The present Federal system, if we can call it a system, is as follows: The forests are directly in charge of the Land Commissioner. This gentleman is not a forester. Under him are a number of Forest Super- intendents and Supervisors. One of these has charge of all the forest reserves of Southern California. Until recently, the Forest Su- perintendent now having charge of the northern reserves resided at Redlands, in this district. Not one of these officers is a skilled or trained forester. Under the Forest Supervisors there are Rangers. It Is claimed that most of the rangers are at least experienced mountaineers. These are few in number for the territory covered. Each one of these has a district as- signed 10 him, which is necessarily very large. In such district he works alone. There is no system of checks by which it can be known where a ranger is or how much work he does. His duties are to patrol the district assigned to him, and to enforce the regulations about pas- ture that may be made at "Washington. In case of a forest fire, he is to come out of the forest, if he happens to be in it, and gather up men and tools, and conduct this force back into the mountains to fight the fire. There can be but little expectation that such a body of hastily gathered men would be composed of experienced fire fighters. It is impossible that it should be a disciplined force. Time, which is of the essence of the contract in fighting fire, is fearfully wasted under this plan. There is no system of fire prevention. Fire prevention is the one great thing to do to save our mountain watersheds. It is claimed by the Land Commissioner that the law of the last Congress which gives citizens free ingress and egress to the forests, prevents any system of control of those entering the reserves, or the establishment of a permit, or even of a registry system for those going into the mountains. The law is bad, but it is not as bad as the com- missioner thinks it is. This entire plan of action has proved to be unsatisfactory. It has been inefficient in every particular. It is a practical failure. 100 MANAGEMENT REQUIRED. Theoretically such a plan could not be expected to be efRceint. Super- vision of officers is impossible. Fires are not prevented. No method is adopted to prevent forest fires. The plan of attacking a forest fire sacrifices time. When a fire does occur, promptness in getting to it is the key to success. Under this method prompt attack is impos- sible. The water companies, resorts, irrigators and power companies most directly interested in the protection of our mountain watersheds, all agree in condemning the present plan of forest mismanagement. PROPER METHOD. With this destructive criticism, we pass to what the plan of man- agement for our forest reserves in Southern California ought to be. First, we can say that there are temporary and palliative measures that may be advisable. Of these we may mention the employment of army details for patrols, and a plan like that of Mr. Lukens for an en- rollment of call men near the mountains. These to be picked and reliable men of experience, ready to fight flre at a given signal. This would be like the old town flre systems. This is a method still general in small communities for extinguishing fires of buildings. The ultimate system of forest management must have a permanent and skilled force of men to carry it out. How shall we obtain such men? There is but one way. This is by Forest Schools. Work and study in the forest is an essential part of every forest course. Civil service rules are a "sine qua non." Forestry is now a career in Europe and in India. There are also fairly effective forest systems in Australasia and in Canada. These forest systems all afford us valuable lines to work on. The conditions here, however, are "sui generis." The best system for American forest work in the great American forest reserves of the West remains to be formulated. It cannot be exactly upon any of the forestry lines heretofore or now followed elsewhere. Our system of forestry has many different climates and conditions to meet. A complete plan cannot be expected to appear all at once and fully ordered to fill varying needs. It seems only prudent for us to outline a system for the Southern California reserves. 1 01 CHAPTER XVI. OUTUNE OF A FOREST SYSTEM FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Force — This must be mainly permanent. Appointment to It must be on merit solely. It must be absolutely divorced from politics or personal influence. Its officers must be trained to the duties of forest guardians. Pending the creation of a trained force, the force itself should be used as a school. Its members should be made up of those who can pass the best examination in theoretical forestry. Preference should be given those making a study of the subject and declaring it to be their intention to make forestry a career. With the assistance of the agents of water and power conpanies and of resort proprietors in the permit or registration system and signal station plan, a force adequate for our immediate safety need not exceed thirty-six men. This force should primarily be divided as follows: Trabuco 3 men San Jacinto 5 men Pine Mountain 6 men San Bernardino 10 men Sierra Madre 12 men These allotments of men should be kept together and patrol their ditsricts as a body, in each case. Each patrol should have a captain, to be the best man in it. The patrol can be divided at times. There should never be less than two foresters together. The policy should be to keep the force united. There must be a system of check reports deposited at certain designated places to show the passage of the patrol. The chief forest officer must visit the patrol in the field from time to time. 102 REQUIREMENTS. STATIONS should contain the flre-fighting tools and Imperish- able supplies. Log huts can be constructed by the patrol for this purpose. The object of having tools at strategic points in the moun- tains is to save time in reaching a fire, and to save packing as much as possible. These stations should be at points accessible to the widest districts. TRAILS. Trails must be gradually constructed from the stations to the various points designated for meeting fires within its fire radius. These trails can be best constructed after the fall rains commence or in the spring. In other words, the best time to devote to them is when the danger from fire is least. In open winters a great deal of trail work can be done. FIRE BREAKS. These should be gradually constructed and care- fully maintained along ridges, spurs and washes, as the topograpdy may indicate. The same seasons are appropriate for this work as for trails. MAPS. The reserves should be mapped and districted as far as possible on lines of topography to meet and contend with fires. These maps should be numbered, so that signals could be given, sc as to lo- cate not only a fire, but the place, in any given wind, to fight it. The maps should also indicate the tool stations, the trails, signal stations and springs and streams. The map should be made to show the forest growth, the character of trees or brush, fire scars, etc. MEASUREMENTS of springs and streams should be made from time to time. These measurements should also carefully note the condition of the watersheds, especially with reference to changes from fire injury on the one hand or re-forestation improvement on the other. Rain gauges should be set up in numerous places to ascertain the rainfall. With this, and the measured stream off-flow, we would know how conditions affected the rainfall delivery. Some of these gauges in the back mountains could not be visited often during the rainy season, and would therefore have to be large enough to hold a season's rainfall. Snow measurements should be provided for. The United States Signal Service rain gauge allows least evaporation, which in the seldom visited ones would be important. Many rain gauges can be a.rranged for with the various interests of our section, so vitally affected here by forest conditions. SIGNAL STATIONS. These also can be arranged for without pub- lic cost, by the same interests. All persons I have spoken with having CHAPTER XVI. 103 interests in water or power companies, timber lands or resorts, tell me that they would cheerfully do these things to protect their own in- terests. Four such stations with the heliograph system would be am- ple for the San Gabriel reserve. Two would do in the San Bernardino range. It would probably be wise to ultimately have an alternating fag system for our rare cloudy days, and a colored light code for night work. Several stations should be set apart in the burned district for experimental tree-planting and re-foresting study and work. We all have a great deal to learn about re-foresting our Sierra. In fact, we have got to learn how and what to do from pretty near the head of the forestry alphabet. PROVISION must be made for dealing with forest products. In the Southern reserves, practically all of what little merchantable timber there is, is in private holdings. But the handling of mature forests, to know how to provide for the sale and right use of ripe timber, should be studied. The principal thing remaining is the sale and use where possible, or gradual destruction, of fallen timber and limbs, to reduce the injury by fire and fire danger. This system cannot safely, at present at least allow the exploitation by private persons of wood or timber killed by fire. The sale of such wood must be by government foresters cutting and removing for the benefit of the service. The Santa Monica Ranch owners have twenty-five thousand acres in brush-covered mountains. They used to allow people to cut, remove and sell fire-killed brush. The result was a forest flre when- ever wood brought a good price. PERMIT OR REGISTRY STATIONS. No forest system can ever be effective in dealing with the paramount question of forestry in Southern California, which is fire, without a plan for permits, or, at the very least, registry for those entering the forest reserves. Pre- vention is the one great thing to provide for in dealing with forest fires. A permit plan will do this. Every road or trail into the moun- tain forests should have a permit station. Private interests will pro- vide assistance in this matter on the San Gabriel, San Jacinto and San Bernardino reserves, and probably on the others. These permits should be in books, with a stub to be left in the book for each permit. The permit should be given free. There should be entered on the per- mit and stub the name of the applicant, his home address, the object of the visit to the mountain, the expected duration of stay, and the dis- trict to be visited. On the permit should be printed the rules of the 104 FOREST SYSTEM. forest, and especially the rules for small cooking fires, prohibition of large bon-flres, and the rule obliging all fires to be extinguished by water, and a condensed statement of law and penalties for fire setting. This will at once insure responsibility on the part of visitors and in- form them of the danger and penalties of careless fire setting. It will also furnish a clew for the apprehension of careless or malicious per- sons. Any one found by the patrol in the forests, without the permit, should be removed, and, when the law permits, be subjected to arrest and penalties. We will probably be forced to provide an alternative system, until present laws are changed, on account of the hostile atti- tude of the Interior Department to the permit system. The explanation of this opposition by the department is a law tacke^ on to the forest laws, at the last session of Congress, providing that citizens should have free ingress and egress to the forest reserves. I do not see that a free permit system would violate this law. It might be deemed a proper precaution to see that only citizens did thus enter the reserves without any regulation. Free transportation is always regulated by a pass or check system. Still, a pass holder travels free. This is so with other things of like free use, such as free theater tickets. When there is any class or personal privilege, it seems to be eminently appropriate, and in fact necessary, to see that the privilege is not abused or used by those not entitled to it. This Congressional law does thus discriminate againt persons not citizens. Therefore a free permit system must be lawful. Should the department fail to take this view, it can inaugurate a voluntary registry system, which would have much the same results. To each visitor could be handed a copy of the forest rules, as above outlined. Prevention of fires being the ideal method of dealing with our great forest danger, some provision of this kind to create a feeling of responsibility in the fast increasing campers and visitors to the forest, and to inform them of rules, laws and penalties of carelessness or criminality of fire handling should be adopted. DEALING WITH FOREST FIRES. The method of dealing with forest fires in California may be con- densed as follows: Outfit, canvas suit, similar to hunters', strong shoes, shovels, brush hooks and axes. Shovel should have long handle. The handle can have hinge and bolt, to facilitate carrying on horseback. Some prefer rakes or pitchforks instead of shovels. For back-firing pitchforks should supplement shovels. There should be ample rations CHAPTER XVI. 105 and large water canteens, besides the individual men's canteens. There should be one man with a pack mule to carry water and rations, and, if practicable, an extra mule to pack blankets and tools. Fires should bo attacked direct with largest available force. Promptness is one of the secrets of success in stopping fire. When wind is high, there i3 generally nothing to be done beyond going along the s.des of the Are, out of range of the wind, to keep it from lateral spreading. When the wind permits, go well ahead of the fire, selecting natural fire break aids where possible, and back fire. The rakes and shovels can be well used here to make the back firing safe. An axe is often needed. Sacks with a little dirt in them and green p.ne boughs are used to beat cut fires. I believe a shovel is better. Care must be observed to see that the accumulation of pine needles, often partly buried or out of sight, does not carry fire underground past the fire line, and start it up again. Fire on steep mountains starts small slides, and often sends large boulders bounding down the mountains. Therefore, care must be taken in attacking a forest fire that is coming down a hill. Another trouble with a descending fire, especially on steep declivities, is the fall of burning sticks or logs, which sometimes roll past the fire fighters and start the fire below these. This is a dangerous position. ±\ fire going up a mountain can only be tackled at the ridge or summit. Ridges are natural fire breaks, and stop a great many forest fires. Wind and fire is the dangerous combination. In California there is during the dry season, when forest fires are usual, a trade wind that often blows quite briskly during the day. This breeze dies out at night, and is replaced by a very gentle down draft, generally in the opposite direction to the trade wind. In the day the sun also dries and heats the material, and makes the fire run more rapidly. Night and early morning are consequently the most effective times to fight forest fires. At night one is pretty sure to know whether a fire is out or not. This is not so easy to know in the day. Dead trees burning have to be watched or visited from time to time until they fall. A forest patrol should select the points of fighting fire in any watershed under its jurisdiction before there is any fire. This will greatly facilitate such work as may be needed in a fire crisis. The response to fire signals to the patrol in the forest can be prompt. The patrol, with three to ten men, together, if they reach the ground promptly, can put out nine out of ten fires. What two men can do in limiting and extinguishing a forest fire within a short time after it starts, may taKe a hundred men to effect after it has 106 QUALIFICATIONS OF FORESTERS. burned a day or two. We saw this demonstration in last year's forest fires. Some of these burned two days before any force reached them, and one at least five days. The ineffective system of last year still prevails. It is the plan of one ranger to a district, without checks, without signals, and who is expected to look up, outside of the mountains, a lot of men to help him. A patrol of trained men, having forestry in view for a career, with a signal system and patrolling in fair sized numbers together, can deal effectively with forest fires. The present system can never do it. TORRENT STUDY. The forest officers will be under the neces- sity of dealing with this serious question as they have in Southern France. Extinction of the torrent by re-forestation will come next to torrent prevention by protecting the forests. Palliative measures will also have to be studied in the matter of dykes, their height and width, diversion, etc., as outlined in the chapter on Torrents. SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS FOR FORESTER. What must a forester know to be efficient in Southern California? We may summarize the answer to this as follows: Know forest trees from each other, and their species and range; know fertile seed of forest trees; know how to plant and rear them in nursery form and in the open; know how to transplant and secure free growth on the mountains; know how to measure standing or cut timber, and how it should be cut for commercial purposes to secure the reproduction of the forest, and to prevent even temporary injury to water-sheds; know how to dispose of lumbering waste or fallen timber as a pre- caution against fire; know the effects of forest on rainfall delivery; (this includes the good effects of forests on the perpetuity of springs and streams, and the evil effects of forest destruction on flood and torrent action); know how to limit and extinguish forest fires; know the signal system; know the trails, roads, natural fire-breaks and wa- ter supply of his reserves; know how to make a trail; know what supplies are the least required for exigencies, and how to cook them; know how to pack tools and supplies on such animals as may be available for the character of country to be traversed; (burros are considered the most useful all-round mountain pack animals); know about game and fish in his district; know the laws governing forest fires, game and fish, and forest user and occupation; know how to take care of the physique so as to be fit for work; know how to advise or direct property owners in tree plantations, either in the CHAPTER XVI. 107 mountains or on the plains. There is a promising field for develop- ment in this latter line in Southern California. He must know the geology of the reserves. This is important on account of the rainfall delivery from different geological formations, and also because different soils often vary greatly in the amount and kind of forest growth they will best support. Finally, some attention should be given to appropriate sites for storage reservoirs^ with sufficient watersheds and rainfall to fill them. The forester's work in this line will be in the nature of aid to the skilled Federal officers already charged with this work. The rain measurements on watersheds, together with the measurements of off- flow from them, provided for in our forest system, will be a valuable guide to an intelligent decision on the value of reservoir sites. (The Coast Range is with us in several places in low hills, like the Mission, San Joaquin and Puente hills, and in other places we have rolling lands, not profitable for crops or orchards. Certain trees do well on these hills, and can be made a source of profit as well as prove a prevention to gullying and torrent action. At the same time, such tree plantations are likely to create springs, as was artificially done by Palissy in France by tree planting.) 10 < CHAPTER XVII. PHYSrCAI, QUALIFICATIONS AND CONDITION OF PATROL. There should be a physical examination of applicants to the patrol. It is rot necessary that such examination be as exacting as the present examination for army officers and recruits. Serious physical defects alone need be considered. Organic disease of the heart abso- lutely counter-indicates mountain patrol work. Outside of troubles and weaknesses that would be so apparent as to suggest avoidance of the physical stress of a mountain forest patrol, heart disease is about the only thing that should prevent appointment to the force. Life in the forest is health giving. The pure air and balsamic odors of our mountain forests together with the freedom from city nerve tension, the exercise and simple food would undoubtedly Increase the health of all those in the patrol. The career of forestry is health and life giving. In this respect it is the opposite of such occupations as glass blowing and file grinding. Our race is not yet adapted to constant indoor life, such as our city careers so generally impose. Consequently life in the forest will make a man more vigorous and manly than life behind a counter possibly can. The patrol once constituted, it becomes a first duty of the officers to maintain the health and full vigor of each individual in it. Without physical vigor the patrol cannot utilize any knowledge of forest con- ditions. To the extent that physical vigor is diminished, the efficiency of the patrol is diminished. This is true of all occupations. The question then is how to maintain the efficiency of the patrol for the forest work it undertakes. We must consider the health of the indi- viduals in the patrol to do this. CHAPTER XVII. 1C9 PHYSICAL VIGOR— HOW MAINTAINED. Let us take up salient points of management that are germane to this issue. AIR. Avoid camp grounds that are relatively low or damp. The low lands in mountain valleys or cienegas are bad. The night air in such situations is always colder and damper that on mesas, ledges, or somewhat raised ground. Another reason for avoiding low camp grounds is the danger from sudden torrential floods. These floods are rare in our mountains, but they do occur. Such floods are mainly confined to the eastern part of the forest reserves that from time to time are covered by the Arizona summer rain belt. I have been a witness in both the San Bernardino and San Jacinto ranges of sudden and considerable local summer floods. The more denuded the water- shed, the more violent and destructive these so-called cloud-bursts become. In the desert, where the low mountains are quite bare, these semi-occasional cloud-bursts will deliver for a few hours a tremendous vilume' of water. The experience of the railroads crossing the desert is a warning of how serious the rain delivery from a diluvial rainfall on a bare watershed is. In no part of the United States has the damage from washouts on railroads been so great as in the arid deserts to the east of us. Miles of track have been washed out even in the Colorado desert, dry and desolate as it is. And this, too, from short, local rains on the low, bare mountains. Oregon, with its sixty to one hundred inches of rainfall at the pass near Roseburg, shows us no such wash- outs as does Arizona, with its almost entire absence of rainfall on the deserts. In the one case forests detain and reservoir the great amount of water, so that danger is slight, and in the other the bare rocks shed the occasional water like a roof, which water destroys everything in its line of escape. Everything is afloat while it rains in Arizona, while everything is dry as soon as the rain is over. Avoid low places and especially washes or dry torrent beds for camps. Take this precaution in an arid district more than elsewhere. The result of a large rainfall in Oregon, with forests, and of a very small rainfall in Arizona, without forests, is a sermon on forestry that cannot be made more forcible. In Arizona, the high mountain districts, where forests still exist, show the same conservative effects on rainfall delivery as do our own and the Oregon forests. WATER. The forest maps should show all points where water Cienega, low moist ground. 110 CONDITIONS CALLED FOR. can be obtained in summer. This is of high importance in case of fire. In the summer the natural dryness of the air, when added to the extensive forest fires, causes an evaporation from men in action that must be replaced by a liberal supply of water. The patrol should know the nearest point in any part of a district from which the water supply can be renewed. The water in our mountains is generally superior in quality; at some points, however, the springs are overcharged with minerals. These springs should be noted. Constant use of such mineral waters is likely to derange the system. Digestive troubles, calculus, kidney disease, etc., may result. In the higher districts in the mountains, the springs are sometimes found very cold. This cold water, taken when in repose, is not danger- ous. When a man or animal is heated by a hard mountain pull, or by fire fighting, these cold springs are injurious and occasionally fatal to users. Unfavorable effects are especially to be noted from cold water on heated animals. I generally recommend tea in a ration for the special purpose of giving an excuse to have all water boiled. A body of men in the field must depend mainly on surface water for drink. Boiling such water removes its dangers. In traveling in Asia and Africa I have seen the immunity from sickness the sole use of weak tea for drinking gave, and the striking contrast of disabling sickness in large numbers of those not taking this precaution. I have seen the advantage of boiled water on many occasions. Boiled water also deposits a portion of its surplus mineral, which usually more than balances the evaporation. Thus boiling diminishes mineral contents especially in a covered vessel, from the lid of which the condensed evaporation may fall back into the vessel. In our mountains this practice has not the importance that campers on the plains would find. Officers and patrolmen will note, however, that resorts, tourists and even patrolmen can pollute and infect springs and streams. This danger must be guarded against. I do not think it would be of benefit to boil the water from the spring at the timber line of Grayback, but it would be to boil the water of the Santa Ana river just below Seven Oaks resort. It is the proper duty for the patrol to measure and analyze the water of all springs and streams in the forests. Some of these waters are medicinal, and if properly known, would deservedly attract visitors to California and doubtless aid in the return of health to our own sick people. Water is, after air, the element requiring most frequent renewal CHAPTER XVII. Ill to maintain life in human beings. A man can do without food for a considerable period. Three to four days' fast is not necessarily fatal or even harmful. It is claimed that men have endured fasts of con- siderable periods. There is fair authentication of fasts exceeding forty days. The body can endure no such deprivation of moisture, or any- thing like it. The needs of the body in this respect vary with exposure and exercise. Heat, dryness and work together make a heavy drain on the liquid of the system. If this drain is not supplied, the entire body suffers. One of the striking effects of lack of water is derange- ment of the nerves and mind. The extreme sufferer becomes idiotic or insane. The importance of liquid to the system is shown by the injection into the veins of a saline solution, when an extraordinary drain threatens or has produced collapse. In the case of severe loss of blood by wounds, the recovery of system-tone by this procedure is surprising. In a climate like ours, the water supply must never be neglected. Many springs are of a small capacity. The marking of springs on the forest map should indicate the amount of water delivered. For springs the number of gallons or fractions of gallons delivered per minute is the most convenient measure, and one comprehensible to the largest number. A spring sufficient for one household might scantily sustain two, and fail entirely for three households. A mountain spring sufficient for one man only in the twenty-four hours may exist, but I do not know of it. All the springs and streams, however, have their limits of capacity in what life they can sustain. Most of them are large enough to leave this question unimportant for our patrol. There are a number of springs and water holes the capacity of which is insufficient for twenty men with horses and pack train. Consequently a patrol route and time card fixed upon certain springs for camps might be perfect for two or three men, but destructive and impossible for a large force. A military expedition from Suakim, on the Red Sea, in pursuit of certain Bedouin tribes, lost nearly all its animals and was obliged to retreat from the African Desert, simply because the water holes relied on could not fill fast enough to supply the men and animals. Dalton's experiments show that man requires in the temperate zone an average of fifty-two fluid ounces of water for his health and vigor per diem. Care is required in bringing animals up to a water supply so as to prevent their rushing in and spoiling the water. Of course this acci- 112 SUPPLIES. dent can be corrected by letting the pool or spring stand, or by boiling the drinking water; or, if need be, you can take the mud to get the water. It is wise, however, to consider and guard against these draw- backs, both for yourselves and for your animals. FOOD. There is no such thing as a ration suited to all men under similar conditions. There Is no ration suited to one man under varying conditions. The best we can do is to approximate the ration to the requirements. This has been done very closely. A ration suited to a sedentary life would not be suited to mountain forest work. Neither would a ranger's ration be suited to a clerk or book-keeper. Climate has a great deal to do in fixing the food best for human beings. In the Arctic regions fat, blubber, candles — in fact anything to produce heat Is welcome and necessary to the system to resist cold. The natives of these frozen districts have their digestive organs perma- nently modified to meet these needs. This modification is fatal to them in the tropics, or even in the temperate region. Inhabitants of tropical countries have also a heavily increased death rate on going, or being taken, into cold countries. It is probable, therefore, that there are both permanent and temporary modifications of the human digestive system to suit both occupations and climates. From these points we can see that a winter ration ought not to be the same as a summer one. The essential difference between a summer and a winter ration is the proper amount of heat makers for each. There is besides this also the form of the fat in the food to consider. Much grosser forms are appropriate for cold than for warm climates. I have never seen this point much discussed. From personal ex- perience and observation I believe it to be Important. Fat is necessary in the tropics in some form. A summer ration even for one of our most fiery deserts should have some fat in it. Olive oil is the best form of fat for use in warm weather or warm climates. The Greek, Italian or Spanish plain laborers furnish us in their diet a ration that we know supports body and health, and fairly hard and long continuous work. Its defects seem to be in nerve food. In any event, these people lack initiative and energy in their own country and on their own diet, but improve in these respects in this country when they arrive. Whether the stimulus of change and hope for fortune in a new country, or the change in food, has most to do with the increased activity of foreign laborers immigrating to this country, we do not know. Both causes should be looked after. I have seen hard work done in both Italy and Spain on a ration CHAPTER XVII, 113 composed of coarse, rough bread, onions or garlic, and olives or olive oil. In Italy the southern laborers, I noticed, eat the black olive, such as we pickle here. The brine furnished them with salt. In Southern Spain there Is the same square-set, heavy race, neither blonde nor brunette, that is found in the interior of Sicily. These people I have only seen casually loading or handling freight along the South coast of Spain, but then noted their use of olive oil on coarse bread. Olive oil is rather expensive and is an article of common use amongst but few of those likely to be in the forestry service. We could not, there- fore, make it a part of the general ration. What we can do, however, is to introduce it and try the men on that form of fat, as compared to other forms. It is of special importance to find the best form of fat for human use in a climate as mild as ours is and to be consumed during the warmest season. Fats not only furnish body heat, but also nerve energy. In a warm or mild climate, that form of fat should be sought that goes most to energy and least to heat, except as a mani- festation of such energy. In the tropics there are no strong civiliza- tions. None have ever originated there. Even those primitive forms of society found in Mexico and Peru were on the high plateaux, and consequently in comparatively temperate climates. It is to be pre- sumed that man originated in the tropics. This makes the absence of noted human advance in the moist warmth of these regions a subject of interest. Two reasons for this are theoretically presentable. First — Civilization is the result of human energy. Energy is only possible by the development of heat. Heat in the tropics is already and constantly near that of the living, human body. Human energy in the tropics produces heat that requires other energy to get rid of. The greater the heat and moisture of the air combined, the greater be- comes the difficulty of getting rid of surplus body heat produced by energy. The exercise and energy which we seek in the temperate zone is in part sought because we feel better physically because of it. In the moist tropics, exercise of body or mind is irksome and evaded be- cause we suiler with the heat our own action creates. A dry-warm air enables the rapid evaporation of moisture from the body to easily neutralize the surplus heat. In very cold climates or very high alti- tudes, the energy required to neutralize the cold, prevents the human being from using energy for development. As there is no civilization that has come out of the tropics, so there is none that has come out of the Arctic Circle. The climate of Southern Colifornia is the type out of which all the great civilizations of the past have come. Doubt- 114 SUPPLIES. less we will be the civilizing center of America — a continent that needs civilizing just now. To come back to our fats — we can remark that oil was the form of fat most largely used in both ancient Greece and Rome. This is still the case all about the Mediterranean. We produce excellent olive oil, and I believe that we would do well to use more of it. Bacon is an excellent form of fat combined with meat. It is easily kept and easily packed. The salt used as a preservative aids its di- gestion. Corned beef in cans is a good form of meat for a change. We pass without comment the rubbish called canned roast beef. Nitrogen is most easily kept and transported In the form of beans. Pork and beans with bread is a fine ration. The one point in beans is to cook them adequately. Thoroughly cooked, this food is not dif- ficult of digestion. Imperfectly cooked, beans are a source of trouble. Cooking is a very important part of every ration. All foresters should have instruction in how to cook in camp. This includes the making of the fire and arrangements for cooking. Salt is a prime necessity. Pepper should also be provided. Sugar is both a food and a stimulant. In proper amount, it is a great advantage in a ration. Flour provides us with the hydro-carbons and various minerals. The more of the grain there is in the flour, the better it is as a food. Fine white flour is therefore not so good as brown flour or as whole- wheat flour. A diet or ration Without certain acids, and especially when com- posed largely of salted meats, is disadvantageous and ends in disease. Scurvy is a disease due to diet, and with the ration unchanged means prolonged and horrible suffering, ending in death. Sailors have been the greatest martyrs to this disease. It is, however, still common in prisons and in armies. Corrupt contractors, who do not furnish the food prescribed, are the probable present cause of scurvy. Potatoes and vegetables at the centra! camps will prevent this trouble. Dried fruit is also a good thing and easily packed. It must be examined, when exposed, to keep out moths and worms. Lemons and limes are anti-scorbutics — easily procurable here at most seasons. Some anti-scorbutic should always be provided. Variety in diet is always an advantage. Even a change of cooks is occasionally a good thing. CHAPTER XVII. 115 Stimulants or narcotics at ttie present time form a feature in every official ration known to me. Alcohol was formerly quite generally a part of both army and navy rations. It is far less so now. Alcohol and tobacco are, however, still, officially or unofficially, quite generally used by men in organized bodies. In our California jails and penitentiaries these narcotics are replaced by smuggled opium. This shows us that while corruption in one place reduces or removes important parts of a ration, in another it can add an injurious element. Alcohol is a narcotic as well as opium or tobacco. We know by great numbers of experiments that all narcotics di- minish physical power. All athletes are aware of this fact. I have used a glass or two of claret at my dinner for many years. It is to me a break or an ease-off of nerve strain. I know from repeated personal experience on a measured track, with a time-keeper and stop-watch, that even this amount of narcotic reduced my physical power. Smoking reduces my mental power. While smoking I am incapa- ble of the same mental concentration on any difficult problem that I am without it. I only notice this effect on occasions requiring continued and concentrated effort. A brake is doubtless a good thing in its place. Going down hill from my ranch to the railroad there is one mile of stiff grade. A brake on my buggy gains me ten minutes' time on the drive. On the level, or going up hill, a brake set would be a disadvantage. The narcotics, when we are off duty, may be an advantage, when used with care, in removing nerve-strain. The trouble with them and us is that we are so liable to use them to excess, or at inopportune times. In this way we get a physical or nerve brake on, when we are going up hill, to our very great injury. It is best to have none of them in use when on duty. Smoking in our forests has the great disadvantage of its constant liability to set fires. I put out a fire in the Yosemite Valley set by a cigar stump, thrown out of a wagon just ahead of mine by one of the commissioners. Last winter a small brush fire was caused in Eaton canyon by a cigar stump thrown out by a tourist. I smoke myself, and consequently know what a tobacco prohibition means. Prohibition of smoking by foresters is, however, the only safe course. Tea and coffee should be our reliance for stimulant or restful in- 116 SUPPLIES. fluences on our nerves. Tea is the easiest carried and the easiest pre- pared. Drunk in moderate strength it has no Itnown disadvantages. Strong tea, however, in many produces nervousness, insomnia and de- ranges the digestion. Coffee is a delicious beverage. It is not so well suited to camp life as is tea. To have its full value, coffee should be roasted and ground just before using. I have seen this done, while travelling, in tents in Asia. This preparation of coffee requires more time and trouble than that of tea. Tea is more agreeable also without milk than coffee is. The hygiene of men, animals and camps can never receive too much attention. No knowledge of forestry you may ever have will be of any use unless you have the physical power to use it. There is noth- ing so disabling as sickness in an organized body. Powder and lead are not a circumstance to disease as destroyers, even in an army. Everywhere it is disease that disables most men engaged in war. Disease with us will be mainly confined to errors of diet or to pol- luted camps or waters. Our forests are free from dangerous malaria; the water, with few exceptions, is perfect; the air pure; the extremes of temperature never severe — in fact, we have all the natural conditions ready at our hand for increasing the health and vigor of our men. A sound, healthy life requires sound, healthy morals. True moral life is a life in harmony with the laws of nature. Marriage is one essential of a life in harmony with natural law. Every man in the forestry force should be married by thirty. Preference in appointment should be given, other things being equal, to the married. This is not only in consonance with the highest states- manship to preserve the population in its reproductive power, but also for the highest responsibility end vital strength of the forestry force. The recently published report of Wm. Parr, M. D., F. R. S., and Su- perintendent of the Statistical Department of the Registrar General Office of England, shows that the death rate of bachelors is very nearly double that of married men, at all ages. In Prance, it is eleven in the thousand for bachelors and only six for married men, between the ages of twenty to thirty. The same thing is true of women. A death is deemed to be accompanied by five disabled with disease. We can thus see how important marriage is as a vigor preserver. Between thirty and forty, the death rate is 12.4 for the unmarried and 7.1 for the married. Women who are mothers have a two years' better pros- pect of life than those that are not mothers. CHAPTER XVII. 117 I therefore advise all young men to marry early. If not for the State, then for their own health and longevity. Life is a good deal like a rose hush. The thorns we have with us always. The only thing that makes the rose bush tolerable is its moment of love, represented in the rose. Life Is but a straggling bush; the thorns are always present. It is sound sense to develop the roses, which can alone be done by healthy love. 118 CHAPTER XVIII. DIETARY IN DETAIL. As far as our digestive organs at their present stage of evolution are concerned, it has been ascertained with sufficient accuracy for all intents and purposes, what character and quantity of food is required for men in the temperate zone. We have prison diets, soldiers' diets, sailors' diets, etc., now arranged on a scientific basis in place of the old empirical one. Yeo's table for the adult is: Albuminous foods 100 grammes. Fats 90 grammes. Starch 300 grammes. Salts 30 grammes. Water 2,800 grammes. Foster and Volt's table is: Albuminoids 118 grammes. Carbohydrates 392.3 grammes Fats 88.4 grammes. In these foods there is of nitrogen 18.3 grammes; carbon, 328 grammes. Dr. Chaumont's table for an adult of 150 pounds weight and doing an average amount of work is: Albuminoids 4.50 ounces. Fats 3.75 ounces. Carbohydrates 18.00 ounces. Salts 1.12 ounces. The British soldier's ration is: Albuminoids 3.86 ounces. Fats 1.30 ounces Carbohydrates 17.43 ounces. Salts 81 ounce. This ration is deficient in fats, and the high mortality of British soldiers in garrison may be attributed in part to this error. A con- CHAPTER XVIII. 119 siderable part of this excessive mortality is in diseases for -which, fats are generally prescribed. The following tables are taken from the Best Rations for the Soldier, by Col. Jos. R. Smith, M. D. By general experience and individual experiment, we have dis- covered a certain amount of food which will sustain an average indi- vidual in good health; and, also, that much less than this will not suf- fice, though we do not know that a little less would not suffice. We have discovered, too, that certain combinations and proportions of different foods are best in the larger number of cases. As large numbers of men are involved in these experiments, the application of "averages" comes to our aid, viz.: That property of the "average," in virtue of which, from a large number of specific cases, every one inaccurate in different directions, an idea may be de- duced which is very near, indeed, to accuracy in the aggregate. I proceed to give the amounts of food necessary to sustain in health and strength an adult male for twenty-four hours, as determined theoretically and (by experience) practically by different parties. TABLE I. Amount of food required per man per day, as determined in actual trial. 1.— By Prof. J. C. Dalton. a„=.,o.<. Average. Fresh meat 16 ounces. Bread 19 ounces. Butter or fat 3.5 ounces. Total solid food, 38.5 ounces. For a "man in full health, and taking free exercise in the open air." 2. — Typical Ration of English Army Meat 16 ounces* Bread 20 ounces. Or biscuit 16 ounces. Vegetables (fresh) 8 ounces. Or vegetables (preserved) or rice or peas 2 ounces. Sugar 2 ounces. Tea 1-6 ounce. Coffee 1-3 ounce. Salt 1-2 ounce. Pepper 1-36 ounce. Lime juice (when fresh vegetables are not issued) 1 ounce. Rum 1-2 gill. Total solid food. Max. 46 ozs. to Min.. 36 ozs. 120 DIETARY. Lime juice at discretion of the general officer commanding, on the recommendation of the medical officer. 3. — Italian Army, Type B. Bread 32.378 ounces. Meat, f 1 esh 5.291 ounces. Bacon 529 ounce. Pastry (macaroni, etc.) 7.654 ounces. A'egetables 1.763 ounces. Salt and pepper 7054 ounce. Total solid food, 47.015 ozs. In Nos. 3 and 4, wine, 25 centiliters; coffee, 15 grammes (over 1-2 ounce), and sugar, 22 grammes (over 3-4 ounce), should be added, being allowed. 4. — Italian Army, Type E. Corn meal 24.689 ounces. Meat, fresh 5.291 ounces. Bacon 529 ounce. Vegetables 2.645 ounces. Cheese 1.164 ounces. Salt and pepper 1.411 ounces. Total solid food, 34.318 ozs. 5. — Ration of the Army of the United States of North America. Pork or bacon 12 ounces. Or fresh beef or mutton 20 ounces. Or salt beef 22 ounces. Soft bread or flour 18 ounces. Or hard bread 16 ounces. Or corn meal 20 ounces. Beans or peas 2.4 ounces. Or rice or hominy 1.6 ounces. Coffee, green 1.6 ounces. Or coffee, roasted and ground 1.28 ounces. Or tea 32 ounce. Sugar 2.4 ounces. Vinegar 32 gill. Salt 64 ounce. Pepper 04 ounce. Total solid food. Max. 48.6 ozs. to Min. 32 ozs. 6. — Rations oi the Navy of the United States of North America. CHAPTER XVIII. 121 No. 1. Salt pork 18 ounces. Beans or peas 7.5 ounces. Biscuit 14 ounces. Tea 1-2 ounce. Sugar 4 ounces. Pickels 1.14 ounces. Molasses 1.57 ounces. Vinegar 1-2 pint. No. 2. Salt beef 16 ounces. Flour 8 ounces. Dried fruit 2 ounces. Biscuit, tea, sugar, pickels, molasses and vinegar the same as in Ra- tion 1. No. 3. Preserved meat 12 ounces. Rice 8 ounces. Butter 2 ounces. Dessicated mixed vegetables 1 ounce. Biscuit, tea, sugar, pickels, molasses and vinegar as in Ration 1. Preserved meat 12 ounces. Butter 2 ounces. Dessicated tomatoes 6 ounces. Biscuit, tea, sugar, pickels, molasses and vinegar as in Ration 1. Total solid food. Max. 48 ozs. to Min. 36 ozs. In the above rations, fresh meat, 20 ozs., or preserved meat, 12 ozs., may be substituted for the ration of salt pork or beef. Soft bread or flour, 16 ozs., may be substituted (or biscuit. Coffee, 2 ozs., or cocoa, 2 ozs., may be substituted for tea; rice or beans, 8 ozs., may be sub- stituted for each other. Vegetables of equal value may be substituted for beans or peas in No. 1, and for flour and dried fruits in No. 2. Canned vegetables, 6 ozs., may be substituted for dessicated vegetables in No. 3. Canned tomatoes, 6 oz., may be substituted for dessicated vegetables In No. 4. The foregoing amounts of food are in avoirdupois ounces, and have undergone the test of experience. Concerning the first, Dalton, in his work on physiology, says: "From experiments performed while living on an exclusive diet of "bread, fresh meat, and butter, with coffee and water for drink, we have 122 RATIONS. "found that the entire quantity of food required dunng twenty-four "hours, by a man in full health and taking free exercise in open air, "is as follows: Meat, 16ozs.; bread, 19 ozs.; butter or fat, 3V2 ozs.; "water, 52 flu'd ozs." (COPY.) Pasadena, Cal., April 17th, 1899. Dear Mr. Kinney — Below you will find my list of food for one man for one year. This is made up from a careful account of food used en diffarent trips. At first I would have a surplus of some things, and be very short in others, but of late years I have had neither trouble. If one or more of the party are especially fond of some one food they can take an excess of it, and less of something they don't care for. Where green vegetables are taken, take six times the weight of the evaporated. Nearly all new hands run out of salt in a few days; the amount I mention will not be any too much. Take plenty of matches, in tight -fitting covered can. Also, each person should fill a small vial with matches and seal with wax and keep in a secure place, so that if you fall in the river or get wet in rain you can start a fire. This list is intended for good living, where there is good transportation by pack animals or wagon, but for a trip on foot with no animals, one-half pound of grape-nut, with a little salt, will sustain life very satisfac- torily for a week or two, with perhaps a little tea. Yours very truly, (Signed) T. P. LUKBNS. PROVISIONS FOR ONE MAN FOR ONE YEAR. Pounds. Salt 20 Flour 200 Corn meal 25 Rolled oats 25 Rice 20 Coffee 25 Hard tack 30 Mustard 2 Dried peaches (pared) 15 Prunes (pitted) 10 Raisins 10 Eacon 75 Dry salt pork 50 Dried apples 15 CHAPTER XVIJ. 123 Baking powder 10 Butter — in sealed cans 20 Maccaroni 10 Two Edam cheese 12 Beans 35 Onions (evaporated) 15 Potatoes (evaporated) 25 Horse radish (grated) 2 Citric acid "Crystals" for vinegar and lemon acid 1 Extract of beef 2 One-half pint of Jamaice ginger, hops, food and medicine 3 Thirty packages Knorr's soup. Sugar (granulated) 75 Condensed milk, 24 cans. Twenty cakes dry yeast. One can black pepper. One ounce Cayenne pepper. One bottle Tabasco sauce. (COPY.) Los Angeles, Cal., March 7th, 1899. Mr. Abbott Kinney. Dear Sir — In compliance with your request for a list of the quantity and nature of provisions necessary for a week's supply for one man, I submit the following. Bacon 4 pounds. Corned beef (one pound cans) 3 pounds. Flour 5 pounds. Sugar 2 pounds. Dried fruit 2 pounds. Potatoes 5 pounds. Onions 1 pound. Beans (one pound cans) 3 pounds. Coffee % pound. Butter V2 pound. A little salt and pepper. Baking powder V4 pound. Condensed milk 1 can. It is necessary that one should carry a coffee pot, frying pan, small stew pan, water canteen, tin plate and cup and a knife, fork and spoons. The above list is intended for one travelling every day and alone. 124 DIETARY. If a party are travelling together, It could be more varied, but about that amount is what would be required for one person. For a party of ten, it -would not require ten times that amount. Less meat could be taken, and more flour and beans, and eight such rations would feed ten men. One person must carry more in proportion than larger num- bers, as there is more waste, v/hich can hardly be avoided. I will be glad to furnish at any time any information which I may possess on forest reservations and the fires therein. After the fire of last October I wrote an article descriptive of the damage caused bj'' such fire to our present and future water sup- plies. In it I also suggested the formation of a popular Forestry Associ- ation for the purpose of co-operating with the Government in the protection of the watersheds, etc. I submitted the article to one of our newspapers, but it was returned with the remark that it was not timely. I trust that your efforts to arouse public interest will meet with the success which the matter deserves. Very respectfully, (Signed.) E. B. THOMAS. HG East Eleventh street. City. r.'5 CHAPTER XIX. SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE FOREST PATROL IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. The available funds for this purpose are now used in three ways, viz.: supervisors or officers, regular patrol and exigency patrol. One head officer is necessary. Los Angeles is his proper location The other officers should cither be on the mountains during the fire sea- son, supervising the patrol and checking up its work, or removed and the money applied to the increase of the regular patrol. I consider these subordinate officers to cost more than they are worth at present, and especially with so little money available. The exigency patrol fund should be applied to the increase of the regular patrol. There are exceptional cases where an emergency or exigency patrol would be an advantage. In such cases interested par- ties are ready to assist the work while the government funds remain inadequate. As a matter of fact all the large forest fires in the past two years have been effectively fought only by private interests such as the Mt. Lowe R. R. Co., Martin's Camp and the San Gabriel Electric Power Co. Of the numerous reports I have of the exigency patrol fire work ev- eryone condemns the system. In no case reported to me has a fire been controlled by^n exigency patrol. The funds thus used are wast- ed. The exigency patrol system has congenital defects which render it impossible to make it effective. First, Time: No one can gather up a fire patrol in a minute. In this chaparral country, time is the essence of the contract in extin- guishing fire. Forest fires have here three stages; first, when it is small and starting; second, when it is in full force, roaring up the mountain; and third, when it is smouldering at natural fire breaks and creeping over into new territory. The first and third stages are those alone in which the fire can be controlled. Only little side work can be done when a forest fire is in full blast in our brush. Now an emergency patrol cannot be organized to reach a forest fire in time to take advantage of the first stage. It is useless or worse at 126 PERMANENT PATROL. the second stage, and ignorant, incompetent and undisciplined for the third. An increase of regular patrolmen, however small, would be much more useful than the exigency patrol. The work of exigency patrols has been reported to me in a number of cases. The shortest time was the patrol sent to the Henniger Flat flre. This fire was on the south face of the Sierra Madre within two hours of the City ol Pas- adena. The patrol reached the scene of the flre the next day, sixteen hours after it started, and after the flre was out. The Martin's Camp force and my Water Company force stopped this terrible fire at natural fire breaks on ridges and in washes. This is not a criticism of any officer, but of an impossible system. Too much time must be wasted in reachin.if a flre by this method. Reports on other exigency patrols show that from two to five days elapse between the starting of the flre and the arrival of the patrol. Generally these exigency patrols have been hastily gathered in towns and cities. The character of men thus recruited is not of the best. There can be no discipline in such a force. They are not prop- erly clothed or shod for mountain fire work. They do not know how to fight fire. They do not know how to care for themselves either as to water or food. Few of them are physically fit for the arduous work. If, on the other hand, you have call men located in and about the mountains for exigency patrol work, you are very likely to have fires occur when other sources of money are stagnant, a frequent condi- tion with this type of men. It is charged now that forest fires have been set and renewed to secure work on fire extinction. An ex- igency patrol is not of much if any account. Three or four intelligent and capable men can do more good on flre work than a hundred corner loafers pitched into a brush mountain on flre. I wish it clearly under- stood that no officer is criticised. It is the system which is at fault. The money saved by cutting off some of the subordinate forest supervisors and thus saved by dropping the exigency patrols, would double your present regular patrol in all the most dangerous districts in the south. At the present time the forest reserves in Southern California are divided Into patrol districts. In each of these there is one patrolman. These patrolmen have no defined relation to each other. In case any one of them needs help he goes to the nearest point at which commun- ication with an officer can be had and asks for it. Valuable time is necessarily lost in this way. What would seem better would be as fol- lows: CHAPTER XIX. 127 Arrange the camps of the rangers at the points contiguous to the greatest number of districts. In this way, with the present force, three to four men would have their camp together. At this central camp would be the tools for fire fighting and trail making. Supplies could be delivered at these camps and the head officer visit them for reports and inspection. It would cheapen the cost of telephone or signal sys- tem. The rangers now have to come out of the mountains for supplies and once a month to make a report. By the above method the ranger would not have to leave his district. He would also have company and aid. The rangers of districts so arranged should be instructed to give each other aid. The fire signal should be an imperative call for assistance with tools. The fire signal in this section is plain and unmistakable. It is a cloud by day and a column of fire By night. In this way at least four competent men would be after a fire at the first sign of smoke. In most cases enough of them would reach the fire in the first stage to control it. The economies suggested would enable the dangerous districts to have a double patrol. Eight trained men would then be promptly available for fire work. Very few fires would get beyond the first stage by this sys- tem and all would be dealt with by a good force at the third or resting stage. All forest fires of wide range go through this third period sev- eral times in their course. The recommendations of the Forest Society, now being partly carried out, were: 1st: That the rangers should be appointed Deputy U. S. Marshals. This the U. S. Marshal In this district refused to do. A marshal could be appointed who would do this. In one district the rangers have been appointed Deputy Sheriffs by the county. In all the Southern reserves most of the rangers have been appointed deputy game and fish ward- ens, at the suggestion of our society to the Fish and Game Commission. These stars enable the Rangers to arrest offenders against State laws. The stars also add greatly to their influence and power. 2nd: A free permit system was suggested. Any one in the mount- ains without a permit would be taken out. These permits were to con- tain, with a duplicate register on a stub in the permit book, the name and address of the holder, the part of the Reserve to be visited and the person's object. At the bottom was to be printed the rule against large fires and obliging" every fire set to be extinguished by water and the penalties for setting forest fires. Every permit holder would surely be in a more responsible frame of mind with the permit than without it, and would use more care. Ignorance could not be pleaded as to the fire 128 SAFEGUARDS. rules and laws. Permits would prevent forest fires. Prevention is better than cure. Our attorneys deemed this permit system to be en- tirely in accord with the last Congress' law on the forest reserves. In place of this permit system there has been quite a general action by the Rangers in taking the address of persons met in the mountains and warning these on the flre dangers. This is better than nothing, but it is not complete. The permit system is complete. All the com- panies interested in water, power, resorts, etc., in the mountains, would aid in this by keeping the permit books and issuing these without cost to the government. These companies have stations now at all the en- trances to these southern mountains. 3rd: Trails to be built by rangers as time served. Some rangers have done a little of this, but there is no regularity or plan about it. What the Forest Society recommended that could be done by the pres- ent force that has not been attempted at all, was: 1st: Map making, to show natural fire lines, water sources, trails and timber. However rough such maps were they would be a great aid. Two of our society rangers have made such maps. 2nd: Recognition of Forest School started here. 3rd: Measuring water in springs and streams and setting rain gauges. 4th: Collection of tree seeds to be planted in burned districts. Your future system of reserve management in the south should provide for a permanent force. In winter the rangers should receive instruction in forestry and prepare seedling trees for planting and plant them as funds permitted in the burned and denuded districts. They could also make trails and maps during this season; build log huts at the central range stations; erect telephone lines, etc. In this connection, there is a movement started by the Forest and Water Society to have a part of the 800 acres of the National Soldiers' Home at Santa Monica used as a grand National Botanic Garden. All the trees that will grow in the United States will grow there on its pl.^iins, canyons, foothills and mountains. This would be the place for a forest training school and forest tree propagation for re-foresting. We would be glad to have you help the movement. The Division of Forestry should be placed under the Commission of Lands, Dept. of the Interior, or else the forestry work should be turned over to the Division of Forestry, Dept. of Agriculture. It is an anomaly that the only division of the government service dealing with forestry should have nothing to do with national forestry work. Our Forest and CHAPTER XIX. 129 Water Society is of the opinion tliat at ieast in all the arid district where the great bulk of the remaining public land is, the public lands should be managed as a unit. The mountain forest lands should be considered as a reservoir system to store the rains, maintain springs and prevent torrents. Reservoirs and irrigation should be developed and paid for by the sale of the improved lands. All the public lands fit for pasture should no longer go to the strongest and most violent but be leased under proper rules to preserve the pasture, prevent bloodshed, protect the forests and give some return to the people of the United States who own them. The money available from such rents is estimated to be, from the public lands in California alone, from $250,000 to $500,000 a year. THE AUTHOR TO LAND COMMISSIONER AT WASHINGTON ON FORESTRY SYSTEM FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Oct. 9, 1899. — Hon. Binger Hermann, Land Commissioner, Wash- ington, D. C. My Dear Sir. — Your kind favor of the 19th ult., re- questing my suggestions on an improvement in the Forest Patrol sys- tem, has been received. Your request is complied with in a separate paper herewith enclosed. We all appreciate your interest in the forestry question. We also appreciate at least in part the difficulties that surround the creation of an efRci°,nt forest system. You have had to create a system fitted to deal with very divergent conditions. This work had to be done without previous American landmarks and under circumstances that made Eu- ropean experiences of but small value. Lack of funds has also been a most serious handicap to your ef- forts. The government under your administration of the Land Office has accepted the responsibility of caring for and managing the government forests. You have earnestly undertaken a great work, which will be the starting of an epoch in the west. While we believe that the system can be improved, it is a pleasure to say that the work in this section has been better done this year than last. We desire to aid your great work in all possible ways. Permit me to present two important con- siderations in regard to Southern California forestry work: 1st: Southern California conditions are different from those in any other forest reserves 1n this country. The climate, topography and industries here demand a care of the water-sheds nowhere else so 130 LETTER TO COMMISSIONER. urgent. The forest growth if chaparral or brush. Only in the canyons and high ridges is there any timber and this so scattered and inacces- sible as to be out of any calculation for revenue product. There are a few exceptions to this when timber in sufficient amount grows to be available for commerce. These districts are in private hands. Chap- arral Is the principal covering of the mountains. No other forest re- serves have this predominant chaparral character. Where the fires have gone the springs and streams have dried up. Existing torrent cones and increasing flood damage warn and unite our people in a aesire for forest protecclon, which is self-protection. 2nd: The forestry movement here is not on the same footing as it is elsewhere. Here the theoretic and aesthetic basis of forestry is sec- ondary. Every irrigator, water company, resort, establishment, rail- road company, power company, and in fact all citizens, are actively favorable to forestry. Ther-^, is no sheep or grazing industry of any im- portance here using tin forest lands for pasture. Only on the north si'je of the mountains, and mainly in the Pine Mountain reserve, is there sheep invasion from the San Joaquin. This community is for forestry for immediate and practical rea- sons. Conservation of the water supply and prevention of torrents is the life question In Southern California. What I said to you in the Palace at San Francisco over a year ago was that the situation in Southern California could only be realized by a personal visit from you and inspection of the vast interests dependent on Irrigation and a view of the chaparral covered n^ountains, of the great fire scars, of the dried springs and torrent damage. No one can realize the situation without seeing it. Your letter indicates that our printed plan of management, together with several of my letters to you, must have miscarried. Please ad- vise me if you receive this one. In case I do not hear from you, I will forward a copy to a friend in Washington to be delivered to you person- ally. Yours respectfully, ABBOT KINNEY. 131 PRINCIPAL FOREST TREES OF THE CALIFORNIA RESERVES. CHAPTER XX. PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES ON THE SUBJECT. The men who have described the forests and forest trees of Cali- fornia have all written poetry into their descriptions. True poetry is that higher insight that inspires the soul. Indeed, it is but natural that the poetic feeling should be shown when the grandest forests of the woi'ld are being brought to the knowledge of mankind. Muir's "Mountains of California" is oue of these beautiful descrip- tions of our mountains and their forests. It is well worth the forester's study. The earliest attempt, of any importance, to give a complete scien- t'fic description of the forest trees of California is that of Sereno Watson and Dr. George Engelmann, in the "Botany of California," published in 1880, uniform with the volumes of the Geological Survey of California. The order Coniferae was largely written by Dr. Engel- mann, the most acute student this group has had in America; and his judgment is likely to be the final one in regard to our most diflicult species. Next came Prof. J. G. Lemmon, who treated of the forest flora of the Pacific Coast as an entirety by itself. This work was done under the orders and at the expense of the old State Board of Forestry. It is to be found complete in the biennial reports of the State Board commencing with that of 1887-1888. Like a number of the works in these reports, it has been republished in several editions. No State reports have received the same amount of quotation and republication by private enterprise as those of the State Board of Forestry. The State should republish these reports. The latest and much the most elaborate work on the trees of this country is by Professor Charles S. Sargent, "The North American Silva," in thirteen volumes. Vols. 10, 11 and 12 treat of the Coniferae, containing plates of the flowers leaves and cones of all our species and varieties and a vast amount of information in the text. Forest Giant and New Growth. CHAPTER XX. 133 FOREST GROWTHS. For the purposes of the forester, it is only essential to present at first the most important forest growths, with the expectation that the student will finally know all the forest growths by mountain study. Nor will we now go beyond the reserves themselves in our tree exam- ination. The forests of the reserves in California are predominantly ever- green. While there are a few deciduous trees, the black oak, "Quercus Californica," and the hickory oak, "Q. chrysolepis," are about the only ones of general importance. Speaking in a broad way, our reserve forests are evergreens and belong to the order of the Coniferae. That i?, the trees are cone bearers. Our California conifers are divided into three tribes, the Cupressineae, Taxodineae and Abietineae, with char- acters us followst Tribe I. Cupressineae: Scales of fertile aments, opposite, in pairs, becoming a small dry cone, or a drupe-like berry in juniper; leaves opposite or ternate, often dimorphous, a large tribe of four genera: Juniperus, the junipers; Cupressurs, the cypresses; Thuja, white cedar; Libocedrus, incense cedar. Tribe II. Taxodineae: One genus only; Sequoia, the big trees. TRIBE III. Abietineae. A large tribe of five genera: No. 1 — Abies, the firs: leaves sessile, leaving circular scars when they fall; cones erect on the upper limbs, their scales deciduous from the axis; seeds with resin vesicles. No. 2 — Pseudo-tsuga, Douglas spruce; leaves petioled (stalked), the scars transversely oval; cones pendulous; scales persistent: seeds with- out resin vesicles. No. 3 — Tsuga, hemlock; branchlets rough from ihe prominent per- sistent leaf bases; bracts of the cone smaller than the scales; conefe pendulous; seeds with resin vesicles. No. 4 — Picea, spruces; tre3s having also character of the last, ex- cept leaves sessile; seeds without resin vesicles. No. 5 — Pinus, pines; cones requiring two years to complete their growth (three years in two American and one European species), their bracts becoming corky and thickened, leaves (the conspicuous foliage) ir, fasciles of two, three or five (solitary in one species), and surrounded at base by a sheath of scarious bud-scales; pollen two lobed. CHAPTER XX, 135 The lumber trees in our reserve torests are the pines, flrs, Doug- las spruce, incense cedar, and in one district of the Sierra Nevada, the sequoia. Of the pines, there are but two in our reserves that as yet are an important source of lumber. These are the yellow pine and sugar pine. The incense cedar is principally used for posts, ties, shingles, etc. In our southern reserves the yellow pine is the principal lumber tree. The sugar pine is indeed the king of the pine genus, but it has a much more restricted range than the yellow pine, and but seldom grows in masses. It is scattered through the forests of the middle Sier- ra region. One of its peculiar properties is its straight grain and facility for splitting. This invites the woodman to it for a source of shakes. No lumbering in our mountains is more distressingly wasteful than shake-making. Only parts of these giant trees are used, and quite fre- quently the woodsman tires or the tree proves refractory. Thus it hap- pens that the mountain traveler often sees sugar pines of two to two hundred and fifty feet in height felled, with only a few feet of the trunk used. The rest remains to rot, or furnish destructive fuel to some for- est fire. (Foot Note: All of our lumbering is very wasteful. Under private ownership and at present lumber prices, it will so continue, without a forest system. A method has been proposed whereby the cutting of lumber by private parties or corporations might be so conducted as to promise a new forest crop and remove the danger and destruction by fire, usually severe in cut-over districts on account of the lumbering waste. This method is that rules be drawn up by foresters for the tree cutting and removal of waste. The consideration to the lumber com- panies to so conduct their cutting being an agreed price to be paid by the government for the cut-over land thus treated. The rules to secure forest safety and insure new growth are simple and not costly. A number of lumbermen have expressed approval of this or some other fair and reasonable plan. The only other way out of this difficulty is by expropriation of private timber holdings. There Is, however, an increasing interest amongst lumbermen in a private forest management to secure continuous crops. This will surely grow with higher prices. A good deal of cut-over forest land is allowed to go delinquent for taxes. Such lands, while falling back into the people's hands, fall into State or local jurisdiction. This result is not satisfactory, because lirt atate has no forest system and, besides, has no part in the man- agement of the Federal reserves.) 136 CHAPTER XXI. STUDY OF TREES. One of the interesting things about our forest trees is that these have such a tendency to grow in pairs. This fact will simplify your study of the trees. PINES, HOW DISTINGUISHED. Taking the grand yellow pine as our most important forest tree, we find that it has a brother called the Jeffreyi, or black pine. Let us commence with these in furnishing points not purely botanical for identification. First, how will you know a pine from any other conifer of our mountains? You can know them by the leaves alone. These, whether short or long, single or in bundles, are always needle-like and always in a sheath at the base next the branch. That is one point, and it is enough. When you find a cone bearer with a needle-like ever- green leaf, with a sheaf from which the leaf or leaves spring, it is a pine. The only other genera of the sub-tribe "fasciculares" are the cedrus and larix, neither native to California. The name of the yellow pine is pinus ponderosa. It is a splendid tree of very wide range and several varieties. Its habit is straight, of regular form and it grows tall, 120 to 300 feet. The leaves grow out of their sheaths in threes. Their color is medium green. Their taste and odor aromatic and piney. The leaves are from four to ten inches long. The yearling cones are green and of rather oval form. The mature cones are brown and generally small, three or four inches, although sometimes four to five inches long. The cones always break off the tree, usually leaving some of the scales on the tree. From this it is called a base-broken-cone. It is always widely open when on the ground. The general shape is ovate-conical. The seeds are about one- half an inch long with wings an inch long. Male flowers large and long. The typical bark is a bright salmon color, very thick and fis- sured into large plaques, suggesting the skin of an alligator. No other pine has bark like it. The great stem of these pines, when thus typical, is a beautiful and grand column of the forest, recognizable as far as one can ses it. Tamarack Pines on Alpine Lake in Sierra Nevada 138 THE PINES. From this type, the bark varies with less and less striking color and marking to dark, almost black color and longitudinal Assuring. These darker barked varieties in California usually have the larger cones, and for the most part are found in the lower altitudes, where the ponderosa grows. Nor are these dark barked varieties as tall or as large as the salmon colored plaque barked, small coned ones. The dark bark is not so thick as that of lighter color, and there is a larger proportion of sap to heart wood in the dark trees. These varieties in the cone and bark have persuaded some botanists that the yellow pine's brother, Pinus Jeffrey}, is but another variety and not a true species by itself. Better acquaintance corrects this mistake. The black pine is found in the higher altitudes and is at its best about 7,000 feet above the sea. It is also found at lower levels. In Northern California the black pine appears to affect hotter, drier ground than P. ponderosa and at about same elevation. The striking differences between these species are as follows: The yearling cones are purple instad of green, with larger prickles. The mature cone is much larger, more base broken and of pyramidal shape, and not so flaringly open when ripe. The leaves are covered with a delicate silvery powder, not present in ponderosa. Their taste and odor are much more delicate and sweeter. In fact, these pines have songs of their own, tastes of their own, odors of their own, and wood of their own. The yearling cone color is enough to separate these two species, even to the most casual observer. There are several varieties of Jeffreyi also with bark color, vary- ing from brown in broad check lO dark red and black, with lateral fissures. While these varieties of form make some confusion for the begin- ner, these species can be separated by an examination of the yearling cones and a careful look at the foliage; the silvery powder of the Jef- freyi is, however, very light on the leaves and has to be looked for and r-ubbed off to be sure of it. The taste and smell of the leaves is very different. That of the ponderosa is strongly of the pine, while that of the Jefferyi is delicate and suggestive of oranges. This pair of pines is easy to separate from the others by the broken base of the cone. Other cones that are base-broken are those of the long persistent cone-holding pines. Such cones are forced off by the growth of the tree, or by violence. The first pine you meet in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada is 140 THE PINES. a nut pine with a large edible seed. It is sometimes 180 feet high. This is Pinus Sabiniana. It is ot a branching, forked, or rather strag- gling growth. The trees are generally far apart and mixed with white oaks (Q. Douglasi). Its leaves are long, of a dull gray color, and the foliage is usually so thin as to offer but little shade. The cone is long persistent on the tree. This pine is frequent in the Tehachapi. Gray-leaf pine seeds are large, black, sweet, and with a very hard shell; a favorite Indian food. It is not found in our neighborhood. The cone is very large, dark colored and with hook-like spines. Two other pines take its place in our neighborhood ranges. These are P. attenuata (P. tuberculata of American authors) and P. Coulteri. P. at- tenuata is a small, straggling tree with green foliage and a long knobby cone. It is a rather poor looking tree. It also grows on hot foot-hills. A striking peculiarity of this tree is that its cones re- main firmly closed for indefinite periods, often until opened by fire. Thus, when a fire kills these trees, a plentiful sowing of seed for a rew growth takes place. A few of this species are found in the Sierra Nevada warm belt. I forget whether it was Muir or Lemmon who noticed the uniform- ity of age of trees in tuberculata or attenuata groves. This we may assume to be due to its habit of seding all at once after a fire. In such fires the old trees seem to have been killed. Some people think that this tree resists fire better than others. I find no adequate con- firmation of this opinion, unless it be its method of producing new trees after a scorching fire. P. attenuata is scarce here, as elsewhere. It is found on the south face of the San Bernardino range. The other foot-hill tree, P. Coulteri, is quite handsome, with green foliage, leaves in threes and never to be mistaken, on acount of its gigantic hooked cone. This cone is the largest in the world. When mature it is of light color, growing darker on the ground, and is armed with large, curved hooks. The cone is quite persistent, so much so that the tree wood often grows around the base so as to enclose some of its scales and cause it to break like base-b:eakers. The male flowers are cream color. The cone weighs from fiv3 to eight, and, it is said, even ten pounds. It was first found in the Santa Lucia moun- tains, where it is in a forest of its own. In San Bernardino, it ranges from 1,800 feet to 7,000 feet above ihe sea. It makes fair lumber. The seeds resemble those of P. .leftreyi. The curious Torrey Pne has an unusually large cone. Its foliage 142 THE PINES. Is rather dull grayish. It Is only found In a few places, with a few trees at each, along the San Diego coast near Del Mar and on the island of Santa Rosa. The trees are not very old and there is no sign of any former extension of the species. In fact, it seems more like a new adventurer to the State. It comes easily from the seed. The leaves are in fives. Along the San Diego coast this pine crouches and lies on the ground and rocks of the bluffs and barrancas to resist the sea breeze, much as P. flexilis and P. albicaulis dwarf and creep under the Sierra snows and winds. Once in our high southern mountains, the forest is of P. ponderosa, cedar, sugar pine, firs, Douglas spruce and, in damp places and higher up, of the tamarack pine. With these, in the lower levels, is the golden live oak (Quercus Chrysolepis), and in the middle, higher, the deciduous black oak with large edible acorns. Let us go on with the pines. The chieftain of pines of the whole world is Pinus Lambertiana, the great sugar pine. This giant is not plentiful in the Southern Sieras. It is easily recognizable, both in its detail and general appearance, from other pines in our moun- tains. The stem or bole is long, without limbs. The bark is of a dark reddish brown of warm effect, finely Assured. Prom wounds in it issues a sweet pine gum that is edible in small quantities, and very laxative in any amount. This gum has given the tree its com- mon name of sugar pine. The leaves are much shorter than those of the yellow pine, and are always in bundles of fives. The leaf color is a pleasant blue-green, very different from the sad, dull gray of P. Sabiniana. Its most striking characteristic is the fruit. The cones are the longest in the world — ten to eighteen inches. These hang generally in clusters far out on the long branches, and bend these down in graceful curves. The seeds are large, sweet and edible, but very difficult to get. The mature trees have great individuality of form. The foliage is often quite thick and concentrated about the top. The branches stretch out over the lesser forest trees in an ad- venturous, independent way. One tree lover has suggested them to be the priests of the forest, forever extending a benediction to their fellows. The sugar pine leaves have less of the pine taste and odor than any other tree of the genus. Pines generally are inclined to a stiff, formal growth. The sugar pine has nothing of this. Each of these trees has character of its own. Each tree is interesting as an individual. In fact, the sugar pine is i -Mk ■ iMl > ^.'.s.it.^sm Yellow Pines (P. poiiderosa) Sierra Madre MountaiDS. 144 THE PINES. amongst the most strikingly individual trees we have. Its brother, the Piniis monticola, is not known to me in our Southern Sierra. It is found in high altitudes of the Northern Sierra, from the headwaters of the Tule river northward, and usually above the sugar pine belt. P. monticola, like the sugar pine, has five leaves in a fascicle, and the foliage of the two is similar in color and texture. It is usually less than 100 feet in height, with a trunk stout in comparison, covered with a blackish bark, which is suffused with a rich, dark red tint. Its cones are pendulous and green when young, like the sugar pine cones, and resemble that species in the texture of the scales, but only four to six inches long usually. This species has for an associate Abies magnifica, the "Silver Fir" of certain portions of the Sierra Nevada; and the two forming the upper belt of the thicker forest, are the most important protectors of the headwaters of the reservation rivers, and the chief builders of the forest-floor at these altitudes. Above P. monticola in altitude, in the great Sierra reservation, occurs the thinly scattered, but beautiful "Pox-tail Pine," P. Bal- fouriana. Sometimes it forms an open park-like forest, as at the southern base of the Kaweah peaks, and west of Mt. Whitney and Sheep mountain. It has the stout and comparatively short trunk of P. monticola, but its leaves, in fascicles of five, are short, stiff, form- ing cylindrical plumes at the ends of smaller branches, hence the common name of "Fox-tail pine." The cones are nearly the size of those of P. monticola, but the scales are of different texture and form, and chocolate purple when young. There are also two alpine pines that grow dwarfed near the North- ern Sierra snow line, above the Fox-tail pine, that have some charac- teristics of the sugar pine. These are P. flexilis and P. albicaulis, the former much rarer than the latter. The twigs and branches of the alpine pines are very tough and flexible to resist the weight of snow Dy which they are crushed down. Very old trees of these alpine pines are often found only a few feet high, but widely spread over the rocks. Sometimes one can walk over their tops, just as you can over a close cropped cypress hedge. I do not see how anyone in our moun- tains could be troubled to recognize the five-leaved, long coned sugar pines. In the damp alpine valleys and on the edges of meadows we find the tamarack pine (Pinus Murrayana). Its brother pine is the P. contorta, a northern maritime pine. There is an extensive forest of the tamarack pine on the northern base of the tree line of Grayback, Forest Growth on Sierra Madre, 5000 feet above Sea. Pine Forest Sierra Madre, 6000 feet above Sea. 146 THE PINES. while in the Sierra Nevadas they cover thousands of acres at an ele- vation of 8,000 to 10,000 feet. It is very easily recognized. Its leaves are short and in twos. That is a character in our mountains that is conclusive. The bark is very thin, brown, with a chrome yellow veining. It Is easily wounded so as to bleed and gum up. This, and the thin bark, make It an especial mark for the fire demon. It suffers more from fire than any forest tree we have. The leaves are of a strong, dark green. Altogether, it is a handsome tree. Cones small (one and one-half to two and one-half inches^ and seeds small. The last of our mountain pines is the pinyon (P. monophylla). This Is a generally short branching pine, justly celebrated for its ex- cellent edible pine nuts. Its foliage is of an agreeable bluish color, not cold and forlorn like ine foot-hill pines. Nor is it so bright and handsome as the sugar pine coloring. This pine has a wide range along the eastern base of the Sierras and over into Nevada and Ari- zona. There are many handsome specimens about Bear valley in the San Bernardino range and also along on the east side of the Sierras in smaller form; a few are found scattered on the west side. There is one on the summit of Mt. Lowe. The pinyon can always be recog- nized from the fact that it is the only pine in the world with but a single leaf to the sheath. While the Monterey pine is not found in any of our forest re- serves, but is confined to a small district about Monterey, and with a variety on the island of Guadaloupe, it has been more planted than any other native tree of California, except the Monterey cypress. From this reason we should give this pine some attention. Its foliage is in fascicles with three leaves each, a bright green, and is very dense. The cone, when mature, is ovate-conical, oblique at the base, three to five inches long, tubercles at base outside large; prickles small de- ciduous. Seeds pale, strongly reticulated with brown; wings an inch long, beautifully veined with reddish brown. Bark thick fissured, very hard, black without, bright red on inner face (Lemmon). A variety with two leaves exists on tne island of Guadaloupe, and else- where. The attention given- to this tree in mild climates is due to the remarkable rapidity of its growth. It is the fastest growing pine known. It is from this cause called in foreign countries the "Re- markable Pine." The Monterey pine is suited in California to dis- tricts near the sea, or subject to sea influence. In these places it is hardy and long lived, and grows well in light sandy soils. In the interior, however, where the air is dry and the climate warmer and El Capitan, Young Tree Growths iti Protected State in the Yosemite. 148 THE PINES. more continuously sunny, this pine has a tendency to short life and commences to die out after the tenth year, especially where the soil is also dry. In these respects it resembles the Monterey cypress and the blue gum or Eucalyptus globulus. All of these trees support the con- ditions of our interior valleys very well when water is near the sur- face, or when irrigation supplies them with moisture. Logging in California 149 CHAPTER XXII. CEDARS AND OTHER FOREST TREES. Next, we will take our cedar: Libocedrus Decurrens. The first or generic name means "Incense cedar." This name is derived from the fragrance of the wood when cut into. The second name is due to the small scale-like leaves, which are decurrent. The foliage is flat and massed, of a bright green livened up with yellow tendencies. The hark is light brownish yellow, deeply furrowed and thick. The tree is striking, and has no close relative in our Sierra. The incense cedar, once seen, cannot be confused with any other local tree. The spruces are represented in the California forest reserves only by the genera Pseudotsuga and Tsuga, or hemlocks; the first by two, the latter by one spscies. The spruces can be distinguished from the firs by the position of the cones on the branches; in the former they are pendant near the ends of the branches; in the latter they stand upright and are mostly lateral. Moreover, the scales of the spruce cones adhere to the axis long after maturity, and even for several years. The cone scales of firs fall as soon as ripe — in September or October. Peeudotsuga is characterized by a straight and perfectly erect leader or terminal shoot, by leaves which spread every way from the stem, and large cones (three to six inches usually), whose three-lobed sharp-pointed bracts project beyond each rounded cone scale. The hemlocks or Tsugas are much more graceful trees, whose terminal shoots, especially in younger trees, are slender and recurved-droop- ing, whose leaves are in two nearly opposite rows on the stem, mak- ing usually a flatfish branch, and whose cones are smaller than Pseudo- tsuga cones (one to two and one-half inches), never with projecting bracts. Both of the above genera have short-stalked leaves, while the Piceas, or true spruces, represented in California by the Sitka spruce and the weeping spruce, in the northwest part of the State, have no stalks to the leaves. The only hemlock of the reservations is the alpine species, Tsuga mertensiana (formerly T. Pattoniana) occurring near timber-line in small groves from Mt. Tallac to the head-waters of Kings river. It Showing Black Oaks of the Sierra Nevada in the Yosemite Valley-Young Yellow Pine in Left Foreground. CHAPTER XXII. 151 may be known by its dark green, short and dense foliage, the slender nabit of the tree and the slender nodding terminal shoot. It is certainly one of the most beautiful trees of the north, for it is found even in Alaska. Pseudotsuga taxifolia (the P. mucronata of some authors) known under various names, such as "Douglas spruce," "Oregon pine," "Red fir" (although it is neither pine nor fir) comes into the reserves from the north, like the hemlock, and extends southward along the Sierras, at the same elevation of the cedar and Yellow pine, in decreasing areas, to the Yosemite Valley and the headwaters of the San JouQuin river. Its bark is black and rough like the old White firs; but its foliage and branches are much less stiff than the firs. The leaves are very fra- grant and are even preferred by some to those of the fir for pillows. The spruces are represented in the southern reserves by the Pseu- dotsuga macrocarpa. This tree was considered for a time to be only a variety of the great Douglas spruce, but now its specific standing is recognized. The IViacrocarpa is mainly distinguished from the Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) by the greater length of its cone. These pen- dent cones are often quite long. One of their peculiarities is the growth of the bracts beyond the cone scales from an inch to an inch and a naif or more. These bracts have two teeth and a central projec- tion. There is another cone that far exceeds the bract growth of the Macrocarpa. This is the cone of the Abies Bracteata, a species of fir . confined to the Santa Lucia mountains. The bracts in that case are more like long thick switches. Our two firs are the white and red. Abies concolor, the white, and Abies magnifica, the red or balsam fir. The firs are very handsome trees with dense, dark green foliage. In youth, and sometimes in the older white firs, the tree is quite silvery from the numerous stomata mainly on the under side of the leaves. The bark is rough, thick and furrowed. In the white fir, the bark is lighter in color, m the balsam fir, the bark is dark or reddish. The fir cannot be mistaken for any other of our mountain trees, because, first, its cones are erect or stand up on its branches, and second, because the cones do not drop off en- tire. The scales drop off piece by piece, leaving the cone axis persist- ent for a long time. For this reason, one does not find fir cones on the ground. The red or balsam fir can always be distinguished from the whi^e fir by the delicious, persistent and penetrating fragrance of the foliage. Mountaineers select branches of the balsam fir for their beds. CHAPTER XXII. 153 on this account. The leaves are picked and put up in pillows or sachets, in whijli this tonic and pleasing odor is long maintained. The California nutmeg, with its long, prickly, needle-like, shining leaves, and its fruit resembling a small, green plum externally and a nutmeg internally, is related to the Conifers, and will be found spar- ingly along stream-banks in the northern or Sierra reservations. Here also, at much higher altitude, among the bare crags below Farewell Gap, and near Half Dome above the Yosemite Valley, grows the Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). Its foliage is cypress- like, and its fruit a small blue berry, but its trunk is remarkable for its great breadth as compared with its height. Sequoia gigantia, the "Big tree" or "Redwood" of the Sierras, is so well-known and is so conspicuous from its huge light brown or salmon- colored trunks, its crown of cypress or juniper-like foliage and small oblong cones, that it requires but brief mention. It appears on the Na- tional parks and reservations rather frequently south of the Kings riv- er in Tulare county. Northward to Placer county the small scattered groves are mostly in private hands. These are the outline sketches of our leading forest trees. The few striking characteristics of each mentioned it is hoped will enable the student to identify the species and then to complete a knowledge of them by personal observation. Then-, are, in wet places rnd along canyon streams, some other trees we should not entirely neglect. The alder is the dense foliaged, dark green leaved, deciduous tree on the lower mountain water courses. In these, we also find the native maple. The native Bay tree is another water seeker. This handsome evergreen becomes more scattering and finally disappears from the can- yons as we recede from the ccast. Its leaf has an intensely pungent odor. In the Coast Range canyons in the northern part of the State, where the bay, "Umbellulaia Californica," grows into a superb tree, I have been oppressed after a foggy night on going into the canyons as the sun come out by the powerful odor of the bay trees. The sycamore and cottonwood pop'ar go out in the canyons and washes toward and into the valleys. The California cottonwood poplar is a remarkably hardy tree, standing both alkali and rocky soils, and the alternate frosts and fiery heats of our high des3rts. The poplar has two species here, the principal one being P. Fre- mont!, the cottonwood, and the other P. Trichocarpa, the Balsam pop- Douglass Spruce in the Sierra Madre CHAPTER XXII. 155 lar. The former of these has flattened leaf stalks, downey leaf buds and the young wood is light or yellowish in color. The latter has shiny, sticky leaf buds, round leaf stalks and dark colored young wood. The Mesquit is a fine tree for alkaline and hot places. Its wood is a great heat maker. I have seen fine, large tree specimens of Mesquit grown in the San Gabriel Valley. It is native to one desert district. The California walnut, "Juglanus Californica," has a sweet nut witu a thick, hard shell. It grows along in the tertiary foothills. Thi^s makes a handsome shade-giving tree in cultivation, or even without care. It is deciduous. We have also willows, elders, etc. The elder makes a remarkably durable post. Out on the plains, we have the white and red live-oaks, both beau- tiful trees. The red oak is very much the most attractive and often runs pretty well into the canyons, and accompanies the sycamores out into the washes. 157 CHAPTER XXIII. FISH AND GAME OP THE FOREST RESERVES. Charles Frederick Holder. The splendid domain know as the Forest Reserves, reaching from Lake Tahoe on the north along the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in- cluding the ranges ot Southern California to the Mexican line, is a natural park thousands of square miles in extent, embracing features so varied in character that it has become world renewed. Its scenery- is impressive beyond description, and the Sierra Nevada range alone, with its stupendous ravines and gorges, reaching from the land of living glaciers about Mount Dana to the semi-tropical regions of its foothills, is a world in itself. Within its borders are alpine lakes, trout streams and pools six or seven thousand feet above the sea. The black-tailed deer and grizzly wonder through forests of titanic size — a nature's wonder- land. In the heart of this region are rifts, gulches and canyons, so nar- row and abysmal that the light of day rarely reaches into their depths. Here is the home of the receding glacier, and other more ancient giants of snow and ice have left their mark as clearly as the eroding hand of time itself. There are strange contrasts in this natural park. Cliffs a mile high, mountains which in their height and rugged splendor chal- lenge the world; alpine lakes scintillating like gems; streams which flow along the mountain tops, born of winter snows, leaping madly over precipices half a mile high, as in the Yosemite, foaming among the rocks, finally to emerge into the broad valleys of the summerland be- low and flow on amid nodding flowers to the sea. The Forest Reserves may be considered the land where the game animals of the State have made their last stand, and where they should find adequate protection. Not fifty years ago, vast herds of elk roamed the Reserves; the antilope covered the San Joaquin and other valleys in bands, while deer and bear were the common animals of nearly the entire region. Now they are so rare that the antelope has almost dis- appeared, the elk is but a memory, and in the extreme southern section the grizzly, the most common animal half a century ago, is only oc- casionally seen. In the inacessible portions of the Sierra Nevadas the grizzly, Ursus horribilis, is still fairly abundant, and the black bear. CHAPTER XXIII. 159 Ursus AmericanuB, and several varities, as the cinnamon, are to be met by the hunter along the river bottoms, well representing the large car- nivora. Unlike the bears of the extreme north and east, those of the southern Reserve do not hibernate completely, roaming the forests in search of food almost if not the entire year. In this natural park, perhaps more plentifully to the south, is found the Leon del monte — the mountain lion. Fells concolor, of California and the West; the largest American cat, remarkable for its wide geo- graphical range. It is seen in the forests of Washington and Oregon; as the puma it ranges the deserts of Patagonia. I have followed its trail as the panther in the deep forests of the Adirondack mountains, and have seen its footprints on the keys of Florida near the mainland where it swam from key to key, the very antipodes of the ordinary feline, at least in ths respect. The carnivora is well represented in the forests of the Reserve but only those which are considered game will be mentioned. It might be considered a stretch of the imagination to apply this term to the lynx, two species of which are known in the mountains of California, but I have witnessed their courage and ferocity on many occasions when fol- lowed by hounds. The spotted lynx. Fells maculata, is a striking and beautiful creature, often seen in the foothills and main ranges of South- ern California, and is a southern representative of the great northern lynx. It can be traced as far south as the City of Mexico. The other species is the red lynx, Fells rufa, common everywhere in California; both forms being known as wild cats in many sections. They usually make their home in the mountains but are the familiar of almost every large arroyo coming down these roadways and so reaching the foot- hills of the Southern California mountains. They frequent the luxuriant tangles of wild grapes and the thick brush of the orroyo bottoms, living cheek by jov/1 with the raccons, skunks, wood rats, raccoon-foxes, and other small carnivora which make up the interesting fauna of the re- gion. In the upper ranges, more particularly in the Sierra Nevadas, though rare even there, lurks the gray wolf, Canls lupis; as ghostly, grim and gaunt as the fancy has painted it; skulking among the big trees, or stealing down the canyon, perchance eying some sheep herder, far away. This animal is rarely seen, especially in the southern portions of the Reserves, but on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevadas it becomes fairly common, and in the adjacent territories is considered a menace to the best interests of the herder. In California it is found in the 160 MAMMALiA. upper Sierras, running in small herds, and preying upon deer. Another wolf is found in this vast stretch of woodland, though on its lower levels, where it breaks up into foothills. This is the lowland wolf, the coyote, Canis lutrans, one ot the most characteristic aniamls of the West. The coyote is a hanger-on of civilization, the familiar of town, village or hamlet, making its home in the ledges of the foothills, per- haps in burrows or natural caves from which it emerges at night, travel- ing long distances down the valleys to visit the hunting grounds of its choice. At tuch times is heard its strange laughing bark, whicn has so marked a ventriloquistic Quality that one coyote can easily convince a novice that a despf rate pack of lowland wolves is lurking about the stock. The coyote follows the arroyo beds down into settlements and ocassionally preys upon domestic stock, but its game is the ground squirrel, 'the jack rabbit and cottontail, which it is very expert in tak- ing. It occasionally varies its diet, being fond of grapes, guavas and possibly other fruit. The coyote is withal one of the cleverest of its tribe and may be said to be the jackal of America. Among the hoofed animals of the Forest Reserves, five typical forms stand out: the black-tailed deer, the mule deer, the antelope, mountain sheep and elk. The latter, owing to the lax legislation of past years, have nearly disappeared, but the two former, it is believed, are holding their own. The elk* is included as it is thought that a few are still to be found on the slopes and foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. When Cal- ifornia was discovered the horns of this magnificent animal were seen from San Diego far to the north. The clumsy mule deer — Cariacus macrotis — with long ears, is occasionally seen, its large size making it a conspicuous object. It is a mountain and lofty plateau form. In the Sierra Sadre and Coast ranges of the southern portion of the Reserves it is rarely seen, its place being taken seemingly by a smaller variety which has been described by Judge Caton. This deer is especially com- mon in the ranges which reach down to the sea from Point Conception south. In the leafy coverts of Southern California, the arcades formed by the alder, willow and bay, where the canyon streams splash out into the open and the manzanita, wild lilac and holly grow, one may meet the black-tailed deer (C. Columbianus), while farther north it ranges in the *Mr. H. W. Keller, late Fish Commissioner, writes me: "The only elk I know of in this State are a few in the northern part of Humboldt county, and about one hundred and fifty in Kern county, west of Bak ersfield." CHAPTER XXIII. 161 upland regions and is the typical deer o£ the Forest Reserve. I have seen it on the slopes of steep canyons which radiate from the San Gabriel, where it finds almost absolute protection in its resemblance to the chaparral; a dainty little creature, as graceful as an antelope, and while affecting the deep brush, it may be seen in the wide washes, or in the early morning on the mountain edge of some remote ranch. This beautiful deer ranges up to an altitude of five or six thousand feet in Southern California, frequenting in summer the groves of large trees on the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains; in winter it Is driven down to lower levels by the snow. Not many years ago the Forest Reserves were the home of the big- horn or mountain sheep — Ovis montana — the representative in this country of the nayaur of Nepaul and Thibet; a noble animal to have met comparative extermination at the hands of the pot hunter. The male has an imposing armament in its curved and cyeased horns which attain enormous development. The animal may still be found from one end of the Reserves to the other; but hunted from peak to peak, from plain to valley for years, without laws for its protection or hunters to obey a law if it was in force, it has gradually disappeared, and it would be difficult to find It in the southern ranges today. I have seen three heads of bucks taken on the slopes of San Antonio within the past ten or twelve years, and doubtless a small flock still holds its own on the precipitous sides of this mountain; but unless game laws are enforced, the complete extermination of the animal in California will soon be ac- complished. One of the crimes of the century was the destruction of the bison. Another is the wiping out of the only American antelope — Antilocapra americana — which is now in progress. It is the most interesting and graceful of all the American ungulates representing the great African family in America. Formerly vast herds could be seen in the San Joa- quin valley, and undoubtedly it ranged all the valleys of California. It is a lowland form affecting the great stretches of level lands and val- leys which characterize California; but it often strolls up the canyons, small herds having been seen browsing on the foothills of the southern and central portions of the Reserves. This animal is the swiftest of all game and but for its singular curiosity would be rarely captured. This fatal habit has resulted in its almost complete extermination in Califor- nia. Sportsmen and others steal upon the herds, and by standing on their heads, or waving a limb with a red or white rag, or exhibiting any strange object, they can attract the attention of the timid animal CHAPTER XXIII. 163 which, urged on by its curiosity approaches, step by step, until within range, and then pays the penalty. Other hunters who commend them- selves more to the true sportman, hunt the antelope upon the great plain and run it down upon horesback — a most difficult and dangerous pas- time.* Among the rodents of the Reserves is the jack rabbit, or more prop- erly, the jack hare, Lepus californicus, a typical and interesting form. It is found all over California, in the southern portion of the State, living in the upland valleys, as the San Gabriel, and in the brush which bor- ders the chaparral of the slopes of the Sierra Madres. In the great valleys, as the San Joaquin, adjacent to the Forest Reserves and the Sierra Nevada mountains, these animals abound in vast numbers and are a mena:!e to the farmer. The natural enemy of this hare is the coyote, and I have always opposed the slaughter of the latter, believing that it was a vital error. The coyote may kill a few turkeys and chick- ens, but it also devours thousands of these tree girdlers. The hare is a swift runner, yet the coyote outwits it in long chases. The jack rabbit does not buirow, forming a crude nest among the scant brush of the open plain. This is often disputed from the fact that the animal is sometimes chased into holes by the hounds; the retreal, however, is the home of the burrowing owl or a badger. Living more completely in the ranges are the cottontails or rabbits, several species of which inhabit the foothill regions of the ranges of the Forest Reserve, and have a decided economic value. In the deep canyons of the Sierras the stroller may see perched upon a branching limb a gray squirrel with a silver brush, out of all propor- tion to its size, folded gracefully over its back. This is the gray squirrel of California, Scrurus fossor; a little creature which to me is one of the charms of the beautiful canyons which open into the San Gabriel and other valleys of Southern California. With these are chickarees, or chipmunks, whose graceful movements are a constant delight to the observer. BIRDS. Ranging down from Northern California into the Forest Reserves in the desert side of the Sierra Nevada is the sage grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus. It is, as an ancient epicure once said of the do-do, more *Mr. H. W. Keller states that he found about seventy-five antelopes about forty miles east of Yreka, Siskiyou county, running in the timber, and a band of twelve in the west end of the antelope valley. "I do not think," he writes, "that there are five hundred antelopes in the State." o o O M ed O CHAPTER XXIII. 165 pleasing to the eye than the stomach. It is a fine appearing bird, the largest of the family in America. The courtship of the male is a remark- able performance, during which the bare yellow spots indicating the air sacs are enormously expanded, producing a strange sound. Perhaps the most peculiar feature of the bird, is that unlike all other gal- linaceous birds It has no gizzard. The common grouse of the Forest Reserves is the Sooty grouse — Den dragapus obscurus fuliginosus — also called the California grouse t ^ ' — Heati ot yuail. Life bizc. by some sportmen. Mr. F. S. Daggett tells me that me that he has seen it on the head waters of the Tule river, and has shot it at the head waters of the Kern river not far from Mount Whitney. It inhabits the evergreen forests of the Sierra Nevadas six thousand feet above the sea in summer, but in winter is found on the lower spurs at an altitude of two thousand feet. In the early spring the wanderer through the for- ests may hear the remarkable love note of the male, produced by con- 166 BIRDS tracting and inflating the large air sacs found one on each side of the throat. Unlike the sage grouse, the bird is desirable as game, the meat being of excellent quality. High in the mountains, up to the very snow line and far beyond, we find a bird somewhat larger than the Eastern Bob White, yet calling it to mind. Its dark-blue breast, the tints of crimson and white, the four bands of white, the bluish head, and above all the two jaunty slender plumes which rise like quill pens that might have been tucked behind it ears, tell of the mountain quail — Oreortyx pictus — one of the most artless, beautiful and characteristic game birds of California. Its note is sweetly modulated, sounding like "cloi, cloi, clio," or "quit, quit, quit," strangely resonant in the wild rock-bound regions of its choice. I have never had the temerity to shoot the bird, as at each attempt the birds in flock of ten or fifteen, instead of flying, approached me, walking directly along until within forty or fifty feet, then standing and with exprefesive gestures endeavoring to solve the question as to who this intruder was. Their heads were extended forward in wonderment as they eyed me, their plumes vibrating, and for a moment they were silent; then came sweetly, "woi, woi," or "tch, tch, tch," from some- where in the brush, and the pattering of feet on the dried leaves began again and the mountain qauil went their way. Every wash and canyon, every elevated plateau along the borders of the Forest Reserves is the home of the valley quail. — Lophortyx cali- fornicus, — fast disappearing before the insatiate sportmen who reckons numbers as the test of skill. In former years vast bands of these at- tractive birds could be found all over California, affording much sport and possessing a decided economic value. If the mountain qual or patridge is jaunty and debonnaire, what can be said of this lover of the valleys whose sweet note, "ka-loi-o," with the accent on the second syl- lable, comes softly on the wind. The female is a demure little creature, but the male, with its splendid attire and graceful plumes, is the type of all that is attractive and beautiful among game birds. The head marked with white, the back a slate blue, the swelling breast black, white and cinnamon; a collar of white, the nodding plume which, as the birds run, bobs up and down before their eyes like a pom-pom out of place, constitute an ensemble which gives this quail a marked in- dividuality among the game birds of the world. In early spring, when the land is green the nest is formed beneath some bush, and when the sun is high and the glory of the poppy begins to fade, and the ground is carpeted with the twisted seeds of alflleria, long velvety lines of young CHAPTER XXIII. 167 may be seen running in and out among the late flowers. The espionage of the mother is not needed long; in a few days the young birds can fly, and a tew weeks later are members of some big flock which filUs the air with a roar of wings as it rises to plunge over the divide into some deep ravine. FISH. The lakes and trout streams of the Forest Reserves commend them- selves to the lover of nature and sport. In the north lies Lake Tahoe, with its system of lakes and tributary streams and brooks well stocked with trout. About Mount Whitney are glacial lakes, while the river which forms the Yosemite Fall, comes down in one stupendous leap of half a mile, rushing boisterously through boulders and rocks to form A Night Catch of Trout at Bear Valley Lake. later a trout stream; eddying through banks of flowers and arcades of grateful shade to the summerland below. The streams of the southern portions of the Reserves are like nearly all the characteristic rivers of Southern California dry at intervals and often throughout almost the entire length from the mountain to the sea, but in reality flowing on beneath the deep sand bed in which they are seemingly lost. Such are the San Gabriel and Los Angeles rivers, the Santa Ana at times, and others which can be traced into the green heart of the Sierra Madre mountains, where under normal conditions they are rushing, living streams, the home of the rainbow trout. 168 FISH. The Sierra Madre range, representing the southern portion of the Reserves, is cut by the rains and melting snows into myriads of canyons, ■whose sides are well wooded or covered with chaparral; and hardly a canyon, with its high beetling cliffs, but is a river of verdure, a source of delight to the stroller. These trout streams rise high in the range, often twenty miles in its very heart, and flow on over polished rocks and boulders beneath the sycamore, bay and pine; now out into the open, by masses of wild lilac and California holly, heavy with its bunches of vivid red berries In ascending such a stream the trail winds across it again and again, and it is not in the deep pools that we shall always find the largest fish, but along shallows. Here is the home of the rainbow trout, — ■ Salmo irideus, — a marvelous creature in blue, silver and red, rang- ing up to six pounds and more. This is the common trout of the Coast Range and of the Sierra Nevada mountains. About it there is a little mystery. Some affect to believe that it is merely the young of the Steel- head, while others contend that it is a distinct species. The existence of this fish is seriously threatened by over zealous anglers who fish for numbers alone and who take out the small fry by thousands every year. The largest trout of the southern portion of the Reserves is the steel head, — Salmo Gairdneri, — a magnificent creature, attaining at times a weight at times of twenty pounds, and leaping when hooked four or five feet in the air. In the Santa Ynez it finds Its way forty or fifty miles up into the range to spawn. It is a most attractive fish in ap- pearance, having a rich olive-hued back, sides gleaming with silver, while the head, fins and tail are dotted with black. In Southern Califor- nia the Santa Ynez and the adjoining streams are its favorite haunts; where excellent sport is had in early spring, the fish coming in at this time to spawn In the Kern river, which rises in the Forest Reserves, is found an ally of the rainbow trout — the kern river trout (Salmo irideus Gil- bert!). It attains a weight of seven or eight pounds; is dotted with pronounced spots of black, while older individuals have splashes of orange on the under jaw. In the very heart of the Forest Reserves, on the slopes of Mount Whitney, and living in the cold waters of the melt- ing snowbanks, the most beautiful of all these fishes, the Golden trout, < Salmo irideus agua-bonita), is found. It seems to be confined to the streams on the west flank of Mount Whitney, tributary to Kern river, and is especially abundant in the south fork of Kern river and Volcano CHAPTER XXIII. 169 creek; it is also found In the streams about Owen's lalte, and he who observes it in its haunts must climb to lofty heights and enter some of the most inaccessible regions of the b.erra Nevada range. So brill- iant and scintallating is this little creature that to seems to have im- bibed the nectar of yellow gold that has filtered down through the rocks of ages. Its upper surface is a delicate olive; the sides blaze with golden lights and hues, while the loteral line is vivid scarlet. The belly has a broad scarlet band, the lower jaw is bright orange, and orange splashes or spots are upon other portions, making it the very harlequin of the tribe an example of what altitude, the high Sierras, and peculiarity of environment will accomplish, as this living flash of gold is undoubtedly a wanderer from the Kern river, and a variety of the trout of that stream previously described. In Lake Tahoe is found the large trout known as the Tahoe trout, silver trout, or Truckee trout — Salmo mykiss Henshawi; a radiant creature usually caught at eight or ten pounds, but ranging up to twen- ty-nine pounds, possibly more. The largest specimen ever seen, which weighed twenty-nine younds, was presented to General Grant. The Tahoe fishermen recognize two forms in its deep waters — the "pogy" and "snipe," the latter the young, but the fishes are identical. They spawn in the lake and affect the clear deep water of this attractive body of water. The Tahoe trout is colored a dark green above, silvery upon the sides; but in the salty waters of Pyramid lake it becomes a lighter green, the sides having a flush of coppery red. On the lower jaw there are spleshes of red, while the head bears pronouncd black spots — an adornment which makes it a striking and resplendent crea- ture. The specimens I have taken were from the artificial lakes about San Francisco and were a disappointment, but I understand that the fish in its native streams and in the big lake at Bear Valley, and its tributaries, where it has been introduced, displays game qualities which .give it high rank among sportsmen and anglers.* In the limited space of a chapter but a mere mention or enumeration can be made of the principal animals wnich inhabit the Reserves. There are many more which while not strictly game, render the great ranges of California and its forests one of the most fascinating resorts for the naturalists, layman or sportsman. ♦Besides these native forms, the Reserves and lakes have been enriched by the introduction of several kinds of trout, among which are the Scotch trout, German brown trout. Eastern brook trout, and the Mackinaw trout. 170 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. " He calleth for the walers of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is His name. " Amos, 800 years B. C. CHAPTER XXIV. SOME RELATIONS BETWEEN FORESTS AND WATER SUPPLY. By H. HAWGOOD, M. Inst. C. E. We must start out with the fundamental principle that the waters of the earth derive their existence from the heavens above. There is no spontaneous process of production, no water manufactory in the re- cesses of the earth. The water which falls upon the earth in the form or rain or snow passes away in flowage and evaporation. By flowage is meant the underground movements, as well as the visible surface streams of the springs, brooks and rivers. Evaporation includes the direct evaporation from the surface of the ground, from objects animate and inanimate, and the water which is taken up by plants and tran- spired as vapor through their leaves. And while not strictly correct, the much smaller portion of water that is permanently absorbed into plant structures may, for simplicity's sake, be charged under the com- mon head of evaporation. We now have a simple expression of supply and demand. Total rainfall equaling the sum of flow and evaporation. It is from the flow that practically all waters for the use of man are drawn. For the primi- tive direct collection of the rain from house tops and other exposed surfaces, is on too minute a scale to be given a place. Evaporation decreases the quantity of flow. Floods decrease the flow available for economic purposes. The total quantity of water being fixed, whatever rushes past in a torrent to the sea is lost for useful ends. CHAPTER XXIV. 171 TWO-FOLD EFFECTS OF FORESTS. The problem before us is to trace what influence forests may ex- ert upon these points ot rainfall, evaporation and floods, and see what foundation there is for the almost universal belief that they increase the one and decrease the other two. Many meteorological stations in connection with forestry have been established in France, in Germany, in India, and elsewhere. In this country the subject has also received attention, but on a more limited scale. Progress in the conclusive establishment of definite effects has necessarily been slow. It is an unfortunate fact in regard to all subjects connected with rainfall, that sys- tematic observations must have been conducted over a long series of years, forty to sixty, in order to obtain data upon which to predi- cate positive results. The records of a few years may be, and they frequently are, very misleading. The secular meteorological changes tend to move in cycles of wet periods and drouth. No conclu- sions can be safely accepted that are not based on records extending sufficiently back into the past to include and give full weight to these cycles. RAINFALL IN PHILADELPHIA. The records of precipitation at Philadelphia extend back to 1825. Charting these precipitations gives a wave-like curve descending very low in 1825, but with its sinuosities all well above that point until 1881, when the minimum precipitation of 29.57 inches in 1825 was again closely approached. The 1881 fall was 30.21 inches. The years of maximum precipitation were 1841 and 1867. The cycle of extreme low precipitation had a longer period than that of extreme high — 56 years against 26 years. Taking a total period of 64 years, and averaging the annual rainfall by periods of four, eight, sixteen and thirty-two years, the averages by four years run from 22 per cent, low to 19 per cent, high, as com- pared with the entire period of 64 years. The eight-year grouping gave results from 11 per cent, low to 11 per cent, high; the sixteen- year groups, 6 per cent, low to 9 per cent, high, and the thirty-two-year 2 per cent, low to 2 per cent. high. LOS ANGELES RAINFALL. Analyzing the recorded rainfall at Los Angeles for the past twenty- seven years, and averaging by periods of five years, gives results rang- 172 WATER AND FOREST. ing from 35 per cent, below to 16 per cent, above the average seasonal rainfall of 16.56 inches for the entire 27 years. The extreme low points of the Los Angeles precipitation curve are situated 22 years apart, being 4.49 inches for the season 1876-77, and 5.6 inches for the pres- ent season up to date. (June, 1899.) The fluctuation to which the average annual rainfall is subject was very exhaustively considered by Mr. Binnie, M. Inst. C. E., in a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, in 1892. ijTom a close analysis of records of forty-two stations at various parts of the world, covering periods of from 50 to 97 years, he drew the following conclusions: That, for records of five years, the probable error in averages ranged from minus 16 per cent, to plus 17.6 per cent., falling as the length of the period was increased to about minus 2 per cent. and plus 2 per cent. for periods of 30 years and more. And that: The least number of years the records of which would give an average annual rainfall that would not be materially altered by extending the record, would be thirty-five years. He also concluded that dependence could be placed on any good record of that duration to give an average rainfall correct within 2 per cent. UNCERTAINTY OF RAINFALL RECORDS. These examples have been presented to illustrate the uncertainty attached to any deduction based on rainfall records of short duration, -■^s a case directly to the point, we have the French observations, made about 50 to 75 miles south of Paris. The observations of one year gave the precipitation over woods as 33 per cent, in excess of that over open ground. Three years continuous observation changed this to 2 per cent. Long records for forest purposes are rare. This necessity for long records is but one of the many obstacles in the way of arriving at ab- solute comparisons of the relative precipitation over woods and open ground. And after sufficient time shall have elapsed to reduce this difficulty to a minimum, there will still remain the errors inherent to measuring rainfall. There is great difficulty in obtaining two loca- tions, the one covered with woods and the other bare, that are subject to precisely the same conditions. Again, the rain gauges themselves are not instruments of precision, and no conclusions can be more accu- rate than the data upon which they are based. In scientific work it is very necessary to fully realize and attribute a true value to data. Rain CHAPTER XXIV. 173 gauges record all that falls actually within them, but, except in very still weather and with gentle rains, they do not intercept all that they should. The wind sweeping across them carries away a portion o£ the precipitation, varying from 14 to 7 per cent, for protected gauges, and from 7 to 40 per cent, for unprotected gauges. The decrease in catch of rain gauges raised above the ground, formerly believed to have been due to height, has now been shown to be due to the increased force of the wind. Some very interesting data on this subject has been pub- lished by the United States Department of Agriculture. It also ap- pears that the deficit during gentie, fine rains is very much greater, Eccording to the strength of the winds prevailing at the time, than during heavy rains. There was from 18 to 52 per cent, shortage during fine rains, and 6 tp 17 per cent, during heavy rains. The standard for comparison being what is known as the "pit gauge" at ground level. That the loss should vary with the strength of the wind is readily explained. Draw a diagram of forces, the perpendicular representing the down- ward force of the rain drops, the horizontal the force of the wind in Its sweep across the rim of the gauge. It is obvious that the resultant will deviate more and more from the vertical as the rain movement Is light and the wind strong. OTHER ELEMENTS OF UNCERTAINTY, There is still a greater element of uncertainty, viz:, the smallness of the actual collecting area of a gauge and the comparative immensity of area of country to which its readings are applied. If to every four square miles there was a 10-inch gauge, and this is much closer than we find them, the ratio of areas would be as about 200 million to 1. At Rothamsted, in England, they have a rain gauge measuring 7.26 feet by 6 feet, giving an area of 43.56 square feet on exactly one thousandth C.I an acre. The catch on this gauge from 1853 to 1880, twenty-eight years, was about 9.8 per cent, more than the catch in an adjacent 5-inch gauge. The ratio of their respective catchment areas is as 320 to 1. Now, if this ratio of area gave a variation of nearly 10 per cent, in the catch, we must not rely too implicitly on the results shown by applying the readings of a gauge to an area of country several hundred million times the area of the gauge. All the various difficulties considered we are not warranted in hoping for any decisive direct quantative comparison between the rainfall over forests and open ground. However, while lacking in this direct proof we do know from the records of the various forest stations 174 WATER AND FOREST, that woods reduce temperature and increase the absolute and relative humidity of the air, and, therefore, must to some extent increase pre- cipitation. EFFECTS OF FOLIAGE ON MOISTURE. The efficiency of foliage in mechanically arresting and condensing moisture is well known to everyone who has pushed through the brush on a misty morning, or watched the steady drip from the trees during a fog in the lowlands, or during clouds in the mountains. A notable instance of this feature of vegetation is seen at Ascen- sion, a volcanic island lying about eight degrees south of the equator and nearly midway between Africa and South America. The island is about 30 to 40 square miles in area. It is used as a naval station by the British government. The water supply is obtained from near the top of Green mountain, at an elevation of about 2,800 feet above sea level. The mountain gets its name from being about the only green spot on the island. Its verdure is maintained by the nearly constant drip from trees and rocks of the moisture mechanically collected from clouds and fogs, and light, passing showers. It is this drip which is chiefly instrumental in maintaining the ground-storage upon which the water supply of the station depends. That the drip from trees should play a prominent part in a do- mestic water supply is remarkable testimony to the efficiency of woods in mechanically increasing precipitation. It illustrates beyond any peradventure that trees and brush, in situations of cloud and fog, have a decided value as agents for adding moisture to the soil. Interesting sxperiments have been made as to the amount of concentration of aqueous vapor by leaves, but it is probable that these experiments, nade on detached leaves, did not include the effect of air currents. We know that in evaporation a rapid movement of the air is found to contribute very materially to the rate of evaporation by bringing fresh surfaces into contact. Similarly, air movement must materially augment the rate of mechanical condensation. (In the more modern formula for computing evaporation, wind velocity is always a factor.) Cloud or fog is a manifestation of water in suspension, and it is obvious that the more rapidly the cloud is moved against any surface the more prater will be brought into contact with that surface in a given interval jf time. We all know the wetting through capacity of a mist on a driving wind. Unless the condensation tests were conducted with reference to velocity, they would fail to give full value to the con- densing action. CHAPTER XXIV. 175 It is questionable whether a numerical value can ever be satisfac- torily established for the action of forests in direct increase of rainfall, but it is believed that sufBcient has been advanced in the foregoing to show beyond doubt that they do have an effect in that direction, the matter of uncertainty being the question as tf quantity only. CONSERVANCY OF FORESTS. In the matter of conservancy of the water that has fallen, forests play a very important part. They intercept the sun and rain, and save the earth from packing hard under the baking of the one and the per- sistent beating of the other. They appreciably decrease the quantity that would otherwise pass rapidly off into the runs and waterways, and be lost in floods. Not only do they lessen the wasteful and de- structive expenditure of water in floods, but they afford greater time for the earth to absorb to its full capacity the water held back by the mechanical obstructions of the forest floor. They reduce the quantity lost by evaporation. These things we enter on the credit side of the forest account, and on the debit side make the sole entry of the water used in supporting plant life. It remains to ascribe values to these various items, and strike a balance. The effect of sun and rain in producing a hard ground surface that sheds water like a roof is known to us all, and we equally know how the broken surface of a ploughed field absorbs rain. The condition of the ground surface is of first importance, and it is here that forests exer- cise one of their most beneficent functions, a quality which in itself is more than sufficient to justify our constant exertion in preserving and extending our wooded areas. All permanent water supplies are drawn directly or indirectly from the rainfall absorbed and stored within the earth. Directly in the shape of wells, tunnels and infiltration pipes. Indirectly through the medium of running surface streams, which in turn draw their supply from visible springs and the unseen accretions that come in along their beds from ground-water at higher elevation. The surface water which flows into the streams after rains gives but a temporary supply. The permanent flow comes from ground-storage. It must not be thought from this that all ground- water reappears at some time or other in the surface streams. Much passes on unseen to the sea. Its place of discharge into the ocean Is sometimes well marked. Off the east coast of England there is a sub- marine valley, called the Silver Pit, twenty miles long and 50 to 250 feet in depth below the adjoining bed of the sea. The extraordinary 176 WATER AND FOREST. depth precludes it being due to currents, and from the circumstance of the depression occupying, as it were, the focus of the concave chalk formation of eastern England, it is believed to be the point at which the inland ground-waters are discharged through the chalk. Right at home we have a submarine valley of great depth heading near R©- dondo, with an oil well discharging, about two miles from the shore. The direction In which the ground-water flows is sometimes very difH- cult to trace. It does not always follow the trend of the surface con- figuration. Latham, the noted sanitary engineer, in some of his Investigations, found the ground-water of a valley passing partly straight down the valley and part turning, going under the hills and coming out on the further slope. The capacity of the earth to receive and convey water is all-im- portant to us. The large sums that have been expended In damming valleys and impounding water, the legislature that has been invoked regarding reservoir sites, and the extent of agricultural interests de- pendent on reservoirs, all give evidence of the appreciation of a store of water. The pervious rocks, gravels and soils of the earth afford a time- tried storage, beside which the largest surface reservoirs are small affairs. The rain is the source and the earth the grand storehouse of our water supplies. Whatever agencies give the rain freer access to the earth should be well studied. As previously stated, the condition of the ground surface is of primary importance. All soils are dependent upon their top surface as to whether they will get any water to absorb or not. Take an extreme case: Sand covered by an asphalt pavement; a great capacity for water, but no mouth to take it in. Take an or- dinary case, as exemplified by tests made at Colby, Kansas, by the United States Department of Agriculture. The moisture in the soil was measured at a depth of twelve inches below the surface. Meas- urements were made under three separate conditions: First, a covering of natural prairie sod; secondly, bare soil, cultivated; thirdly, bare ground sub-soiled. The tests were continued daily throughout the months of June, July, August and September. The cultivated soils showed throughout the tests over twice the moisture of the soil under the natural prairie top. It has been suggested that the chief cause of the difference was the water taken up and evaporated by the grasses. This is not supported by the records. It is obvious that there would be little moisture drawn from the ground and evaporated during rains. The increase of soil moisture at such times must represent the evapo- CHAPTER XXIV. 177 ration saved, plus the rain penetration. This increase amounted to 3.4 per cent., with a rainfall of over 1% inches. The average difference between the sod cover and the cultivated soil was 10i/4 per cent, more moisture in the latter. Now, as penetration and evaporation taken together amounted to only one-third of this difference, it is very certain that evaporation alone could only explain a very small portion of the difference. In fact, it is of interest to note that evaporation may not have reduced the percentage of moisture at all. This would be the case if capillary action was sufficiently active to bring up all tne water needed by the grasses, and there was plently of sub-water to be brought up — conditions that seem to have existed during the test. If the supply is good, a pipe does not show less waste because the faucet at the end is open. At Rothamsted, the place previously spoken of, there are drain gauges for observing the proportion of rainfall that percolates through the soil. Determinations are made of the quantity passing at depths of 20, 40 and 60 inches. The 20 and 60 inch gauges are in similar soils. The 40-inch is in sub-soil of more gravelly nature, and yields from 2I/2 to 5 per cent, more water than either of the other two. Observations conducted for twenty years show that an average of 47% per cent, of all the rainfall percolated through 20 inches of soil, and 44.9 through 60 inches. The rainfall was measured on the 1-lOOOth of an acre gauge. As the Rothamsted records are classic in the literature of rainfall and percolation, a description of the gauges used may be found inter- esting. The funnel portion of the one-thousandth of on acre gauge is con- structed of wood lined with lead, the upper edge consisting of a vertical rim of plate glass beveled outward. The rain is conducted by a tube into a galvanized iron cylinder, and when this is full it overflows into a second cylinder, and so on into a third and fourth and finally into an iron tank. Each of the four cylinders holds rain corresponding to % an inch of depth, and the tank an amount equal to 2 Inches. Each cylinder has a gauge-tube attached graduated to read to two-thou- sandths of an inch and by estimation to one-thousandth. Smaller quantities are transferred to a smaller cylinder with a gauge-tube grad- uated to one-thousandths. The three drain gauges were constructed by digging a deep trench along the front, gradually undermining at the required depth and put- 12 ting in perforated cast-iron plates to support the mass of soil. The 178 WATER AND FOREST. pJates were kept in place by iron girders and the edges of the plates and ends of the girders supported by brickwork on the back and two sides. Trenches were then dug around the block of soil and It was gradually enclosed by walls of brick laid in cement. Below the per- forated iron bottom a zinc funnel was finally fixed, and the drainage water collected and measured in galvanized iron cylinders with gauge- tubes as in the case of the rain-gauge. These soil drain-gauges being kept free from vegetation give re- sults not directly applicable for etimating the percolation over a drain- age area more or less covered with vegetation — conditions for which due allowance is made in applying the results. The capacity of sand for receiving and transmitting water can be well illustrated by the water supply of The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands. The city is situatea about two miles inland from the North Sea, and has a population of about 190,000. Its domestic water supply is drawn from a tract of uncultivated country lying near the sea and covered with sand dunes like parts of the New Jersey coast. The sand is described as very pure and white. The water is fresh to a depth of sixty-six feet below the sea. It is gathered by infiltration pipes and pumped to its destination. Through the courtesy of Mr. Corey, the United States consul at Amsterdam, I have been able to make a comparison between the rainfall and the percolating water in point of quantity. The average rainfall from 1878 to 1898 was 30 96-100 inches per annum, of which about 40 per cent, is estimated as per- colating. According to other information, from 30 to 50 per cent, of the rain- fall can be collected. The variation being principally due to the sea- sons in which the rains fall. In summer a loss is stated to take place by reason of vegetation. This draws attention to the point that whether vegetation conserves moisture or not depends very much on the nature of the soil. In the case of sand it impedes the ingress and aids the abstraction of moisture. A sieve would profit nothing as a sieve by planting trees over it. CONDUCTIVITY OF FORESTS. The water conductivity and capacity of various soils has received much attention at the hands of forest experimenters. By conductivity is meant the capacity to transmit water. It In- volves three units: Quantity, distance and time. By capacity we understand the quantity of water that a given vol- CHAPTER XXIV. 179 ume of soil can be caused to receive into its interstitial spaces, gener- ally spoken of as its voids. Of the volume that can be introduced into dry soils a portion is susceptible of being removed by drainage, and the remainder, held within the capillaries and as films on the grain surfaces, is removable by processes of evaporation only. It requires no effort of thought to comprehend that conductivity is an important factor in storm run-off, and in estimating the probable yield of a ground storage. The literature of the subject is scant and unsatisfactory. A splendid field is open here for systematic experi- ment. Such records of experiments that I have been able to obtain indicate that the tests were made by downward filtration. In my own tests I have found it practically impossible to get uniform results by this method. There is always a conflict between the ingoing water and the outgoing air it has displaced. Very uniform results were obtained by reversing the method and filtering upwards. It is true that this does not exactly meet the conditions of rain soaking down- ward, but it is free from any complications arising from imprisoned air, and furnishes an uncomplicated base from which to start. Then we must remember that the horizontal movements of the underground water are greater than the vertical, and the upward filtration method will give true results for these lateral movements. The texture of the soil is the governing factor as to rate of conduc- tivity. It ranges from well rounded pebbles, through the intermediate stages of sand and loam to clay. A study of the mechanics of the granular soils presents some particularly interesting points. Assume the granules to be all true spheres and assorted by sizes. It can read- ily be demonstrated that the voids form the same percentage of the total cubical contents whatever may be the diameter of the spheres, and the area of the passage between the spheres bears precisely the same ratio to the area of the circumscribing cross section irrespec- tive of the diameter of the spheres. The closer a soil approximates to spherical grains of uniform size the greater the capacity for water and the larger the percentage of waterways. This is a property of uniformity of size. By mixing many different sizes together in such proportions that each succeeding smaller size enters the interstices "' the preceding layer a soil may be made impervious to water save by capillary action. Proper mixtures of gravel and sand make good water- tight dams. This feature of mixture will frequently explain the im- perviousness of stream beds in sandy gravel. To return to the matter of voids and water passages. Although 180 WATER AND FOREST. these have the same percentages of total volumes and areas In grains of uniform size, the rate of the passage of water will be higher the larger the grains. With very minute grains the passages become capillaries entirely, gravitation is overcome. The larger the grains the nearer the flow approaches that of free water acting under gravita- tion only. Capillary action is one of surface tensions. Imagine a membrane enclosing each grain and stretched thereon. The tension of this imag- inary membrane is analogous to surface tension. It can be demon- strated by very simple mathematical reasoning that the surface ten- sions increase with decrease of radius — the sharper the curvature the greater the tension. When neighboring interstitial spaces are filled with water to a greater or less degree, surfaces of films of sharper or flatter curvatures are produced. The surfaces are not in equilibrium, ard a movement from the flat to the sharp curves takes place and con- tinues until by readjustment of the curves equilibrium is established. This is the nature of capillary action, it takes place in all directions according to the surrounding conditions. Gravity always acts down- wards. In soils the conditions are such that capillary action is usually upwards. The limit of the action varies with the texture of the soil. In chalk the limit is not reached at sixteen feet. In sandy soil one and one-half feet has been found to be the extreme. In very open mate- rial the limit may be but a few inches. In further illustration, imagine a tall box filled with soil com- pletely saturated with water — and the bottom of the box be suddenly removed. The water drains away with gradually decreasing speed. At first a stream, and then drops decreasing in frequency. Capillary action is opposing gravity. The topmost spaces are being emptied by water leaving films around each grain. As the depletion continues the films draw closer to the grains, their curvature grows sharper, their tension increases. They exert an increasing upward pull on those below, and these in their turn begin to pull on those below, and so on down the full depth of the box. Presently the chain of films exert together suflicient force to balance the attraction of gravitation. The dropping from the box ceases. Add more water to the crop — the interstices are re-flUed, the films destroyed or flattened in curvature, the surface tension is lessened. The films below lose all or part of their support from those above. The attraction of gravity prevails, the dropping re-commences, chang- ing to a stream if the supply at the top be ample. The speed with CHAPTER XXIV. 181 which this talies place depends upon the texture of the soil and the viscocity of the fluid. In any case the drops that first appear are not part of the water just added. This Is one of the many difficulties in the way of accu- rately measuring the speed of filtration. The quantity that passes in a given time can, of course, he easily measured, ubt the speed iu inches per minute, or in any other unit of distance and time, is quite another matter. That is the difficult point. If we knew the area of the passage ways between the grains we could divide the quantity discharged by this area, combine with the time of dis- charge and arrive at the speed. Unfortunately we cannot measure these passageways — we can measure the cubical voids but not the area of the passageways between the grains. An instructive experiment, one easily made, is to fill a glass tube or glass sided box with small marbles and pour oil through them. The use of the slow-moving oil in place of water gives time to note the changes in the shapes of the films and in the filling of the inter- stitial spaces. Coloring the subsequent additions of oil will aid in tracing the movements of the fluid. The viscosity, or internal friction of water, has been previously alluded to. Experiment shows that it increases with decrease of temperature. If the viscosity at 32 deg. Fahrenheit be assumed as 100, it will be 50 at 77 deg., 45 at 86 deg., and 31 at 112 deg. This vari- ation of viscosity due to temperature has a marked effect upon the rate of percolation. This effect is very important. The following quo- tation from experiments of the United States Department of Agricul- ture will serve to illustrate and emphasize the point: Flow at 48 deg. Fah., 6.15 grams per minute. Flow at 90 deg. Fah., 10.54 grams per minute. The ratio of the two rates of flow being as 100 to 171. Now the viscosity of water at 48 deg. Fah. is to the viscosity at 90 deg. Fah. as 75.6 is to 32.5, or as 177 to 100. The flow should be in the inverse ratio, and this agrees very closely with the ratios of the actually measured flows. The viscosity of gases, contrary to that of fluids, increases with increase of temperature. Air is frequently used in making "perme- ability" tests of soils, and unless corrections are properly made for this different characteristic very erroneous and misleading results will ensue. Speaking of air as a means of testing permeability of soils re- calls an instance in connection with coal mining. Water broke into 182 WATER AND FOREST. the workings of a mine and, as it rose, imprisoned air in some of the mine chambers. The rising water forced this air through the rock in several places — failing to do so at other points. A hydraulic head of forty feet forced the air through two hundred feet of solid coal and the water filled the chamber. Upon pumping out the water it took the air two weeks to find its way back through the two hundred feet of coal and fully destroy the vacuum made by the falling water. On the other hand, slate — with its laminations lying at right angles to the pressure — was perfectly tight and retained the air against a hydraulic head of eighty feet. Tests at the German forest stations show that the general effect of forests is to raise the soil temperature during the cold months and lower it during the warm months. As the bulk og rain falls in the cooler months, it follows that the raising of temperature during such times is favorable to increased percolation by reducing the viscosity of the water. A portion of this advantage would be offset by lowering temperatures during the hot months. The surface tension of water is also lowered by increase of temperature, as well as the viscosity. This decreases the tension in the capillaries, causing less resistance to gravitation, and more water passes down on this account. The following percolating velocities are quoted in the publications of the agricultural experiment station of the State of Colorado. They were deduced by the Italian Professor Nazzini from data obtained from the filter beds of London, Paris and Berlin. They will serve to il- lustrate the variation of velocity due to texture of material. The velocities refer to that of vertical filtration: Minute gravel 86 1-2 feet per hour, t Coarse sand 9 1-3 feet per hour. Fine sand 1 7-10 feet per hour. Sandy soil 8-10 feet per hour. Sandy clay 4-10 feet per hour. These figures cannot, however, be taken as proper for universal application. Each soil is more or less a law unto itself, and where ex- act results are sought must be studied by itselt. There is one great distinction between water flowing freely in open channels or pipes of measured size, and percolating water. The flow of the former is a function of the square root of the head, while water flnding its way through minute passages is found to vary in flow directly with the head and not with the square root thereof. The CHAPTER XXIV. 183 mathematical demonstration of the reasons for this is Interesting, but would scarcely be pertinent at the present time. Capacity, as previously stated, is the quantity of water which can be introduced into a dry soil. It is usually expressed as a percentage of the soil volume. The total quantity that a soil is capable of im- bibing is termed its maximum capacity. This quantity is divisible into two parts. The one removable by drainage, the other by evapo- ration. The latter Is again sub-divisible into two parts. One part is brought to the surface by capillary action and there evaporated, the other is almost permanently retained within the soil, requiring for its removal long continued application of heat. This is termed hygro- scopic moisture. From German authorities we have the following maximum capaci- ties of various soils, expressed in percentages of volume: Humus 70.3 per cent. Garden mold 69 per cent. Peat 63.7 per cent. Loam 60.1 per cent. Lime 54.9 per cent. Chalk 49.5 per cent. Quartz sand 46.4 per cent. For minimum water capacity, or water remaining after gravita- tion, we have — varying according to depth — Humus, loose 43.6 to 49.1 per cent. Loam, fine, loose 38.4 to 48.3 per cent. Sand, loose 17.6 to 27 per cent The hygroscopic moisture was determined by Loughridge, of the California experiment station, to be as follows: Clays from 2.6 to 14.5 per cent. Loams from 4.9 to 9.2 per cent. Sandy soils from .8 to 3.5 per cent. The wide range in these figures serves to illustrate the necessity of experimenting directly with the soil itself, if exact data is re- quired of any particular soil. The precise nature and mechanics of hygroscopic moisture are but little understood. There is a good field here for independent inves- tigation. Of the different capacities the hydraulic engineer is more par- ticularly interested in that which relates to the quantity that may be drained out; on the other hand, the aboriculturist is most inter- 184 WATER AND FOREST. ested in the amount of capillary water from which plant life largely draws its supply. The capacities are interwoven and the experimental determination of the moisture coefficients of local soils will be a fruit- ful field for forestry students. To return to capacities. An author- ity on effects of forest cover (Dr. E. Ebermayer) found that except for the top layers unshaded soil had more capacity than shaded soil. Taken as a whole, however, for a depth of thirty-two inches he found the soil under young spruce trees to have 2 per cent., and under old spruce trees 7.6 per cent, greater capacity than naked soil. It is manifest that the character of the forest floor, the litter cov- ering the soil, must have a marked effect upon the absorption of water. Wollny found, as a result of his experiments, that under a grass cover there was 50 per cent, less percolation than in naked soil. He found a litter of oak leaves to pass 42 to 74 per cent, of the rainfall. Spruce litter passed 46 to 78 per cent. Pine needles, 52 to 69 per cent. Moss, 39 to 53 per cent. The variations are due to varying thicknesses of cover. The shallower the cover the less the soil re- ceived. This may be attributed to greater rate of evaporation with the shallower covers. As previously stated, the Rothamsted tests gave the percolation of bare soil at 44 9-10 to 47 1-2 per cent, of the rainfall. It will be seen, therefore, that ordinary forest litter can pass more rainfall than the earth ordinarily imbibes. Consequently the cover will reniain wet for a greater or less period of time, and during that period save the soil from evaporation. A soil covering of humus, however, would scarcely allow any filtration to the soil beneath. It would be bene- ficial in lessening the force of storm water, but otherwise would work a loss to ground storage. Ebermayer says that besides clay it is especially humus which imbibes almost all precipitation and gives up little water below; and adds, that if the earth were covered with a humus soil of one metre in depth subterranean drainage would be so slight that springs would be scanty, and continuously flowing springs absent. The forest floor is a most important factor in retarding storm svater and protecting the earth from erosion. This is particularly true on steep mountain slopes. The destruction of forest litter by fire or de-forestation is little short of a calamity. Each rain washes away tons upon tons of loam, sand and rocks to cover up the lower lands. A double disaster. The fertile soil of the higher lands is destroyed, the fertile soil of the lower lands buried. CHAPTER XXIV. 185 EVAPORATION. We have another subject to consider — that is, evaporation. Under this head will be included transpiration from foliage. On the subject of evaporation there exist many experimental data. Temperature and wind are the chief controlling elements. Woods lower temperature and reduce the velocity of the wind. It is to be expected, therefore, that evaporation in woods is much less than in the open. Such is found to be the case. The observations of sixteen forestry stations in Germany show a marked saving effected by the woods. Of the rainfall, an average of 42 per cent, was evaporated in the open and 24 per cent, in the torest. A clear saving of 18 per cent. The Prussian stations showed the evaporation under trees to be about 43 per cent, of that from fallow fields; this percentage for the previously mentioned sixteen stations would be 57 per cent. The evaporation from water sur- faces in woods was found to be about 38 per cent, of that from water surfaces in the open. As an offset to the saving in evaporation comes the moisture transpired through the foliage, and that retained in the substance of the tree. The transpiration computed by various observers ranges from an equivalent rainfall of one-fourth inch per annum for four-year old firs, up to fifteen inches for cereals and thirty-seven inches for grasses. Forests of mixed growth transpire about 6% inches. Ac- cording to observations at the Austrian stations, deciduous trees trans- pire during the period of vegetation 500 to 1,000 pounds of water per pound of dry leaves, and the coniferous from 75 to 200 pounds. (This suggests the natural selection of conifers for our mountain slopes.) One remark of Hohnel, regarding the Austrian observatories, is very suggestive. He says "a plant will transpire in proportion to the amount of water which is at its disposal." This remark serves well to mark the point that willows and other water-loving growths along our streams consume more water than they save. It is estimated that a coniferous forest will transpire 8 per cent. of a total rainfall of 20 inches, and a beach forest 48 per cent of the same precipitation. The water annually absorbed into the structure of the trees has been estimated as ranging from 19 to 52 per cent, of the weight of the wood, and 54 to 65 per cent, of the weight of the leaves. By the hardwood deciduous trees, 38 to 45 per cent; the soft- -wood, 45 to 55 per cent, and the conifers, 52 to 65 per cent. These 186 WATER AND FOREST. quantities require about 2 per cent, as much water as the water of transpiration and in additioon thereto. On these figures a coniferous forest, which of all the trees makes the best showing, will give a net increase to the ground storage of about 10 per cent, of the rainfall, to say nothing of the storm water held back until the earth has had time to drink its fill — an important item in itself. As a practical illustration of actually observed results, the fol- lowing quotations from a report of the State engineer of New Jersey are most appropriate: "We believe it will be helpful to the cause of forestry in the "future if the effects of forests upon stream-fiow are more carefully "and accurately stated. "Their effect of holding and preserving the soil upon slopes is very "well known, and besides this they create a mass of humus and ab- "sorbent matter upon the surface which has an effect upon stream- "fiow, and the general evils resulting from de-forestation are a mat- "ter of careful observation and record, so that too much stress cannot "be laid upon the desirability of preserving a proper area of forest. "The study of the streams shows that in every case, almost, it "is the watershed on which is the largest proportion of forest which "shows the largest flow from ground water." This is a very positive statement, but. being based upon continu- ous gaugings of the streams in question, it cannot be controverted. 187 CHAPTER XXV. PRACTICAI, IRRIGATION. S. M. Woodbridge, Ph. D. Irrigation is the artificial watering of tlie soil for tlie production of crops. Although irrigation is loolied upon b3' many as a new proposition, it is, in fact, the most primitive method of producing crops; that is, it is the oldest method, for according to written history, "A river weni out of Eden to water the garden." Furthermore, it was the only method of producing crops for the first third of human existence; for, from the same authority above quoted, we read: "The Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth." As it appears that water was only distributed through irrigating ditches for the nrst third of the world's written history, it is not improbable that when Abel took his sheep down to Cain's irrigating ditch to water them, that he made this water business a pretext for "doing up" Abel. The precedent of making trouble over water thus established, has been pretty well followed down to the present time. The first rain that we have any record of was in the year B. C. 2349, and there has been nothing equal to it since; that rain is com- monly known as Tne Flood. Agnostics think that they have scored a point when they state that the properties of light must have been just the same before the flood as since, and claim that the bow must have existed from the beginning; but they overlook the fact that the whole agricultural business was run on an irrigation plan and that there was no rain previous to the flood. Water for irrigation purposes is derived from three sources in California. 1. Mountain and other streams. 2. Wells — flowing or pumped. 3. Reservoirs. Of the above named sources, it would seem that the reservoir is the most important, for every available foot of land can be made a res- ervoir. In the technical sense a reservoir is "a basin, either natural or artificial, for collecting and retaining water or other liquids." There are two essentials to make a reservoir a success: First, 188 PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. there must be means for collecting the water; and second, means for retaining it until it is needed. When we speak of soils and moun- tains as reservoirs the word is not used in the technical sense, for I believe that the great volume of water that continues to flow from our mountains are held in the interstices of the soil and rocks. My own investigation shows that our different soils hold from 17 to 26 per cent of water, although some authorities make a much larger percentage. Different kinds of soils vary in regard to their porosity, and the same soils vary to a very great degree in regard to their ab- sorptive power of water, depending upon the amount of moisture already contained in them. For example, on the red mesa soil at South Pasadena, v/here the soil was practically dry, containing a little over one per cent, of water when the water was turned on, it only absorbed one-twentieth of the amount of water in a given time that was absorbed by soil of the same kind which contained at the be- ginning of the experiment about eight per cent, of moisture. This may be an extreme case but it is remarkable how much water will run off from the soil when it is dry. We see the same effect if we dip a dry feather in water, when we pull it out it comes out dry. But if we moisten it, and then dip it in water, it comes out saturated. It seems necessary then in order to have our land absorb the maxi- mum amount of water in the minlnmum amount of time, that the soil should retain a goodly percentage of moisture. Or, In other words, if we wish to fill our mountains and soils with water and preserve the greatest amount of rainfall, they should be kept moist. Having shown that it is necessary to have some moisture in the soil in order to have it absorb the rainfall readily, and thus make our mountains an arable reservoir, let us look at the other side of the case — that of retaining the moisture; and I regret to say that the experiments are not so complete and numerous as they should be, as they have only been fairly begun. In the first place let me call attention to the fact that capillary action in soil is in every direction from a given point. Water spreads out sidewise as well as upwards and downwards by this action. Soil that was thoroughly irrigated was taken and the amount of water determined at 26.12 per cent. Some of this soil was put in beakers, filling them about half full and placed in the laboratory. On the fol- lowing day 66 per cent, of the moisture had dried out. Tin cans without either bottom-? or tops were pressed down into the soil and CHAPTER XXV. 189 the soil taker from the side of the can so that a slide could be passed under it, thus cutting off connection from the earth beneath. It was found that about the same amount of water had disappeared from these cans as had disappeared from the beakers. Where these cans had been pressed some inches below the surface of the ground and the soil raked or cultivated above them, there was practically little loss of moisture. Conclusions from these facts are very obvious, that in order to make reservoirs of our mountains and arable lands it is necessary to keep them in such a condition that they will readily absorb water and retain it, and this result can be brought about only by keeping them covered with the product of growh, or in other words, with forests, as these forests and their products make a cover- ing or raulch for retaining moisture. And the same reasoning per- tains to our cultivated lands, that in order to retain the moisture we must keep them well cultivated. MEASUREMENT OF WATER. It is a pity that there is no uniform unit of measure upon the metric system for stating a definite amount of water. We are at present compelled to use the arbitrary and often puz- zling term of acre foot or inch, second foot, weir inch and miner's inch. An acre foot of water is the amount of water that will cover an acre of ground one foot in depth. A second foot is a cubic foot of water per second. A miner's inch of water is the amount of water that will flow through an inch square hole in an inch board under a pressure of four inches in twenty-four hours; such an amount of water has been determined legally to be 12,960 ganons. I would venture to suggest that the miner's Inch, having been legally established to be a definite amount of water, be used as the universal unit of measure in irrigation matters, and the following table based upon the French decimal or metric system be used In conjunction therewith. The Greek prefixes being used to denote the multiples and the Latin prefixes the fractional parts of the unit. The Greek prefix "DEKA" to mean 10 units. The Greek prefix "HECTO" to mean 100 units. The Greek prefix "KILO" to mean 1000 units. The Greek prefix "MYRIA" to mean 10,000 units. The Latin prefix "DEC!" to mean 1-10 of a unit. The Latin prefix "CENTI" to mean 1-100 of a unit. The Latin prefix "MILLI" to mean 1-1000 of a unit. 190 PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. Proposed table for the measurement of irrigation water: 1 Myria-inch- 10 Kilo-inches 10,000 inches 1 Kilo-inch 10 Hecto-inches 1,000 inches 1 Hecto-inch 10 Deka-inches 100 inches 1 Deka-inch 10 inches 10 inches 1 Inch 10 Deci-inches 1 inch 1 Deci-inch 10 Centi-inches 1-10 inch 1 Centi-inch 10 Milli-inches 1-100 inch 1 Milli-inch 1-1000 inch TABLES OF EQUIVALENTS. 1 Myria-inch 1 Kilo-inch 1 Hecto-inch 1 Deka-inch 1 inch 1 Deci-inch 1 Centi-inch 1 Milli-inch 129,000,000 12,960,000 1,296,000 129,600 12,960 1,296 gallons gallons gallons gallons gallons gallons 129.60 gallons 12,96 gallons Water Is contained in the soil in three different states, as: 1. Hydroscopic water. 2. Capillary water, and 3. Water of percolation. Hydroscopic water is that which is not perceptible to the senses, but is appreciated by a loss or gain of weight in the soil which ac- quires or is deprived of it. Capillary water is that which is held in the fine pores of the sc'i by the surface attraction of its particles. Water of percolation is that which fills the interstices in thi» soil and would percolate through or filter out from the soil. An acre of ground contains 43,460 square feet; allow 100 pounds per cubic foot of dry soil, we would have 4,356,000 pounds evpry foot in depth. Let us make a reasonable assumption as to the reservoir capacity of our soils. They will hold as hydroscopic and capilliary water about 20 per cent, of their weight. Assuming that our soils are only wet to a depth of ten feet in the rainy season, we would have 8,712,000 pounds of water stored in each acre of ground, or more than ten times the amount of water necessary to raise 20,000 pounds of oranges per acre, if all the water was available, which it is not. Professor King has estimated that it takes to raise different crops, such as hay, barley, clover, etc., from 300 to 500 tons of water to make one ton of dry matter. My investigations lead me to think that it takes much less to raise fruit, about 200 tons of water to raise CHAPTER XXV. 191 one ton of oranges or lemons; now, allowing 20,000 pounds of fruit per acre, let us see how far one inch of water would take us. Oranges contain in round numbers 18 per cent, of solid matter and 82 per cent, of water, therefore, 20,000 pounds of fruit would contain 3,600 pounds of dry matter; if we multiply this factor by 200, the number of pounds of water it takes to raise one pound of dry fruit, and with this result, namely, 720,000, divide the total number of pounds in an annual inch of water, we would get 54.5, which would represent the number of acres of oranges producing 20,000 pounds of fruit per acre, that one inch perpetual flow would supply, making no allowance for water put into the ground by winter rains. SURFACE IRRIGATION. There are four systems of surface irrigation in general use in South- ern California. The first method is a basin method where they cover the whole of the ground; a double furrow runs down between every other row of trees, the furrow large enough to carry from fifteen to fifty inches of water. Let us trace this stream, starting from the head ditch. The attendant breaks down the furrow enough to let all the stream flow into the first basin, requiring from one to three min- utes to fill it according to the size of stream and basin, every other tree Is irrigated until the last tree is reached, when the attendant works back, irrigating the trees he omitted on his downward course; thus when the last tree is irrigated in both rows, the attendant is back at the head ditch, where he can quickly turn the stream between other rows without loss of time. The cost of making these basins is vari- ously estimated from $1.50 to $2.50 per acre. The second method is also a basin method, the basins covering the whole of the ground but without furrows. The water is run into the first basin until it is filled; when a portion of the lower side Is broken down and the water allowed to flow into the next basin; and so on down through the whole row. When the last basin is filled and while the water is still running, the attendant goes back to the head ditch and turns the water into the next row of basins. The third method is where the basins are made only over a por- tion of the ground, thus omitting to irrigate a part of the land. The fourth method is called the "Modern Method." It consists in having a head ditch at the highest side of the orchard and running the water down through small furrows to the lowe end. The num- ber of furrows used varies from one to eight. It is an easy, conven- ient and cheap method. 192 PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. Inasmuch as the roots of trees in an orchard form a perfect net- work through the whole soil, it is necessary to get an even distribu- tion of the required amount of water over the whole of the land, i. e., where surface irrigation is resorted to. This certainly can be done by the basin method first above mentioned. This method, al- The Modern method — Surface Irrigation though perhaps the oldest in use, finds many objectors, who say it is impracticable, expensive, and even impossible in some instances. There are those who maintain that it washes the ground too much, and that where the ground is rolling and the basins have to be made small, too much expense is incurred. The third method is to be con- demned in every Instance. For as has been observed, the roots of trees form a perfect network throughout the soil and these roots are feeders. If, therefore, the roots which have grown during the rainy season into the unirrigated portion are left without water and the soil becomes dry, they languish and die. The fourth method called the "Modern Method," should never be resorted to except where ab- CHAPTER XXV. 19^ solutely necessary, and then the head ditches should be very near together and the furrows small and numerous. This method is very- easy, popular and cheap, and what is more the pity, many people are in the habit of so Irrigating. The different methods seem to be persistently followed in different localities in the state. Where surface irrigation Is practiced and where the ground is kept cultivated to the depth of six Inches, it follows from the premises, that from one-half to two-thirds of the water (allowing one miner's inch continuous flow to ten acres of ground) is wasted — for the por- tion of the water which is soaked up by the cultivated ground is. lost tn the tree, for in the cultivation the moisture in the cultivated soil goes off in the air. To save this immense proportion of water, it fol- lows then as a natural sequence that the water must be placed below the cultivated ground, i. e., sub-irrigation must be resorted to. SUB-IRRIGATION Has always given satisfactory results as to a proper distribution of water, but no system heretofore has been satisfactory from a prac- tical and economic standpoint, owing to the fact that the pipes have become broken or filled with roots and clogged; no underground valve having been invented that was economical and at the same time tight and impervious to roots. We have tried and can recommend as an absolute and almost perfect system of sub-irrigation, that an orchard be piped between each row, with one inch iron pipe at the depth of about 18 inches from the surface, and that in the center of the square formed by four trees, a hydrant be placed, as appears In the cut herewith. This is a very cheap and simple device. It con- sists of nothing but a short piece of pipe with an extra number of threads on one end, say seven or eight; there are two slots cut down through a portion of the threads; this pipe is screwed down into a tee in the main pipe. To start the flow of water, this pipe with slots in it Is partially unscrewed, which permits the water to run out through the slots. Anything that would grow through the slots is ef- fectively cut when the water is turned off by screwing down the pipe. A depression about four inches deep and three inches in diameter is left around each hydrant and the water is turned on sufficiently when it appears at the bottom of this depression. Rev. C. F. Loop has such a system of sub-irrigation at Claremont, except that the valves are much more expensive, costing about 35 cents each. Dr. Loop says J, that the system has given him perfect satisfaction, and he Is of the 194 PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. opinion that he does not use half the amount of water that he for- merly used, and that he saves more than half the expense ordinarily incurred in cultivation, etc. Other systems have been invented, and some patented, but all, so far as known to the writer, have proved failures. From the best in- formation that can be gathered, all cement systems have proved fail- ures; although when first put in use, they did the work designed for them with satisfaction. Cement pipes have not proved a success Slot Valve owing to the fact that they break and become leaky, necessitating con- stant repairs. And they also become filled with roots. Experiments with cement pipes were begun in California about twenty-five years ago, and have continued to the present time, and yet the writer does not know of a single orchard, nor can he get CHAPTER XXV. 195 any trace of one, that is being irrigated now by such a system that has been in existence five years. Mr. Jas. Campbell, of Pasadena, tried a system of sub-irrigation in two and one-hali acres of orange orchard some twelve or fifteen years ago, with three-inch continuous cement pipes laid twenty inches deep. He says the system worked with perfect satisfaction for three or four years, which was as long as the pipe kept in good order. He does not think that he used one-third the amount of water that he did by surface irrigation. Indeed, he could not have used as much as one- third, for he states that the reservoir from which he irrigated his two and one-half acres contained but 10,000 gallons of water, which would only be at the rate of 4,000 gallons per acre per irrigation; al- lowing two irrigations per month, it would only be 8,000 gallons per acre, or equivalent to one miner's inch continuous flow to about 48 Sob-Irrigation acres. He also says that the labor for cultivation was much less than in orchards irrigated by the surface method. There are several patented systems, which require the underground discharge to be surrounded with coarse stones or gravel, or both, and even with cement flagging under the outlet; but all these only increase labor and expense to a system without any corresponding good to be 196 PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. gained thereby. Elaborate tests in actual practice have shown that the water will seep out in the same length of time a radius of ten feet from a valve buried in the ground, or from a mere post hole three inches in diameter, or from a hole that is one foot in diameter, or from one that is two feet in diameter. This may seem a strange state- ment, yet if we will consider that the contents of a circle twenty feet in diameter contains 314 square feet, and that by making a hole two feet in diameter, we would only take away 3.14 feet, or "about one per cent of the soil within the larger circle, it is apparent that little is saved in point of time by making a large hole to be filled up with extraneous and perhaps expensive material. As the cost of such a system as is recommended above would be about $100 per acre, it still puts the system beyond the reach of most of the ranchers, although the annual saving would be about 15 per cent on this Investment in labor, etc., without any reference to saving the water. It is also impracticable where the water is distributed m open ditches, as it requires some little pressure in order to distribute the water through an inch pipe. Other means less expensive were therefor<^ tried, one of which has been quite successful. This system is calleci. INTER-IRRIGATION. It consists in distributing the water above ground but in disseminat- ing it below the surface. This is done by means of holes the width of an ordinary shovel dug to the depth of from lo to 24 inches, accord- ing to the nature of the soil, in the center of each square formed by four trees. On ground that is level or nearly so, a single furrow is run down a little to the side of these holes; a furrow at right angles from that furrow is dug to run in and fill up the hole, which is kept full during the period of irrigation. The water then passes on down the furrows and into the next hole, and so on to the last hole in the orchard. Where the water can be run down diagonally through an orchard, or if the orchard is set quincunx, there need be but one fur- row in every other row. Where the ground is rolling, or on side hills, it will be necessary to have wooden or other troughs or a system of movable pipes to keep the ground from washing, and it Is always best to have troughs or pipes. The troughs in use at Lenapuente are made from wooden strips 1x2 nailed on 1x3, making a V-shaped trough. No joists are required as a single length is run from hole to hole. The cost of such troughs is about J18 per acre where they run on the squares, or |12 per acre where they are run every other row diagonal- ly. The pipes used at Lenapuente, where the water is delivered under CHAPTER XXV. 197 pressure, are one-half inch iron with a valve, such as is above de- scribed, over each hole. The pipes are connected and disconnected by means of a Wilgus union. Both troughs and pipes can be easily transferred from one portion of an orchard to another. As to the objections to the system, there are apparently but two. The first and most important objection is the difficulty of getting a suiBciently long run of water to be able to irrigate in this manner; for it takes from two to four times as long, according to the nature of the soil, to irrigate by it. Inter-Irrigation We think this objection would in practice amount to little or noth- ing, if a community should adopt the system. If the existence of an orchard depends upon it, or the successful maturing of a crop, we apprehend that arrangements could be made for giving the individual rancher his water in from two to four times the length of run, cut- ting him down in quantity correspondingly. It has been ascertained that soils differ in regard to their porosity and, consequently, in their absorbing power. The extremes seem to be in different soils, that a single hole will soak away from five to fifteen gallons of water per hour, this largely depending upon the amount of moisture that there is in a soil; a perfectly dry soil re- quiring much more time than the soil containing six to eight per cent of moisture. This must be determined by each rancher for him- self. It is done by placing a barrel containing a known quantity of 198 PRACTICAL IRRIGATION. water, on the ground at the side of the hole with the faucet over it; allowing the hole to be filled with water from the faucet to the de- sired height, regulating the flow so that the water will stand at this height in the hole. Assume that you desire to soak away 389 gallons in this hole (the equivalent of one miners' inch continuous flow to ten acres where there are 100 trees per acrej and that it took 38.9 hours to soak away the 389 gallons, this would be at tne rate of ten gallons per hour; one would then know that such irrigation must continue by this system for 38.9 hours in order to get what would be equivalent to one miners' inch, continuous flow, to ten acres. And the f^econd objection is, the trouble of cultivation where there are troughs and holes through an orchard. But if the troughs are set deep enough, there is little ob.iection on this hand. The holes form little or no objection. It must be remembered that not one-half the cul- tivation is necessary as in the other system. Besides there is nothing good in this world without its corresponding evil. It has been found that orange trees that are twenty years old and upwards, which were wilted, were revived by the application of 200 gallons of water per tree in this way, and remained in a fresh con- dition for over thirty days. How much less might have answered the purpose will be determined in the future by actual measurement. The system of sub-irrigation or inter-irrigation is especially adapted to small flower beds and garden purposes generally. Two modiflcations of the above described plan for interirrigation have been installed on a number of ranches in Southern California during the past year with the most beneficial results. The first and undoubtedly the best method is conducted as follows: One or two deep furrows, not less than 12 to 14 inches deep, are plowed between each row of trees, parallel to the head ditch, then the irrigating fur- rows are made at right angles to the flume, but some two or three inches shallower than the cross furrows. The cross furrows are then run over with a single horse shovel opening the connections with the irrigating furrows on one side and closing them at the other side — thus making a pocket in which the water is held during the period of irrigation. The second method merely consists in making one deep furrow be- tween each row of trees, the furrow being not less than 14 inches deep — made by running a turning plow both ways in it and where neces- sary running a subsoiler in the bottom of the furrow so made. 199 CHAPTER XXVI. IRRIGATION IN THE SOUTHWEST. By Jas. D. Schuyler, Hydraulic Engineer. In the arid portion of the United States embracing fully one-half of the entire area, there prevails a climate of such marked healthfulness as to afford a perpetual charm to the pleasure of living. Added to this is an exemption from violent storms, destructive tornadoes, and ex- cessive extremes of temperature. Furthermore, the arid region is us- ually blessed with soils of great fertility, and a greater proportion of sun- ny days than other less favored portions of the country. All of these advantages, conducive to health, long life and comfort, are only offset by the one disadvantage of unequal distribution of rainfall, by which the arable lands of the valleys are left with an insufficiency of moisture to mature crops without artificial irrigation, while the mountains alone receive the amount of precipitation which in the east is distributed impartially over mountain and valley as well. The mountains thus be- come practically the sole feeders of the western streams, and these streams become the main source to supply the lacking moisture re- quired by the valley lands. The wealth and material resource.^ of the country are thus dependent upon irrigation, upon the flow of the streams, and upon the precipitation and run-off from the mounains. Any influence which tends to diminish the power of the mountains to supply water to the streams retards the development of irrigation, and checks the progress of all agriculture, horticulture and their dependent industries. Forest growth upon the mountains is the mother of the springs and streams, and needs to be fostered and maintained at all hazards if the population, which is naturally attract- ed by the many charms of the arid region, is to continue to grow and increase in wealth. There are no drawbacks to an irrigated country, provided the water supply of the streams is maintained. Agriculture under a system of 200 IRRIGATION IN THE SOUTHWEST. irrigation is really superior in point of convenience, certainty, rel- iability to that which depends upon the caprice of the summer rainfall for the nourishment of crops. There is every incentive, therefore, for the fullest development of all the water which the mountains will yield and its conversion to useful purposes. FORMATION OF IRRIGATION DISTRICTS. The beginning of every Irrigation district Is naturally made by the construction of canals and the diversion of the flowing streams. At the outset the water so diverted performs a limited duty, as the thirsty lands absorb it greedily, and a large stream will wet but a small proportion of what it will ultimately water when the subsoil becomes saturated and the water plane rises nearer and nearer to the sur- face with each successive year. Gradually the stream Is able to care for more land, cultivation is extended, additional canals are made possible, and the irrigated settlements grow in extent and area of cultivation. Occasionally there will come a season when the rainfall is below the normal, and the run-off of the streams, which in the rainy season may still be abundant, will, in the months of greatest need, be so far short of the usual flow as to cause serious inconvenience and emphasize the need of storage reser- voirs. This is the stage of progression which is everywhere reached in course of time. The third stage after the reservoir period is that which implies the development of underground waters by wells and pumps. In some sections of the country where the streams are quite irtermittent, and only flow during the rainy season, development must begin with the storage of water. In other sections, where reser- voir sites are scarce and dams expensive to build, irrigation begins with wells and pumps, to be followed later by the more costly works. The final stage is that where a water supply can only be obtained by works that are beyond the reach of private capital or individual effort by reason of their magnitude, and where government aid must be invoked. Over a large portion of the arid West it is believed that this stage has been reached, and further progress can only be attained by inaugurating a liberal policy of governmental control and construction of storage reservoirs, and there is a growing sentiment in favor of such a policy. THE TONTO BASIN RESERVOIR. In the great Salt River valley of Arizona, the natural stream flow has been utilized in the cultivation of some 250,000 acres of land, whose fertility and productiveness form the basis of the agricultural wealth 202 IRRIGATION IN THE SOUTHWEST. of that iferntory. The valley contains a boundless extent of equally valuable desert land, whose only hope of development lies In the coustruction of reservoirs. The one chiefly relied upon is known as the Tonto Basin, at the junction of Tonto Creek and Salt River, some 80 or 90 miles above the city of Phoenix, the capital of Arizona. A dam is here projected which will impound over 1,000,000 acre-feet, or sufficient water to cover one million acres one foot deep. The tribu- tary watershed area is over 5,800 square miles, from 2,500 to 8,000 feet in altitude, affording an annual run-oft sufficient to supply the reser- voir. The dam will be constructed of masonry, and will be 250 feet in height, whose length between the solid sandstone walls of the canyon will be 150 feet at base and 650 feet at top. The dam is estimated to cost $1,500,000, and three years' time will be needed to build it. The work has been undertaken by a corporation styled the Hudson Reser- voir and Canal Company of New York. The enterprise is one of the most extensive and important ever projected in the arid region, and one of the very few which has a prospect of being profitable to the stockholders, by reason of the fact that the water can be immediately sold at wholesale to a population waiting, with canals already built, for its utilization. The canal system of Salt River valley commands a greater area of unimproved desert land than the water of the unres- ervoired stream will serve. RESERVOIRS ON THE GILA RIVER. The Gila river, above its junction with the Salt, is quite as com- pletely utilized as the latter stream, although the development of irri- gation by canals has taken place upon the upper valleys at a much greater rate than in the main valley of the stream. This has resulted In depriving the lower appropriators of their usual supply in the dryer portions of the year, and caused great loss and privation, particularly among the Pima and Maricopa Indians on the Sacaton reservation. As these peaceful and industrious tribes are the wards of the government, an effort is being made to restore their water supply and furnish their parched fields with the needed element, by impounding the flood waters of the Gila in a mammoth reservoir. To this end the United States Geological Survey has been charged with the task of investi- gating the various available sites to determine where a dam can be most advantageously constructed. Borings have been made at theButtes, some fifteen miles above Florence, at Riverside, fifteen miles higher up and at the western end of the San Carlos reservation, where the Gila CHAPTER XXVI. 203 breaks through a high mountain range in a narrow canyon. The latter site has proven most favorable, not only on account of the superior character of the rock available for construction, but because the bedrock is nearer the surface, and the canyon walls are but 100 feet apart at the stream level. The reservoir capacity of the dam is very great, and with a dam 150 feet high the water impounded would exceed 360,000 acre-feet. This volume would not only amply supply the Sacaton Indian reservation below, and render the Indians self- supporting, but it would supply the white settlers above Florence, and open a large area of desert government land to occupation and settle- ment. These two reservoirs, when completed, will more than double the present productive area of the territory, and their importance to the nation cannot well be over-estimated. RESERVOIRS ON THE RIO GRANDE. The Rio Granae, which heads in Colorado and passes through New Mexico and along the Texas border on its way to the gulf, has reached the stage where reservoirs are required to promote further irrigation possibilities. Increasing diversion of its upper waters, as in the Gila valley, has deprived the lower appropriators of their customary supply. To meet this condition, one of the greatest reservoirs of the Southwest has been projected by an English company at Elephant Butte, 112 miles above El Paso. A masonry dam is to be built at this point which is to be 100 feet high, 300 feet long at base, 550 feet at top, and im- pound 253,000 acre-feet of water. The flood waters passing this point rarge from 500,000 to i, 200,000 acre-feet annually, the greater portion flowing off in May and June, while in August and September the stream is frequently entirely dry. The construction of the reservoir will permit of the irrigation of 250,000 acres of new land, and afford a reliable supply to 100,000 acres more that now receive such a precarious and uncertain volume as to be of little permanent value. The dam and the 200 miles of canal involved In this enterprise are estimated to cost $850,000 — an insignificant sum in proportion to the enormous addition which the works will make to the material resources of New Mexico and Texas. Immediately above the Elephant Butte reservoir is another site, where a dam 80 feet high will impound 175,000 acre-feet of water. These reservoirs are only second in importance to those of Arizona, just described. p. o CHAPTER XXVI. 205 The Pecos is one of the principal tributaries of the Rio Grande, but its normal flow is of less volume, although subject to greater maximum THE PECOS RIVER, floods. Irrigation from this stream never reached to any considerable amount until reservoirs were constructed, and its flood waters were controlled by two great dams, located above the town of Eddy, in Southeast New Mexico. The upper and larger of these reservoirs covers an area of 8,331 acres, and has a capacity of 82,640 acre-feet. It is known as "Lake McMillan." The dam, constructed in 1893, is 1,686 feet long on top, 52 feet high, with an auxiliary embankment 5,200 feet long, 18.8 feet high. The dam is composed of an embankment of loose rock, faced with an earth embankment of greater volume, the two having a total base width of 280 feet, and a top width of 20 feet. Its cost was $170,000. The lower dam is 48 feet high, 1,380 feet long, and is of the same type of construction as the upper dam — loose rock and earth. The lower dam has comparatively small storage capacity, but acts as a diverting weir to raise the level of water to the main canal leading down the valley. The canal carries 1,300 cubic feet per second for 3.2 miles, to a point where it divides into two main canals passing down each side of the valley. The town of Eddy, and a large and growing farming settlement surrounding, is dependent solely upon these two reservoirs. Here is located the only sugar beet factory in the territory, manufacturing sugar from beets grown by Irrigation. In the San Joaquin valley the normal stream flow still supplies the land brought under irrigation, without artificial storage, chiefly for the reason that, being fed by melting snow, they are highest during the early part of the irrigation season, although the need for reser- voirs is being sharply felt, and there is a constantly recurring agitation on the subject. The only important private enterprise in this direction is the conversion of Buena Vista Lake, on lower Kern river, into a broad, shallow reservoir, by the wealthy cattle firm of Lux & Miller. An earthen dyke, five miles long, ten feet high, serves to enclose the lake, but the success of the enterprise is questionable, in view of the enormous loss from evaporation, which is estimated to reach as high as 130,000 acre-feet. This loss can be reduced to a fraction of this amount by storage reservoirs of greater depth and less surface area exposed, located in the mountains. The Investment in canals, lands, and improvements, depending solely upon irrigation from Kern river, is estimated at $6,000,000 to 206 IRRIGATION IN THE SOUTHWEST. $8,000,000, while the development ef the waters of Kings and Kaweah rivers has created values many times greater than these figures. IRRIGATION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. In Southern California irrigation has reached a greater degree of refinement than elsewhere in America, because of the scarcity of water, the high value of the products grown, and the frequent combination of irrigation and domestic supply in one system. The waste of water in open canals by seepage and evaporation has led to the general employment of cement lined ditches for the larger volumes carried, or cement, vitrified clay or iron pipes for smaller quantities. The prevention of waste by these expensive methods has thus permitted an enormous increase in the duty of the flowing streams, and ex- tended their sphere of usefulness. The building of small farm reser- voirs has gone steadily forward with the growth of the industry, until the farm or orchard which is not thus supplied is the exception rather Ihan the rule. This has increased the general cost of water to con- sumers, but has at the same time increased the productive area by adding to the economic measures for waste prevention. These indi- vidual reservoirs, however, are in no sense a substitute for the larger and more expensive impounding dams needed to regulate the streams and control floods. The first of these of any importance to be constructed was the Bear Valley dam, built in 1883. At that time the site was well nigh inaccessible by wagon, and the cost of cement at the dam was so great as to induce the projector to cut down the dimensions of the dam to what is unquestionably the slenderest structure in the universe of equal height. It has special interest to the engineering profession in that it is capable of withstanding the pressure against it, and yet it has continued to defy preconceived theories for thirteen years. It is 64 feet high, and barely 3 feet thick at top, and but 8 feet thick at a point 48 feet below the crest. It relies solely upon its arched form for its support, and upon the fact that it is of a superior quality of masonry. It is reported to have cost $75,000, although it contains but 3,400 cubic yards of masonry. The capacity of the reservoir is about 40,000 acre-feet, and the watershed area about 56 square miles, from which the run-off reaches an estimated maximum of 100,000 acre-feet. The maximum run-off of the dry season of 1898-99 was less than 1,000 acre-feet. ( 208 IRRIGATION IN THE SOUTHWEST. THE SWEETWATER DAM. In 1887-88 the Sweetwater dam was constructed, on the Sweetwater river, twelve miles southeast of San Diego, on a stream from which no irrigation was possible prior to the erection of the dam, because of the fact that it was generally dry every year after June 1st. The dam is built of masonry, founded on porphyry bedrock, at a point seven miles inland from the bay of San Diego, at an elevation of 140 feet above tide. The height is nearly 100 feet; length, 150 feet at base, 350 feet at top; arched up stream similarly to the Bear Valley dam, but of much heavier section, being 46 feet thick at bottom and 12 feet at top. The reservoir had an original capacity of 18,000 acre-feet, en- larged in 1896 to 22,866 acre-feet, and is fed from the run-off of 186 square miles of watershed, whose extreme elevation is about 6,500 feet. The mean annual run-off from 1888 to 1896 ranged from 1,007 to 70,625 acre-feet, averaging 18,708 acre-feet. The drought of the past two years has failed to replenish the reservoir, and its supply in the sum- • mer of 1899 is quite exhausted, and reliance is had upon water pumped from wells. From the dam water is conveyed and distributed through iron pipes, over an area exceeding 5,000 acres, planted chiefly to lemon orchards. The cost of the dam and distribution system has exceeded ?1, 000, 000, but it has added many millions to the wealth of the county. Ir is a striking illustration of pure development of water from a stream that had been useless and valueless without the reservoir. THE CUYAMACA RESERVOIR. A similar case of the conversion of a useless stream into one of usefulness and value is that of the Cuyamaca reservoir, built in 1887 by the San Diego Flume Company, for the irrigation of mesa lands lying east of San Diego, and the supply of the city of San Diego. This reservoir is located in the Cuyamaca mountains, at an elevation of 4,500 feet above sea level. It is formed by an earth dam, 41.5 feet high, and has a maximum capacity of 11,410 acre-feet, covering 959 acres of surface. It has a tributary watershed of but 11 square miles, which greatly restricts the usefulness of what would otherwise be a very valuable reservoir. Up to 1896 the minimum annual catchment was 1,158 acre-feet, the maximum 11,464 acre-feet, and the mean 5,397 acre-feet. The evaporation loss was a mean annual depth of 4.73 feet, amounting to 25.5 per cent, of all the catchment entering the reservoir. The area irrigated by the reservoir prior to 1898 is given at 5,700 CHAPTER XXVI. 209 acres, for which a portion of the supply, estimated at 16 per cent., was taken from the direct flow of the other tributaries of San Diego river, while the reservoir was filling. One-fifth of the water supply of the system is usea for the domestic supply of San Diego, and the remain- der for irrigation. The water is conveyed in a wooden flume, 5 feet wide, 37 miles long, supported on a level bench cut in the hillsides, or on high trestles crossing depressions. It delivers water to the pipe system ten miles east of San Diego, whence it is distributed in iron pipes under pressure throughout the irrigated settlements supplied. THE LA MESA DAM. At the lower end of the long flumes a reservoir has been constructed on the mesa at an elevation of 433 feet, which serves to impound the surplus flow of the flume, and catch the run-off of a small local shed. The reservoir covers 70 acres, and has a capacity of 1,500 acre-feet. The dam was built by the hydraulic sluicing method, by which the material composing it was loosened, conveyed and deposited by water, which was afterwards caught in the reservoir behind the rising dam. This is one of the most interesting structures of its class in the coun- try, and illustrates a simple and cheap method of building dams of earth and loose rock. It contains 38,000 cubic yards, and was built for $17,000. It serves a useful purpose in economizing the water and in its distribution. The cost of the entire irrigation system, including the long flume, was nearly $1,000,000. THE OTAY AND MORENO DAMS. All of the streams of San Diego county have the characteristics of intermittent flow, which renders them practically valueless except when their floods are controlled and impounded by reservoirs, but they have the compensating advantage of possessing reservoir sites of unusual capacity and excellence. Two of these sites have been utilized by the Southern California Mountain Water Company, by the erection of imposing dams of unusual height on the Otay creek, in Jamal valley, and on Cottonwood creek, at the outlet of Moreno valley, while a third, designated as the Barrett dam, is under construction at the junction of Pine and Cottonwood creeks. The lower Otay dam is located some five miles southeast of 14 Sweetwater dam, and is an embankment of loose rock, 130 feet high. CKAPTKR XXVI. 211 with a central core cf sheet steel, in the form of plates riveted to- gether 'and imbedded in masonry at bottom and on either side, con- necting it with the bedrock abutments. The dam is 565 feet long, 20 feet wide on top, and contains about 140,000 cubic yards of rock. It forms a reservoir covering 1,000 acres, and having a capacity of 42,190 acre-feet. The tributary watershed has an area of 100 square miles, but with a run-off which cannot be relied upon to fill the reservoir with frequency or regularity. It is necessary, therefore, to construct an expensive conduit 11 miles long, from the Cottonwood, to bring a supply to the reservoir. This conduit is to have a capacity of 220 cubic feet per second, and will head at the Barrett dam, some 50 feet above the base of the latter. The Moreno dam, which is still unfinished, will have an extreme height of 150 feet, and is of similar character to the lower Otay dam, except that the embankment is to be made watertight by a layer of ;is=phalt concrete upon its upper face, connecting with a concrete toe wall that extends to bedrock at the bottom of the dam. The elevation of the dam is 3,100 feet above sea level, and has a tributary watershed of 135 square miles, reaching to an extreme elevation of over 6,000 feet. The capacity of the reservoir at the 150-foot level is 46,733 acre- feet, extending over 1,370 acres of surface. The Barrett damsite at the 160-foot contour has a capacity of 35,160 acre-feet. The dam to be erected is simliar in plan to the lower Otay. ^ These three reservoirs are to be united in one system, and supply water for irrigating lands lying between San Diego and the Mexican border, consisting of high mesas and valleys reaching back some ten miles or more from the ocean. The rolling nature of the topography, AS well as the economical use of water, will necessitate its conveyance in pressure pipes of iron and wood. The city of San Diego, as well as Coronado Beach, will receive at least a portion of its domestic supply from these sources. THE BSCONDIDO DAM, In the northern portion of San Diego county lies one of the fairest valleys of California, whose character is implied by its Spanish name, Escondido, (hidden), surrounded and sheltered by rugged hills. Some 13,000 acres of this valley, including the town of Escondido, was or- ganized into an irrigation district under the Wright law, and in 1894-95 constructed a notable dam in the adjacent mountains, to which was torought a water supply from the San Luis Rey river, through a canal CHAPTER XXVI. 213 and flume 15.6 miles long, tapping the river at an altitude of 1,600 feet. The conduit has a capacity of 28 second-feet, and cost $116,328. The dam Is a rock-flU, faced with plank, lo feet high, 380 feet long on top, 100 feet at bottom, with a top width of 1^ feet and a base of 140 feet. Its cubic contents are 37,159 yards, and its cost complete was $110,059. The reservoir covers an area of 150 acres, and has a capacity of 3,500 acre-feet when filled to the level of the spillway. Distribution is made by cemented ditches, flumes and pipes. The entire system of works cost $352,509. The lands Irrigated are chiefly planted to citrus fruits, and exceed 2,000 acres. Prior to the construction of the works no use had been made of the water of the San Luis Rey except in a small way by the Indians living along its course at the Cuca reservation. To the extent of their needs, the prior rights of the Indians are still respected, and only flood waters are diverted to the reservoir. THE HEMET DAM. On the flanks of Mt. San Jacinto, one of thee loftiest peaks of Southern California, whose crest reaches to a height of nearly 11,000 feet, lies Hemet valley, whose outlet through a narrow granite gorge has been closed by the erection of a masonry dam 122.5 feet high above the stream bed. The altitude of the dam is over 4,200 feet, and the difficulties of transporting machinery and cement to the site were very great; but the structure resulting from the efforts of the Lake Hemet Water Company is one of the most massive and perfect structures ever built, surpassing in safe dimensions all similar works on the Coast. The reservoir covers 365 acres, and the volume impounded when filled is 10,500 acre-feet. Water released at the dam flows down a natural canyon some ten miles, descending 2,000 feet in a succession of cascades, and is then diverted into a flume 38 Inches wide, 18 Inches deep, built down the canyon to its mouth, 3^4 miles, on a grade of 140 feet per mile. Thence it is taken in a 22-inch pipe for two miles, and delivered to a ditch lined with masonry, having a capacity of 3,000 miner's inches, leading to the distributing reservoir, five miles. From the latter, sheet -steel pipes convey and distribute the water to Irrigated lands and to the town of Hemet. The full duty of the reservoir has not yet been reached, as the area irrigated has never exceeded 1,200 acres. The district is one of great thrift and fertility, and the orchards of deciduous fruit trees and olives have made phenomenal growth. CHAPTER XXVI. 215 The works have reclaimed a tract of 7,000 acres from a desert to a condition of high productive capacity. In addition to the greater works here described for the impounding of water, many other worthy projects are outlined and contemplated of a similar character, and it is felt that such development has only fairly begun. It may be said that every canyon affording a living stream in Southern California has been appropriated and its waters put to use, while the springs and cienegas have been opened out and developed by cuts, tunnels and bored wells. Not only this, but in all the im- portant water courses issuing from the mountains, the underflow has been sought after, and the subterranean supply brought out by exten- sive systems of tunnels. This method of development is not confined to the canyons, but tunnels have been driven into the sides of the mountains to intersect ledges or across dykes that intercept the perco- lating streams filtrating through the rocks. SUBTERRANEAN RESERVOIRS. On the three principal rivers of Southern California, the Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana, nature has formed subterranean reservoirs of unknown capacity in the gravel beds formed by the debris carried out from the mountains. These gravel reservoirs are periodically filled, and the flow from them is constant and remark- ably uniform. The Los Angeles river reservoir yields in this manner from 4,000 to 5,000 miner's inches, all of which is diverted for the uses of the city and the irrigation of adjacent lands. The San Gabriel river reservor overflows in the narrow pass of San Bartolo, where the stream goes through the Coast Range, and gives up in the aggregate some 5,000 inches, which is used for irrigation in numerous ditches in the Rivera and Downey district. The Santa Ana river reservoir is divided into two sections, one of which supplies Riverside, Agua Mansa, and North Riverside, while the lower division yields up its flow at the passage through the Coast Range, whence it is diverted in canals to Orange, Tustin and Santa Ana on the south, and PuUerton and Anaheim on the north side of the river. The aggregate yield of these two natural reservoirs is in excess of 10,000 miner's inches, and to their existence is due the prosperity of the populous regions they supply. If these rivers flowed in rocky beds from the mountains to the sea, they would be quickly exhausted. CHAPTER XXVI. 217 and in seasons of drouth would be destitute of water. Tlius nature has again demonstrated her superiority to the works of man. Every inhabitant of Southern California is conscious of the fact that all of her productiveness and capacity of supporting population rests upon her resources for irrigation by some one of the many systems of development described in the foregoing sketch, and that without irrigation the country would be practically uninhabitable, except in seasons of abundant rainfall, when grain crops are produced. The natural rainfall would not, however, sustain her prolific orchards, from which comes her chief source of wealth. They are equally conscious and alive to the fact that our water sources depend in large measure upon the preservation of our mountain forests, and in this con- viction there is no division of opinion. 218 CHAPTER XXVII. THE UNDERGROUND WATERS OF SOUTHERN CALIFOBNIA. By T. S. VAN DYKE, Civil B;ngineer and Author. The discovery of water underground available for irrigation at prices that the products of Southern California will justify is nothing new and its development has been going on for years. But the amount found in the past year just after a series of six years of short rainfall, of which four were only about one half the average, and the other two not above it, exceeds all that has ever been imagined and is possi- bly equal to the total of all other years combined. Nearly all of this development has been in the four counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange where the older orange orchards in full bearing made such a demand for water to mature the present great crop. These tour counties once lay in the lap of a cres- cent of granite mountains which were then far higher than they are today, and the whole country from coast to mountain was also higher. All lay open to the sea and the whole drainage downward was unin- terrupted from the mountains to the coast. As the mountains began to disintegrate and wear down and the valleys to fill up with the wash, the heavier discharges of flood years carrying gravel and heavy boul- ders far down the slope began to arrange their debris exactly as we see them doing today. They swung from side to side to of an immense flood plain, one river perhaps running into another at times of great flood. Here the track was a vast wash of heavy gravel which, in suc- ceeding years, became covered with fine sand if the flood waters moved to the other side of the valley, or with fine wash if they stayed on that side but were not so heavy for a series of years.. Or if the waters of summer and succeeding years continued to fiow over them they became covered with fine concrete lime or silica carried in solution. As in the course of ages they became covered with other layers some of the layers of sand or gravel decayed into clay just as they lay. By some or all of these ways layers of gravel which were once old stream beds, became separated from one another by layers of impervious material. CHAPTER XXVII. 219 They became farther separated by shifting from one side to the other of the great valley in different ages, just as we see them doing today. The consequence ''s a vast number of different gravel channels of dif- 'erent sizes, depths and distances from each other. Most of these are probably still connected with the original source of supply by a thread of gravel or sand, while some have a well defined channel directly connected with the water that sinks at the foot of th: mountains today. While it is impossible to say how large any of these arc or how much water they contain, it is certain that their number is very large. The area through which they have swung is so great and the period so immense that it cannot be otherwise. It is reason- able to suppose that the older ones formed when the mountains were highest and the wash into the valleys was the coarsest now carry the most water today, although most of them must be out of reach of all ordinary well boring. In the course of time and probably long after the valleys began to fill, the country sank and a part became lower than the sea. Then came in a vast wash from the west or north, or both, perhaps from the melting of the great northern glaciers. This brought in vast banks of gravel, sand and clay and other deposits far more recent than the granits of the interior hills. In San Diego county this formed a mesa some fifty miles long, ten mile wide and nearly five hundred feet high, lying along the coast. How deep it is no one knows, but in the Sweet- water Valley, five hundred feet below the highest levels of the mesa, a well was bored eleven hundred feet without going through it. This would make it over sixteen hundred feet thick at that point. In Orange county this formed the hills of shale that lie along the lower coast, which have since decayed upon the top into adobe. Its oldest form is probably in the conglomerate that lies across the mouth of Santiago Canyon, running many miles up the canyon, and reaching some distance on each side of it. Back of Whlttier and Fullerton this runs into hills of shale again, and these continue on to Los Angeles, running on the west and south into gravel, sand and clay deposits, but all of the same general formation. On the northwest and west they run into the granite of the Cahuenga hills, and these again into con- glomerate of an older date in the Santa Monica mountains, changing into an older conglomerate in Ventura, and from there continuing along the coast of Santa Barbara. Nowhere east of its course is there any track of its path showing 220 UNDERGROUND WATERS. that any ot it came from the great mountains of the interior. On the contrary the sand and gravel it contains are so full of porphory, finer sandstones and shales that it is certain that it did not come from the granite ranges on the east. It has also penetrated the interior as far as Redlands where a vast bank of it underlies the present top soil of that pla,ce. This seems a continuation of the Puente hills which are found about Pomona traceable again at Colton, south of Redlands, it crosses San Timateo Canyon and runs nto the grey hills of lime shales that lie on the northern edge of San Jacinto. Commencing far in Lower California, a range of porphory rises a few miles from the coast, crossing the line at San Isidro, and forming the ledge on which the Otay Dam is built, doing the same for the Sweetwater Dam and the La Mesa Dam of the San Diego Flume Com- pany, crossing the lower edge of Escondido, and continuing on through Santa Margarite, forming the great backbone of the hills between Santa Ana and San Jacinto and sinking at Santa Ana Canyon. Where the conglomerate laps upon this in the upper part of Santiago Canyon, the uplift of many miles of it shows plainly that the conglomerate was formed before the porphory rose. In parts of San Diego county it is just as plain that the conglomerate was washed in afterward and lies in position against the slopes of the porphory. These formations and the various layers itself compose all the geo- logical features of that portion of Southern California west of the desert. Now it is certain from many borings that old water channels lie beneath this immense wash from the west and that the streams once ran beneath where we now see nothing but hills. The water that sup- plies the artesian wells between Whittier and Fullerton on the dry mesa never comes from the local watershed of those low hills back of the mesa. The Santa Ana, the San Gabriel or the Los Angeles rivers — (perhaps all three of them) — in some distant day had one or more channels running over a broad valley that is now covered by those hills. That wash turned the main body of the stream but the gravel of the old channels still continued to carry water. It is almost equally certain that water from the Santa Clara River enters San Fernando Valley under the range of tertiary in which the Southern Pacific tunnel is built. A little to the west of the tunnel the granite begins, but from there west the hills are all wash. And there is more water at the head of San Fernando than the local water- shed can reasonably explain. CHAPTER XXVII. 221 In many other places this is found so plain that dry hills of this tertiary or wash may have better underground streams than the more recent wash of the open valleys where we would naturally look for water. The well would generally be more expensive on account of the depth and the boring seems a little more of a venture than in the open valley but otherwise there is little difference, except where water under pressure is plainly indicated. It is equally certain that water channels lie upon top of the first wash and below a more recent one. Remarkable finds of water have been made at Redlands this year in low hills, so dry that no one would dream of looking for water there. One well gives one hundred and twenty inches, while another one but a hundred feet away yields eighty to the pumps without being affected by the pumping at the first well more than seven inches. These are in gravel channels unuer the pres- ent surface soil which seems a wash or slump from Yucaipe and San Gorgonio. At four hundred feet one well struck the old wash, which is the same hard conglomerate as that at the mouth of Santiago Can- yon, and penetrated it eighty feet, finding it as hard as flint and perfect- ly dry. All the water strata are above this. The results of many hundreds of borings, made all over the country show that the best chance to get a well that will furnish a good irri- gating supply is in the modern wash of which the valleys are now composed. One cannot always be sure of hitting it even here, but with the right kind of care the chances are better for a cheap well than else- where. We see this wash going on every wet year and many have seen good springs completely drowned with it so that there is no sign of their existence on the surface. Even lagunas were drowned in 1884. In the dim past this must have happened often and those same waters are there now only in sand instead of an open reservoir. Next to this wash the old channels under the hills of tertiary, or most ancient wash, are the best source of supply, such as the great gas well near Santa Fe Springs. This pressure was quite plainly indicated by Fulton Wells, which is as clear a case of artesian spring as one could wish. There are many places far more promising than the dry hills about Redlands that have never yet been prospected with any care. But such prospecting is so expensive that if we have a series of good years there is not likely to be much of it. These old gravel channels are the only ones that have a reliable supply of any size. There are many cases where sand wells may be 222 UNDERGROUND WATERS. made that will furnish considerable seepage water if not too heavily drawn on. But they will not stand heavy work very long. It is much the same with mere standing water in gravel. There is, however, very little of this and it is doubtful if we have anywhere water under- ground so nearly at rest that it would be called percolating water by our courts. The decayed granite that lies upon the hard core of the granite hills is one of the surest sources of supply for a small well. For do- mestic use and a very little work wun a windmill they are quite cheap and reliable in most seasons, holding out in years of drouth wonder- fully if not too heavily drawn on. But they are of little use for heavy work in irrigation but rather a vexation and a loss. It is much the same with wells bored into the hard core of granite below the rotten top. Unless a seam is struck there is no chance for water and when one is found that furnishes good water it cannot be relied on for much beyond domestic use. I know of no artesian wells in hard granite and any attempt to get one would probably fail. Even finding a seam is quite accidental and I have known many to fail to find that. The porphory is one of the most difficult formations in which to find irrigating water. And it is none too good for domestic water. It is fissured perpendicularly so much that the water falls through it. Most all attempts that I have known to get a good well in it have failed. I know of none that flow under pressure and have seen holes made in it that were perfectly dry at over one hundred feet. At the same time it is certain that water goes through the ledges of it on which the Sweetwater dam and the old Mission dam at El Cajon are built. And in Lower California on the San Domingo river are several ledges that look solid enough to cut off the underflow, yet there is as much water just below them as above. Even worse if possible than the porphory is the ancient wash from the west. There is little hope of getting anything in it more than a fair farm well, unless the boring is carried through it into some old gravel channel beneath. The most solid looking conglomerates, such as that in Orange county and the southern part of Ventura, as on the Simi Rancho, are so fissured up and down that the water can drop through them very readily. And one may often travel miles without finding a single spring where in granite of the same elevation and rainfall springs could be found in almost every gulch. CHAPTER XXVII 223 There is positively no ground for the belief that any of our under- ground waters come from anywhere beyond the rim of our own jnoun- tains. Many think there are underground rivers from the Sierra Ne- vada or the Rocky mountains, while others are sure that the Mojave finds its course back from the desert under the mountains of San Ber- nardino. Resort to all such theories is very unscientific if there are conditions nearer home that will explain the facts as well. There is positively no need of going beyond our own watersheds to account for all the water underground and far more than has yet been brought to light. Consider first how wide these ancient valleys are. The best part of Orange county and some two-thirds of the coast line of Los Angeles county was once a flood plain over which the Los Angeles, the San Gabriel and the Santa Ana rivers gamboled for long ages, changing places with each other probably as we have seen them do to some ex- tent in our own time, but certainly shifting their beds with every fresh burst of heavy flood water. Each one has made hundreds and even thousands of channels and bed of gravel, miles away from one another and no well has yet passed below the bottom layer, though many have gone over a thusand feet. The same thing has happened on smaller scales with other streams. The effect is to make countless reservoirs that will hold many times the amount of water we have seen developed. The outlet to the ocean from these cannot be very free or they would not have remained so full during all these dry sea- sons. Is there water enough from the rain to fill them? In very wet sea- sons some of the rainfall from the low country probably finds its way into them while the mountains turn in some even in ordinary dry sea- sons. In wet seasons the quantity turned off from the mountains is so great that a very few winters would fill all the underground chan- nels. Once filled, with plenty of friction to fight on the way to the ocean, the water wouid remain in these with a far smaller supply than was necessary to fill them in the first place. As resources in dire necessity these old channels are a mighty blessing. They have actually saved this year one of the very finest of our settlements and insured nearly a million dollars worth of oranges where from the failure of a great reservoir would have been almost nothing. They have helped out many another settlement that would have been mourning over a short crop while individuals 224 UNDERGROUND WATERS. by the hundred are rejoicing in prosperity who would have nad abso- lutely nothing but for the old streams that flowed unsuspected beneatfi the ranch. From the very nature of these streams, one can understand the ab- surdity of attempting to say how long they will continue to furnish water if steadily drawn on. But one thing can be definitely known. And that is if they are reserved for emergencies like the present they will be full enough when we need them. But if drawn on all the time it is certain that some of them will not be full when the emergency comes. How long will it take them to fill when once exhausted I am not bold enough to guess. The time will vary with almost every one. How many taps an underground stream will stand for even one year is a question that one will hesitate to answer if he will for a moment consider the formation of the gravel beds and how they are cut off one from another or connected only by a thin thread of gravel, or even fine sand, and how they may be connected In the same way even with the main source of supply. We know not how long it took them to fill in the first place and we know as little of how long it will take if they are once emptied. But it is quite probable that the time re- quired will be far greater. it is, however, certain that for the maintenance of these supplies the preservation of the forests is quite as essential as for anything else. The inlets to these great beds of water bearing gravel and sand are small and thin, and covered often with soil so that it takes much time for the water to soak into them. To fill them needs a long, slow run of water. Quick discharges simply pass over them and let in very little. If the water from the mountains is laden with fine silt and slime from fire burned ground these inlets tend to puddle and close and in the course of time it would take much longer to fill the old gravel reservoirs than now, while many of them might in that way be closed almost completely against even the slowest run of water. 225 CHAPTER XXVIII. FOREST RESERVOIRS. By GEO. H. M.\XWELL, Ch. National Irrigation Com. A flowing artesian well! Stand and watch it. See the glistening sheet as it cures so gracefully over the rim, sparkling in the sunlight as it falls and flows away to moisten the parched earth and quench its thirst. Could anything be more beautiful — more potent with promise of all the gifts that bountiful nature showers upon him who tills the soil by irrigation? Or go where you will see the crystal stream gushing forth from some great pump that is steadily drawing it up from a hidden reservoir. In either case, watch the water as it flows. Where is its source? Whence does it come and how long will it continue? Will it keep on coming forever? Or some day will it grow less and less until it ceases altogether, and leaves the beauty and fertility and wealth that it has created to be blighted and destroyed by drouth? Every irrigator from an underground source and every commun- ity sustained by such irrigation is face to face with this question. Its mighty importance may be realized when we read the midwinter number of the Los Angeles Times for January 1, 1890, that "There has been an immense development of water for irrigation in wells during the past year, the amount so developed being estimated at over 50,000 miners' inches, suflacient to irrigate 500,000 acres of land. In this way the value of such land has been increased several hundred per cent. The work of developing the underground water supply still goes forward and in few cases are the prospectors disappointed." These great underground supplies of water are as inexhaustible as jc the forests of the mountains are enduring, unless wilfully destroyed 226 FOREST RESERVOIRS. by the hand of man, and so long as the forests are preserved the un- derground flow will continue. Destroy the forest cover of the mountains and not only will the surface streams be deprived of their summer flow, but the underground supplies will no longer be replenished and wiil fail, and the desert will resume its sway over the lands 'that were fertilized from the ex- hausted underground sources. The original source was not underground. As you watch the ar- tesian well you will realize that the beautiful drops that are thrown up from below by an unseen power to sparkle in the sunshine have not come up underground direct from the sea. They were at some time evaporated from the ocean and carried in clouds to the mountains and precipitated there. Now what checked them from rushing down the mountain sides and back through stream and river to join again the ocean from whence they came? Somewhere in their onward course they were stopped by some leafy covering which held them until they were turned downward into the earth. Then they percolated through some underground channel or strata until they found a vent through the artesian well that has brought them once more to the surface. If we allow our mountains to be deforested and permit the destruc- tion of the undergrowth and foliage, the waters which should find their way down into the earth to come up again in our wells will rush down the steep and bare mountain slopes in torrents to the sea. Not only our underground supplies but our surface supplies as well will be gone, and aridity will overcome our fertile fields just as it has where the forests have been destroyed. This need not happen and will not happen if the people will wake up to the possibility and danger of loss of water supplies from forest destruction. If we are to preserve the water we must preserve the forests. The forces that are working the destruction of our forests are more dangerous than a foreign foe, because more subtle. A shot fired from a hostile battleship upon one of our seaboard cities would electrify the people of the nation and rouse them to superhuman efforts for defense. Year by year our noble forests are being devastated by fire or some other destructive agency and water sources which are the very life of whole communities impaired or ruined and the great majority of people pay no more heed to a forest fire than they would to a fall Ing star in the heavens. CHAPTER XXVIII. 227 The protection of our forests from destruction, and their restora- tion where already destroyed is as much a great national duty as the protection of our boundaries from foreign invasion or of our sea- port cities from the sea. Let us not spend for ships and forts all that we spend for national defense. Let us provide for protection against the deadly encroach- ments of the desert. A city ruined by bombardment could be far more easily restored than a forest destroyed by fire. 228 CHAPTER XXIX RELATION OF STREAM PLOW AND SUSPENDED SEDIMENT THEREIN, TO THE COVERING OF DRAINAGE BASINS. By J. B. LIPPINCOTT, Civil iingineer. Resident Hydrographer U. S. Geological Survey Purpose of the work of the Hydrographic Branch of the U. S. Geo- logical Survey. The Irrigation Survey, under the management of the XJ. S. Geo- logical Survey, was authorized by the following Act of Congress, ap- proved October 2, 1888: "For the purpose of investigating the extent to which the arid region of the United States can be redeemed by irrigation, and the segregation of irrigable land in such arid region, and for the selection of sites for reservoirs, and other hydraulic work necessary for the storage and utilization of water for irrigating, and the prevention of floods and overflows, and to make the necessary maps." This survey lasted until 1891, when a discontinuation of ap- rpopriations by Congress brought it to an end. One of its principal duties was the study of the water supply of the arid region. It was considered as important to find the manner in which the streams discharged as to determine the amount of the annual output. A stream of constant flow, and with few floods, largely eliminates the necessity for storage reservoirs thereon, the province of storage being primarily to catch flood water and hold It ever for periods of drouth. Records were begun on numerous typical western rivers, and were maintained until 1891. Appreciating the value of this work, Mr. F. H. Newell was retained by the Geological Survey to continue as many stream observations as were possible, but in 1894 the Director decided that it was impossible to set aside funds for this hydrographic work unless a special appro- priation was made for that particular purpose by Congress. Mr. Newell at once energetically undertook the task of getting this appropriation to be expended under the direction of the Geological Survey. He was successful in obtaining $20,000 to be available during the fiscal year of 1895-6. The work has been gradually developed in all portions of the United States. It is evident that this work is closely allied to for- estry. In addition to the question of lumber supply, the aim of for- estry is to regulate the water supply. In an arid region this is the principal province of the forest. CHAPTER XXIX. 229 Stream observations have been maintained and expanded particu- larly in the arid regions during the past five years. Discharge meas- urements are made almost entirely with meters. These meters are first rated so as to show the relation between the revolution of a wheel, which is immersed in the water, and the velocity of the passing water. By the determination of the velocity of a given stream, and its area of cross-section, the volume of flow is obtained. A gauge rod is placed at the point of measurement, which is called a rating station, and the height of water on this gauge rod is always noted in connection with the measurements. If the stream has a permanent channel, and! observations are made at a number of different stages of river height, the relation between the height of water on the gauge rod and the volume discharged may be interpolated for intermediate river heights, and corresponding volumes determined. By reading the rod daily, daily, monthly and annual determinations of discharge may be obtained. The results of stream measurement are published in annual reports by the Hydrographic Branch of the Geological Survey. There are also issued "Water Supply and Irrigation Papers," the purpose of which is to get quickly before the public the result of the year's work, pending the final and complete publication of the annual report. These docu- ments can be obtained by application of parties who are interested in this subject to the director of the Geological Survey. The Twelfth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Annual Reports are of especial interest in this connection. They describe methods and results In detail. VARIATION IN STREAM FLOW. The relation of rainfall to run-off is very uncertain, depending upon the nature of the storms, whether gentle showers or violent rains, the steepness of the drainage basin and its covering, and whether the pre- cpiitation is snow or rain. It has been found that in the districts where the forpst cover is small the output of the basn occurs in violent floods of short duration. Because these floods are violent, and of large vol- ume, and owing to the fact that the soil of the drainage basins is not held together by a network of roots, extensive erosions occur in these barren basins, and the water carries much silt in suspension. Where the basin is covered by forest the mat of twigs and leaves which covers the ground is an absorbent sponge, retaining in itself large quantities of water and preventing evaporation from the underlying soil. This permits of a holding back of the floods and the gradual draining off of the water, this largely accomplishing the purpose of regulating reservoirs. 230 DRAINAGE BASINS. An exception to the above conditions might be noted where a pre- cipitous granitic drainage basin is expanded at the mouth of its can- yon into a valley which, in turn, contracts at its outlet. This vaUey. during a geologic age, becomes filled with gravel and boulders. When a storm occurs on a drainage basin of this class, and the flood is pro- jected upon these gravel beds, it is rapidly absorbed. The same ab- sorption of irrigation water occurs on t*ese valley lands. Slow perco- lation, or underflow, then follows towards the mouth of the valley, which has been more or less filled with water. At the lower narrows the regulated water again appears at the surface and produces a stream of great constancy. Even under this condition the forest cover of a drainage basin is important, owing to the fact that a constant flow is desired at the point where the water leaves the upper portion of the basin, and because floods often are discharged too large In volume to be wholly absorbed, and they in part pass completely over the gravel bed, escaping through the lower narrows, to be permanently lost. These conditions exist in the Los Angeles, the San Gabriel and the Santa Ana rivers, in Southern California. A striking example of the output of a barren drainage basin is shown in the diagram of Queen Creek, Arizona, for the year 1896. In this diagram the vertical axis indicates volumes discharged, and the horizontal axis indicates time. This stream discharges only in vio- lent freshets, recurring usually as great flood-waves, subsiding almost as rapidly as they arise. By making from two to three current-meter measurements of each of these freshets, and keeping an hourly record of the gauge height, the discharge can be approximated. The floods are usually not to exceed twelve hours in duration. During the greater portion of the year the channel is entirely dry. Queen Creek rises in the mountains to the southwest of Phoenix, and flows in a general southwesterly direction, losing itself in the desert north of the Gila River Indian Reservation. The area of the drainage basin is 142.5 square miles, of which 61 per cent is above an elevation of 3,000 feet, and 39 per cent below that elevation. The annual discharge is ap- proximately 10,000 acre-feet. The basin is almost entirely bare, there being a few pinon trees and very little brush or grass. The follow- ing table of discharge for the year 1896 for Queen Creek is taken from the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Geological Survey, Part IV, Hydro- graphy. It represents a typical year's output: Estimated monthly discharge of Queen Creek at Whitlow's Arizona. Drainage area 143 square miles. CHAPTER XXIX. 231 MONTH 1S90 Discharge in Second-Feet Mean. Total for Month in Acre-Ft. January February March At)ril May June July 9,000 August 1,433 September 3,428 October 1,188 November 80 December 207 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.6 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.5 1.0 1.0 121.6 13.1 17.1 13.3 1.3 2.0 123 115 123 89 61 60 7,477 805 1,016 818 77 123 Depth in I inches { 0.016 0.015 0.016 0.011 0.008 0.008 0.980 0.106 0.134 0.108 0.010 0.016 2d-ft. per t-q. mile 1).014 0.014 0.014 0.010 0.007 0.007 0.850 0.092 0.120 0.093 0.009 0.014 Per annum 1,000 .0 15. 10,887 1.428 0.104 896 e97 Seo.ft. 43,000 JAN. 10 20 ro 20 kRCH > 20 APRIL 10 JO MAY 10 20 JUNE, 10 20 JUt-V 10 20 AUG. 10 20 ■5iPt 10 20 10 20_j 10 20 oec. 10 20 JAN. j 10 20 1 U.O00 " 8.000 6,000 6,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 1 . i J L L 1 L IJ A \1 Discharge of Queen Creek at Willow's Ranch, Arizona. The basin of the Gila River adjoins Queen Creek to the south. Its general character resembles Queen Creek. As the area of the Gila River basin Is 17,834 square miles above The Buttes, a general storm passing over it will produce a longer period of flood discharge, owing to the length of time it will require the water precipitated near the head of the basin to reach the point of measurement of The Buttes. A diagram is given of this stream for the year 1896. 232 GILA RIVER BASIN. 12.000 11,000 10,000 9,000 8.000 7,000 6,000 6,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 ],noo -1 / 6. ?<5 < 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 II IL \\ li i 1 J iL L ■ ^ ^ ^ ^ ■ly IHU w 1 L m m u Discharge of r. ila Fiver at the Buttes, Arizona, for 1896. In contrast with -the Gila River and Queen Creek in Arizona, a dia- gram is given showing the discharge of Cedar Creelf, Washington, for the year 1897. The point of measurement of this stream is at Clifford's bridge, in section 19, town. 22 north, range 7 east, Willamette Meridian. The drainage area is estimated to be 143 square miles, and it, therefore, is the same as the area of the basin of Queen Creek. The basin of Cedar Creek lies on the western slope of the Cascade mountains. It is heavily timbered, and in addition the ground is covered with a very heavy growth of ferns and moss. The precipitation for the year 1897 was about 93 inches in the lower portion of the basin, and is estimated to have been as great as 150 inches on the mountain summits, The rain- fall or the Queen Creek basin is estimated to be about 15 inches. The maximum flood discharge in 1896 on Queen Creek was 9.000 cubic feet per second, and the maximum flood discharge on Cedar Creek in 1897 was 3,601 cubic feet per second. The mean discharge for Queen Creek was 15 cubic feet per second, and for Cedar Creek 1,089 cub»c feet per second. While Queen Creek is frequently dry, the minimum discharge if Cedar Creek during the period in question was never less than 27 per cent, of the mean for the year. These two streams represent ex- treme types. The radical difference in their character is believed to be largely due to the difference in forest cover. The discharge of Cedar Creek for the year 1897 is believed to be fairly reprsentative. The CHAPTER XXIX. 233 JAN I FEB lUAPCH] APRIL I UAY | JUNK | JULV I AUG | SEPT I OCT I NOV [ DEC 10 10 10 iO 10 »0 10 30 10 10 10 to 10 10 10 20 10 20 10 20 10 20 10 20 Sec. fL. 4,000 3,600 2,500 l,.50O Discharge of Cedar River, near Seattle, Washington, for lsy7. following table of discharge is taken from the Nineteenth Annual Re- port of the Geological Survey, i'art IV, Hydrography. MONTH 1897 Discharge in Second-Feet Max. January 2,812 February 2,415 March 1,366 April 2,752 May 2,143 June 1,410 July 2,284 August . . . September October . . November December Total . . . 561 418 433 3,155 3,601 3,601 815 823 723 790 939 780 572 342 311 294 323 674 294 Mean. T,430^ 1,303 901 1,599 1,562 1,060 1,135 427 350 339 1,318 1,639 1,08^9 Total for I Month in i Acre-Ft. "87,928 72,365 55,400 95,147 96,043 63,074 69,788 26,255 20,827 20,844 78,426 100,778 Depth in inches ~il.55 9.49 7.28 12.47 12.61 8.26 9.15 3.44 2.72 2.74 10.28 13.23 786,875 103.22 2d-ft. per sq.mile. 10.00 9.11 6.30 11.18 10.92 7.41 7.93 2.98 2.44 2.37 9.22 11.46 7.61 It will be noted that the vertical scale showing the discharge is twice as large on the Cedar Creek diagram as on that of Queen Creek. If they were on the same scale the contrast would be greater. Estimated monthly discharge of Cedar River near Seattle, Washing- ton. Drainage area, 143 square miles. 234 THE BUTTES. SILT. The amount of solid matter carried by a stream is a very serious problem in connection with the construction of storage reservoirs thereon. The most astonishing stories are told of volumes of sediment carried by the rivers of Southern Arizona from their barren drainage basins. It is said that when these floods first appear discharged off of ranges that have been travelled by the large herds of cattle in quest of grass, the soil, which is exposed to the direct action of the sun, being exceeding light and dry is washed off in quantities that are enormous. In order to determine the amount of silt in the Gila River at The Buttes, the GeologicalSurvey has made observations by taking samples of the water daily, and permitting the mud to settle in graduated tubes. This amount of mud is then determined by reading its height upon the graduations. The mud which is deposited has then been treated in the case of numerous samples to a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and the final amount of solid matter determined by weight. Observa- tions were continued from July 29, 1895, to December 31, of the same year. Beginning on January 1, 1899, and continuing until July 31, 1899, similar observations were made at the same station, the amount of mud and solid matter being determined as previously. During the first period the volume of water discharged at The Buttes was „60,523 acre- feet, and it was found that this contained 37,984 acre-feet of mud in sus- pension. This reduced to 7,704 acre-feet of solids. The average amount of light sediment during this first period was 10% per cent, and the amount of solids a little over 2 per cent. The total amount of water discharged during the second period in 1899 was 118,981 acre-feet, which containing 1.6 per cent of solids or 8 per cent of mud. Frequent ob- servations were made, showing 20 per cent of mud in suspension during the high stages of the stream, and in one instance 27 per cent, of mud was observed. The average amount of mud for the twelve months' ob- servation was 10 per cent, and the amount of solids 2 per cent. No other stream in the United States is known to carry such a high per cent, of mud sediment. This Is in striking contrast with the clear streams of our northern forested basins. The water supply used for domestic purposes from Cedar Creek, Washington, does not re- quire filtering or settlement. The serious nature of this silt problem can readily be appreciated by those who have studied the storage of water for irrigation. It is prob- ably the gravest of all the engineering problems related thereto. For- estry should assist greatly in removing dufRculties of this nature. 235 CHAPTER XXX. FORESTRY AND ITS RELATIONS TO THE WATER SUPPLY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. By A. H. Koebig, Consulting Engineer. It is a common belief that the forests upon the watershed of any river have a great influence upon the water supply in that river, al- though, this belief being a general one, the facts must be enumer- ated in order to understand the reason why we should plant forest^ upon watersheds to protect our water supply. The forests of Southern California are situated almost exclusively upon the high mountain watersheds of the streams. The north side ot the mountains produces a very much denser growth than the South- ern exposure. On the northern slopes at an altitude of about 3,500 feet above sea level we find the black oak, the yellow and sugar pines, the fir, cedar, hemlock and others of the family of the needle-bearing trees, also a luxurious growth of underbrush, consisting of ferns and mosses, while the southern exposure and the lower altitudes of the northern slopes only produce a spare growth of wild plum, scrub oak, manzanita, sage brush, grease wood and others of that class. Our forests in the mountains have for many years past suffered by the continuous cutting of the trees for fire wood and lumber, and by frequent and extensive forest fires; also the herding of many thousands of sheep has destroyed the undergrowth and many trees, until it is almost impossible for the forests to recover, unless artificial means are employed to assist the same. This denuded condition of the mountains which constitute the natural watershed for our rivers and creeks has a most damaging influence on the water supply delivered to our valleys. It is a well established fact that wooded mountains have a greater power to attract the clouds saturated with water and cause precipita- tion of the same. The forests on the mountains also moderate the 236 WATER SUPPLY. winds which have a tendency to shift the clouds before they have had time to give up their saturation in form of rain or snow. The precipitation upon the surface of our watersheds is used in three different ways, as it were, viz.: 1st, for evaporation and plant life; 2d, for seepage into the earth, then collecting into surface, sub- terranean streams and gravel beds; 3d, for the storm run-off and run- off during the irrigating season. FIRST— EVAPORATION AND PLANT LIFE. There is a certain amount of the water precipitated in form of rain, snow and fogs upon the watershed which is taken up by the evaporation from the ground caused by atmospheric conditions, and also as nutriment necessary to sustain the plant life covering said watershed. This amount is varying with the conditions of the water- shed, and also the atmosphere. Upon undulating surfaces in the val- leys and foothills of Southern California we have learned by experience that ten to twelve inches in depth are necessary to maintain the plants and to supply the evaporation. However, on the mountains there Is only from eight to ten inches required for this purpose. The waste caused by evaporation is, of course, greatly increased by high winds, also if the precipitation falls in form of snow upon an unprotected surface exposed to the sun on winter days and the winds sweeping over the open surface. In the latter case the evaporation becomes greater, and the major part of the entire snow fall will be lost. SECOND— SEEPAGE INTO THE EARTH. That portion of the rainfall which seeps into the ground beneath the capillary attraction finds its way into the underflow of the rivers and into the underground channels, saturating the gravel beds of the valleys and filling the strata carrying the artesian supply. The saturated gravel beds feed the surface springs and supply the streams of Southern California, which after having disappeared from the surface reappear again and form a valuable part of our ir- rigation systems. The lower San Gabriel river is in summer entirely dry from the mouth of the canyon down to El Monte. At this place it reappears at the surface. Another instance of the same occurrence we find in the Santa Ana river, and many others of Southern Cali- fornia. The artesian supply is made up in the same manner, by the seepage of part of the rainfall falling upon the mountain watershed. This part finds its way through the strata which carries it on a CHAPTER XXX, 237 Steep grade into the valleys and there delivers the same with suf- ficient force to rise upon or above the surface of the ground after be- ing allowed a free passageway by a pipe inserted through the cap- ping material of the stratum into the water-flow itself. The amount available for the seepage into the underground chan- nels cannot be measured, it can only be calculated as the remainder of the rainfall after deducting the amount necessary for plant life and evaporation, and also deducting the run-off which, under certain conditions, can be measured. It is, however, very easy to see that the condition of the surface of the ground governs largely the proportion of rainfall which runs off quickly from the watershed and the proportion which is retained to seep into the ground. The rougher the surface of the ground is and the more porous we find the same, the more It will facilitate seep- age into subterranean channels. THIRD— THE RUN-OFF. The run-off consists of the storm run-off and the summer run-off. The storm run-off is that part of the run-off which flows from the surface of the watershed after the upper crust of the same has been suificiently saturated and no more water can be absorbed by it. This saturation depends not only upon the amount of rainfall and the time in which it fell, but also upon the character of the surface of the water- shed. It is readily seen that if the moisture falls in torrents the surface of the ground quickly becomes super-saturated ana the greater part of the rain runs off rapidly without having time to enter the subterranean reservoirs of the earth. It is also apparent that if the surface of the watershed is denuded of timber and underbrush, the storm run-off will be largely increased over the same from a well- timbered watershed upon which the trees and undergrowth form a resistance to the run-off and retain the water longer upon the surface, giving it more time to penetrate Into the pores of the earth and sub- sequently into the subterranean channels and reservoirs which retain their water and give it up gradually during the summer into the streams or artesian supplies of the valleys. Of course, the more water we are able to save from the storm run-off and turn into the sub- terranean channels, the more we increase the usefulness of the water- shed for irrigation. The storm run-off from watersheds varies a great deal. Observa- tion has shown that in Southern California it is as high as 95 per cent. 238 WATER SUPPLY. of the total run-off from the watershed, while from the eastern and from the wooded watersheds of the middle and southern Europe it is as low as 50 per cent. This is chiefly due to the condition of the sur- face of the watersheds, if we assume tnat the precipitation has fallen under normal conditions, excluding extremes, cloud-bursts, etc. In order to make this clear to you I will compare the San Gabriel river with Lytle creek. The watershed of the San Gabriel river is greatly denuded, having only a very spare growth of trees and under- brush. The extent of this watershed is about 226 square miles; dur- ing the rainy seasons there are frequent and enormous floods in this river, while the normal summer run-off is only estimated to be from sixteen to twenty-two feet. The watershed of Lytle creek is only about fifty-seven square miles, and is fairly well timbered, but it shows about the same av- erage summer run-off as the above mentioned, while its storm run-off is considerably less. The run-off from the watersheds depends largely upan the rain- fall, of course, but it is not proportionate to the same. Mr. F. H. Newell, of the geological service of the United States, has successfully attempted to show the relation of the ra'nfall to the run-off by platting the depths of the rainfall in inches, horizon- tally, and the mean annual run-ou, vertically, which resulted in two curves, one showing the run-off from undulating surface and the other from the mountains. This is found in a pamphlet issued by the En- gineers' Club, Philadelphia, Vol. 12, No. 2, July, 1895. By decreasing the run-off from the watersheds, we do not only increase the direct supply in the rivers and artesian belts, but also increase the facilities for irrigation upon lands situated on lower altitudes in the drainage basins of the rivers. The water which is used direct upon the higher levels of the drainage basins will be detained by seepage into the ground and forced to the surface again at points further below. The amount which has not been used for plant lite upon the first irrigated lands can be made available for irrigation at the lower levels. We see this demonstrated in the drainage basin of the Santa Ana river, San Gabriel and others. I have tried to make clear to you how necessary it is to have tne watersheds well timbered and covered with underbrush in order to create a good water supply for irrigation. We have, however, not alone to cause plantings of new forests, also it is oi the highest impor- tance to protect the now existing ones against their enemies. CHAPTER XXX. 239 The elements which largely destroy our forests are timber and wood cuting, sheep herding and forest fires. While excessive cutting of timber or wood has a very bad result upon the quality of our watersheds, the herding of sheep and the for- est fires can rightly claim to be the most damaging elements. Sheep will eat anything in their way and destroy all the underbrush, grass and small growth on the watershed. In this way they decrease the resistance of the surface against the running ofi of the water, in- creasing the storm run-off from the watershed — which latter is an entire loss to the irrigators. What is left after the sheep get through is generally destroyed by the fires left by the herders. Forest fires destroy all growth and prevent the young growth from coming up for years; also, the ashes created by the same will seal up the pores of the surface of the earth and seepage into the subterranean channels becomes an impossibility, while floods become frequent and destructive. Again I will call your attention to the San Gabriel river and the for- est fires on its watershed several years ago. After one of these large fires I have noticed that by a subsequent rainfall upon this water- shed, a small flood resulted, showing that almost none of the water was absorbed by the surface of the watershed and all ran off in a very short time. I have tried to express by the above statements the means of pro- tecting our watersheds against the denudation, and to adopt such meas- ures as are possible to create a new growth of trees wherever that can be done, and to replace the forests previously destroyed in order to in- crease the water supply for the valleys of Southern California, and, besides. If possible, to give an additional supply for such acreage as has not yet come under irrigation. A. H. KOEBIG, Consulting Engineer, Los Angeles. 240 CHAPTER XXXI. THE RECLAMATION OF DRIFTING SAND DUNES IN GOLDEN GATE PARK. ByJO'lN MCLAREN About 700 of the 1040 acres composing the reservation, was origin- ally drifting sand that moved with every gale, heavy storms sometimes moving it to a depth of three feet in twenty-four hours. This sand is sharp and clean, with nothing in its composition of a loamy nature, bar- ren and poor, so poor that barley sown on its surface, after being plowed and cultivated in a favorable season with plenty of moisture only grew about six inches in height and failed to perfect its seed, al- though perfectly protected from wind by a high embankment on its westerly side. The first operation necessary in the reclamation of ground of this sterile nature, was to bind the sand to prevent its moving. Experi- ments were made by sowing barley, also by sowing seeds of the blue and yellow shrub lupin Lupinus Arborea, also by planting seeds of Pinus Maritima, all of which were partially successful, but the first complete success was with the planting of the entire area with the sea bent grasses (Calamagrostis Arenaria), which was done by planting the roots about three feet apart, and run in with the plow. A furrow was run about fifteen inches deep in which a few roots were dropped about three feet apart, then two furrows were turned in which no roots were set, in the third furrow, roots were again planted and so on over the entire tract. Where the dunes were too steep for horses to travel, pits were dug by hand, and roots planted the same distance apart as when tue land was plowed, care being taken to firmly press with the foot the sand immediately about the roots. Moist or even wet weather is of course the best time to plant this grass, the best season for planting being between December 1st and February 15th. If planting be de- layed much later, dry weather is apt to set in before the plants be- CHAPTER XXXI. 241 come firmly rooted and the consequence is, many are lost either by drought or by being blown out by the winds. Where any large areas of plants were blown out by the roots, care was taken to have the ground immediately replanted, a gang of men being sent after every storm to pick up the scattered roots and to plant them, if possible, deeper than before. The entire tract being planted with this grass, the next operation was the building of brush fences across the wind about 100 yards apart and from four to six feet in height on the sheltered side of which young seedling trees were planted, averaging five feet apart. A variety of trees were experimented with, among which were the Norway maple, which is so highly recommend- ed in European works of reclamation, the Tamarix and the Poplar, the Monterey cypress, the Pinus Insignis, the Pinus Maritima, the Acacia Lophantha, the Acacia Latifolia and the Eucalyptus, Viminalis, Globu- lus, &c., all of which made satisfactory progress, excepting the Norway maple and the Poplar, the summer winds blowing every leaf off, almost as soon as formed. The Acacia Latifolia and Acacia Lophantha, the Monterey pine, the Monterey cypress and the Tamarix are all about equally well adapted for standing exposed sea winds, and all seem to thrive equally well in the sand but we find that the barren sand does not contain nutriment sufficient to grow trees more than ten feet in height, or until the tree begins to form heart wood. About that stage of growth, the tree begins to show signs of distress, the leaves of the Conifers gradually grow shorter, the bark gets bound and the whole tree shows a stunted, starved look Acres and acres are now in that state, and unless given assistance will die outright. Several years ago, the work of fertilizing the forest trees was begun and wherever a load of loam, manure or other good rich dressing was spread, the hungry tree responded very quickly by making good growth, a more thrifty look was noticed and in less than a year they had a vigorous healthy look, showing that want of nourishment alone was the cause of their stunted appearance. Now that the young Pines, Cypress, Eucalyptus, &c., are up twenty or more feet high, with good soil and plenty of water, most any tree that thrives in the neighborhood will do well. The willow, the elm, and the poplar, as well as the oak and the maple, are doing very well, and all the shrubs, such as rhododendrons, azaleas, and many others kinds. 242 MEMORANDUM. MEMORANDUM PROM HON. WM. ALVORD OF S. F. I do not believe that any one knows who was the first person to suggest tne plan of reclamation of the sand dunes in Golden Gate Park and the „reat Highway, which was successfully carried out by the Board of Park Commissioners, through its engineer, Wm. Ham Hall, who is now employed by the Russian Government in great irrigation schemes in Eastern Russia. In driving L.ouis Agassiz to the beach, over Old Point Lobos road, I remember making a i. version to t^e south, somewhere between Central and First avenues, to show him the sand dunes. I asked his advice about the treatment of them for park pur- purposes. He tore a slip off a newspaper and wrote the names of several French books (I have the memorandum pasted in my book of autographs) ; then said the subject had been studied by an able Ameri- can author, our United States Minister to Italy, Geo. P. Marsh, who had published a volume on the subject called "Man and Nature." I think we all read it carefully, and were influenced by it The first effort at reclamation were with barley and lupine seed sown broadcast on sand that had been turned over a lictle with cul- tivators. Children were employed gathering lupine seed several years. Afterwards we employed men in gathering the seeds of pines and cypress in Monterey counts', which were sown in boxes in cool houses, and when fifteen or eighteen months old planted in the open under the protection of the lupines. This was followed by the sowing of seeds of the Arundo Arenaria and other kinds (which we imported from France, "20 cases," and no doubt McLaren can give you the names) on the slopes of cuts and on the dunes oceanward from which the strong winds and drifting sands came. I may mention here that we had driven Asa Gray and Frederick Law Olmstead several times to the unimproved portion of the park, and were indebted to them for good advice. The opinion is generally expressed that the intelligent and persistent work done on the wonderfully successful reclamation of the bare, drift- ing sand dunes of Golden Gate Park was largely due to Hon Wm. Alvord. 243 CHAPTER XXXII. REPORTS ON FOREST FIRES FROM SPECIAL AGENTS REPORT No. I. BY SPECIAL AGENT SENT OUT BY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOREST AND WATER SOCIETY. STODDARD'S CANYON FIRE. This fire was first noticed Sunday afternoon about 2 p. m. from Santa Monica, and was started by a party of picnickers from Pomona who came to Stoddard's Camp. Some of the party went up the Can- yon and several went up to the third Falls. When they wished to come back they had great difficulty in getting down the ladder on account ot the fire below them. On arriving at the camp they gave the alarm and a very conflicting story as to its origin. U. S. Government Ranger Bradford has taken their names and addresses. By Sunday night the fire had spread over the ridge around and over Spring Hill, along the ridge and over the Saddle of the Ontario moun- tain. Some work was accomplished by the force under Ranger Brad- ford, but the main reason the fire did not go over to the range leading to Old Baldy was the San Antonio Creek and Wash, which at this point is quite wide, with very little growth excepting that along the creek which is green. By Tuesday evening the fire had reached the western mouth of Cucamonga Canyon — thus doubling on itself. After reaching the Ontario Saddle it turned in a southeasterly direction and came down the canyon. At this point the fire could have been very easily con- trolled had the fire men been set to work to back-fire the canyon; but these tactics were not employed once during this whole fire. By Wednesday morning the fire had reached the eastern mouth of the can- yon. On Wednesday morning, Rangers Bradford of San Antonio dis- trict and Casey of Lytle Creek started out with twelve men to Cuca- monga Canyon in a wagon and took a cook and provisions. After tak- ing the men to the canyon, Ranger Bradford took his team to Ontario. 244 REPORT ON FIRE. In the meantime, Ranger Bradford sent a gang of eight men by way ol the Fairchild's trail around to Mt. Cucamonga to intercept the fire; but as Ranger Bradford had never been over the Fairchild's trail he did not know that it had grown up in many places. The gang of eight men were, however, under a Mr. Norman Allen of North Ontario, who is a thorough mountaineer and has been over all the ranges in that vicin- ity; knew all the springs. Saddles and Hogbacks there were. Had Mr. Allen been given a man and two burros to pack provisions and water !is far as they could go; had he also not been handicapped by orders from a man who did not know the mountains, the fire could have again been stopped here. But these men were expected to stop a mountain ftre with three shovels, one pole axe and one hand axe. No files were provided them with which to sharpen these axes. One man was detail- ed to carry them provisions to the Ontario Saddle; instead of doing this he met us at the Forest Supervisor's camp and asked us to take them up, which we did. Now these men had worked their way to Cucamonga Mountain; reaching it, they were in no condition to work, for they had had nothing to eat since the night before and to get water they had to climb two miles down the canyon to a spring known to Mr. Allen, and not being allowed to back-fire there was very little for them to do, for it would be utterly imposible for them to cut a fire break wide enough across the mountain with two axes to keep flames back that jump two and three hundred feet at a leap. My party reached the Ontario Saddle at 1:15 p. m. Wednesday, and sat down to watch the fire come up the Cucamonga Mountain. All the south and east was enveloped in dense smoke. If we could only have had some of the Washington officials there with us I am sure they would in the future try and do something to protect the reserves in a rational way. At 2 p. m. the flames burst over the peak with the roar of a water-fall, and these men would have been burned to dsath at their work had not Mr. Allen known the mountain and the course of the wind changed for the minute. As it was they had to drop their shov- els, cover their mouth and nose with their coats saturated with water from their canteens and run over the side of the mountain. All this we saw from the Ontario Saddle. About two hours after this we met the men on the old Fairchild's trail, and a sorrier crowd of men I never want to see. Men who had- been working and tramping over those mountains tor almost 24 hours, with no provisions and their shoes worn into holes. We gave them the provisions and divided my whiskey Rask among them, gave them tobacco, and one poor fellow, Mr. A. E. CHAPTER XXXII. 245 Eidson, had to tie up his foot in a flour sack in which we took up their provision. In my estimation the man who will endanger men's lives by such ignorance is just as criminally carel-j^^; as the fool with a match. Ranger Casey deserves almost as much credit as Mr. N. D. Allen, as he started up the canyon after the fire, doing the best he couid to save what the fire missed. He and his men saved the flume in Cucamonga Canyon. Out of the twelve men that started out with Ranger Casey only four came through, arriving at nine o'clock last (Thursaay) night on Thursday's Overland. Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen arrived at North Ontario with a full outf t of shovels, axes, canteens and one brush hook. He told me he had just heard of the fire, and was very sorry that Mr. Borden, the Supervisor, had not telephoned him sooner. This will give you some faint Idea of the way the men in charge of our reserves protect them. From the time the fire started until it reached the big timber on the Cucamonga Mountain it is estimated that a large and important watershed has been destroyed. The big timber, which was reached by the fire on Wednesday, ranges from 4 to G feet in diameter and is from 100 to 200 feet high. The forest fioor of these high Sierras is from 1 to 3 feet thick — pine needles, cones, etc. On Friday morning the fire had gone to the east, north and south from Cucamonga Point. The fire had gone over Ice House Canyon and I)eer Canyon. Lytle Creek is only a few ranges away, and unless stopped by rain or smothered by its own ashes it will go on to the des- ert, which would in that event have destroyed the eastern half of the San Antonio water shed. The entire Cucamonga water-shed, the Lytle Creek water-shed and the mountains in the vicinity of the Cajon Pass. The loss in that case would be at the least calculation, one-third of the entire Southern Reserve. Respectfully, CHARLES E. RHONE. 246 REPORT NO. 2. REPORT NO. 2, BY SPECIAL AGENT SENT OUT BY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOREST AND WATER SOCIETY. FIRE IN SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAINS. {Commencing Sunday, August 27.) Origin of fire: Supposed to be caused by a party of picnickers from Pomona, who spent Sunday in Stoddard's Canyon. Some of the party went up to the third falls and when they started towards the camp could hardly get through on account of the fire. Upon arriving ai camp they gave the alarm and told a very conflicting story. Their names and addresses were taken by Ranger Bradford of the San Anton- io district. This was at 2 p. m. Sunday. Methods of fighting the fire: At no time was there a systematic attack made. No line of campaign was laid out and no one was suf- ficiently well acquainted with the trails (Saddle, Hog-Back and Spring) of the mountains, in charge to do so. The only methods employed was one fruitless attempt to keep pace with the fire and save that which the fire missed. In this way twelve men under Ranger Casey of Lytle Creek managed to save the Cucamonga fiume. Mr. N. D. Allen of North Ontario, a trained mountaineer with eight men provided with three shovels and two axes, attempted to make a fire- break on top of the Cucamonga Mts., which resulted in failure and for which they almost lost their lives. Tools used: All the tools used were borrowed for the occasion and none arrived from the Department until Thursday noon, when Forest Superintendent B. F. Allen arrived from Los Angeles. In the meantime the fire had gotten into the big timber northeast of the Cuca- monga Mts., and was beyond all hope of stopping it twelve hours be- fore his arrival. Men in charge: B. P. Allen, Forest Superintendent, of Los Ange- les, is a man past middle life and is not fully acquainted with the Sierra Madre Mts. Supervisor Borden of Pasadena is a man also past middle life; does not know the mountains, and did not attempt to get beyond the old CHAPTER XXXII. 247 Richard Place in San Antonio Canyon, where he made his headquar- ters. Ranger Bradley, who is game and fish warden as well as ranger, is also a man past middle life; he has never been beyond the Fair- child's trail. Ranger Casey of Lytle Creek is a young and active man, and, con- sidering that he was working in a district that he did not know, did very good work: starting out wich twelve men up the Cucamonga Can- yon after the fire and coming down the almost impassable Fairchild's trail at nine o'clock at night. The commissary of the patrol was in charge of Supervisor Borden, and consisted of such scanty supplies that the men, when they could, would go to Stoddard's Canyon and buy their meals themselves. One man and a mule were supposed to transport provisions to the men, which he did, one meal at a time, while the men were ten and fifteen miles away. IIRE PATROL AT STODDARD'S CAMP TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT. The men had fought the fire Monday night, and were relieved to rest Tuesday and Tuesday night; while the fire crossed from the west mouth of Cucamonga Canyon to the east mouth, not five miles away by wagon road, and could have been stopped by a few men by back- firing. Age of Patrol. When Hon. Abbot Kinney asked Mr. B. P. Allen to employ the students of the Forestry School he replied that they could not use them as they were mostly boys. Now, the members of the Forestry School were with one exception over eighteen; while the pa- trol had two boys of fifteen and ore man of almost sixty. '249 ILLUSTRATIONS. Grizzly Giant Frontispiece Forest in Sierra 16 Before and After Lumbering 20 Redlands Rescued From Desert by Irrigation 24 Petrified Forest 27 Desert Native Growth 29 Range Without Level Land 31 Backbone of Sierra Nevada 33 Overlooking Grand Canyon 37 Arizona Desert From a Rock Cave 40 Forest Fire 43 Forest Fire, July, 1900 45 Chaparral After Fire 47 First Day After Fire 49 Third Day After Fire 49 Burned District in Sierra Madre 51 Burned Forest Showing Line to Unburned Trees 51 Burned Forest 53 View at Echo Mountain 55 Two Thousand Sheep Illegally Herded 65 Neve in the Sierra Nevada 86 Above the Clouds at Echo Mountain, Sierra Madre 88 Below the Clouds, same day 88 Irrigating Stream, Sierra Madre 90 Native California Palms 94 Spring in Sierra Madre 94 Forest Giant and New Growth 132 Timber and Timber Line on Sierra Nevada 134 Tamarack Pines on Alpine Lake in Sierra Nevada 137 Granite Dome and Upper Timber Line Pines, Sierra Nevada 139 Pines in the Sierra Madre Summits 141 Yellow Pines (P. ponderosa). Sierra Madre Mountains 143 Forest Growth on Sierra Madre, 5000 feet above the sea 145 Pine Forest, Sierra Madre, 6000 feet above the sea 145 El Capitan, Young Tree Growth in Protected State in the Yosemite 147 Logging in California 148 250 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. Black Oaks — Young Yellow Pines in Left Foreground 149 A Burned District in the Sierra Madre, Unburned Forest in the Foreground 151 Dou^ass Spruce in the Sierra Madre 154 Timber and Timber Line, Sierra Nevada, at Cathedral Peaks 155 White Oak Grove at Chico 164 Mountain Lion 158 California Bear 162 White Oak Grove 164 Head of Quail, Life Size '. 165 A Night's Catch of Trout 167 Cuyamacca Lake, San Diego County, California. Used for Irriga- tion 201 Proposed Dam Site, Sierra Nevada 204 Sweet Water Dam 207 Turlock Dam 210 Dam for Irrigation, Arizona 212 Irrigating Tunnel and Flume 214 Cuyamaca Reservoir 216 INDEX. Admission to Forest Should be by Permit 127 Agassiz, Anecdote of 242 Alvords' Memorandum 242 Arizona Lands Under Irrigation 200 Australian Experience in Pasturage 69 Authorities on Forest Trees 131 Muir. Sereno Watson. Dr. George Engelman. Prof. J. G. Lemmon. Prof. C. S. Sargent. Benefits of Forests — Water Supply 87 Timber 76 Pasturage 60 Scenery 39 Resorts for Recreation 103 Carnivora 159 Mountain Lion. Lynx. Gray Wolf. Lowland Wolf. California State Board of Forestry 19 Communal Use of Forests Disatrous 58 Conifers 133 Conservation of Rainfall 79 Capacity of Soil (from German authorities) to Receive Water 183 Capacity of Same 178 Dams — The Pecos River 205 Bear Valley 206 The Sweetwater 208 ii INDEX. Destructions of Forests — Causes 18 Results 18 Devastation by Floods after Forest Destruction — Already Suffered 61 Threatened 93 Dykes 95 Evaporation 185 Engineer ot State of New Jersey on Water Supply Connected with Forests 186 Fires — Causes 41 Evils of 52 Prevention 125 How Extinguished 127 Special Report on Fires 243 Fir Trees 243 White Red. Foliage and Moisture 174 Forestry Required by Special Conditions in California, with details 72 Game on California Reserves 157 Mammalia 160 Hoofed Animals 160 Deer. Antelope. Mountain Sheep. Elk. Bison 61 Rodents 163 Birds- Grouse 165 Quail 166 Fish 167 Trout. General Government Must Relieve Existing Abuses 67 Must also Provide for Irrigation 74 Summary of Arguments for Government Control 74 Hemlock 149 Juniper .153 INDEX iii Irrigation — See Chapters Sub-irrigation 193 Inter-irrigation 196 Surface Irrigation 191 Can Supply Conditions to Feed from Fifty to a Hundred Mill- ion People 74 Should be a Government Project 191 Kinneloa Ranch; Conditions Illustrating Off-flow 82 Letter from the Author to the Land Commissioner 129 From Mr. Lukens 122 From Mr. Thomas 123 Los Angeles City has Special Interest in Dangers from Torrents. . . 93 Lumbering (foot note) 135 Management of Forests — A Government Duty and Prerogative 98 Needs Entire Renovation 130 Present System Confused: Authority without Knowledge, and Knowledge without Authority 98 Temporary Improvements 1 00 Restrictions which Government Alone Can Enforce 127 Measurements of Water — The Miner's Inch, Fixed by Law, the Best Unit 189 The Metric System Applied 189 Objects of Forestry 22 Off-flow as Estimated by Mr. Koebig 84 Origin of Forests 25 Origin of Forest Pasturage 57 Permits 103 Pasturage of Forests by Sheep 63 Results of Such Pasturage 58 In the Golden Gate Park 69 Patrol 106 How Appointed 100 Qualification 106 Supplies 114 Petrified Forests 26 Proportion of Forests to Tillable Lands 32 The Pines 136 Ponderosa (The Yellow) 136 Jeffrey! (The Black) 138 iv INDEX. Sabiniana 140 Attenuata 140 Coulter! 140 Torrey 140 Lambertiana 141 Monticola 144 Balfouriana 144 Flexilis 144 Albicaulis 144 Murrayana (Tamarack ) 144 Contorta 144 Monophylla 146 Insignis ( Monterey) 146 Rations as Fixed for Soldiers and Sailors 118 Reclamation at Golden Park 241 Records of Rainfall 171 In Pliiladelphia 171 Los Angeles 171 Why Uncertain 171 Renewal of Forests 26 Requirements of Foresters on Duty 109 Reservoirs — The Tonto Basin 200 Gila River 202 Rio Grande 203 Cuyamaca 208 Artificial. See dams. Natural 221 Retention of Moisture 176 Tests at Colby, Kansas, by U. S. Department of Agriculture.. 176 Reclamation of Sand Dunes 241 Schools of Forestry — Must Teach Connected Sciences and the Practical Duties.... 100 At Los Angeles 21 At Cornell University 21 In North Carolina 21 Sciences of Which a Forester Should Have Knowledge 106 Sheep Pasturage 63 Spruces 149 Douglass 151 Macrocarpa 151 State Board of Forestry in California — What It Accomplished and Why It Failed 19 INDEX. V Sediment Discharge 233 Seepage 236 Theory of the Origin of Forest Trees 25 Torrents — Their Sources 78 Their Evils and Dangers 79 Effects Seen Along the Sierra Madre 81 How Dealt With 93 Trees of the Forest 131 Works on the Subject 131 Underground Waters 218 Their Channels 222 Their Origin 219 Water- Experiments at Kinneloa 80