NATIONAL FORESTS AND THE WATER SUPPLY 



1509 



means to this region is also well 

 illustrated by the value of the 

 crops produced on irrigated lands 

 that without water would be of 

 little or no agricultural value. In 

 191 5, 25,750 acres devoted to 

 citrus fruits, alfalfa, and sugar 

 beets, deriving their irrigation 

 water from the San Antonio 

 watershed, with an area of only 

 -'4 square miles, yielded crops 

 valued at $5,400,000 ; while 5,870 

 acres of citrus fruits, deriving 

 their water from the San Dimas 

 watershed, with an area of only 

 18 square miles, yielded crops 

 valued at $2,600,000. 



Irrigation represents one of 

 the vital needs for water in the 

 West, but there are others. 

 Water is the "white coal" which 

 furnishes or will furnish the 

 motive power for lighting sys- 

 tems, trolley lines, and manufac- 

 turing plants everywhere in the 

 Western states. As such it con- 

 stitutes an immensely valuable 

 resource. The western moun- 

 tains contain more than "jz per 

 cent of the potential water power 

 of the United States. Through 

 lack of markets, only a compara- 

 tively small part of this has been 

 utilized, but in the last 20 years 

 great strides have been made in 

 development. In the decade 

 from 1902 to 1912, for example, 

 water-powef development in the 

 Western states increased 451 per 

 cent, or more than four times as 

 rapidly as in the rest of the 

 country. How rapidly water 

 power is developed in the future 

 will depend solely on how many 

 new industries and people make 

 their home in the West. Judging 

 by how many have gone there in 

 the past, the demands of the 

 Western states upon their 

 "white coal" will continue to 



multiply. No less than forty-two per cent of the 

 water power resources of the eleven Western states, or 

 approximately 31 per cent of the water-power resources 

 of the entire country, is actually within the National 

 I'orests. Moreover, a large part of the remaining power, 

 although developed outside of the Forests, is derived 





WHERE "WHITE COAL" IS TRANSFORMED INTO ELECTRICITY 



A power plant on the Sierra National Forest, California. The pipe line has a drop of 2.000 feet. The 

 National Forest contains 42 per cent of the water power resources of the West. These can he developed 

 by private interests upon payment of an annual charge and under restrictions that protect the public 

 against monopoly. 



from streams rising in them. In 191 5 nearly 42 per 

 cent of the water power already installed was developed 

 by plants some part of which occupied National Forest 

 lands or which were directly dependent on storage reser- 

 voirs constructed on National Forest lands, and 13.6 per 

 cent more was similarly dependent on other public 



