86 TRANSACTIONS OF STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which flows naturally in our streams, and we see our crops fail year 

 after year from drought and frosts. We must develop more water, stand 

 still, or go backward. There is no alternative. 



More water can be developed in three ways : 



First — Increase in natural rainfall (and diminution of frosts) by 

 preserving the trees which are left, and by replanting denuded lands. 



Second — Storage of the flood or winter waters, which now flow into the 

 ocean, doing nobody any good and most of us harm. 



Third —Utilization of our vast underground supply, by pumps 

 operated by electrical power generated either in our mountain streams, 

 or by our new natural fuel — crude oil. 



• 



Forests. — So much of our forest land has passed into private hands 

 that the forestry question in this State is a serious but not an insur- 

 mountable one. The Federal Government should not sell another tree. 

 Every acre of forest land should be reserved by it, and if any trees are 

 cut on its lands for lumber, they should be cut under the direction of 

 experienced foresters in such manner as to improve rather than destroy 

 the property. This can, and, with the hearty cooperation of our citizens, 

 will be done, for the Federal Government is keenly alive to the neces- 

 sity of preserving the forest trees of this State. 



But this is not sufficient. We need more forest lands, and as we 

 cannot afford to buy timbered lands, why not go into the business of 

 buying denuded lands, replanting them, and in the course of fifteen or 

 twenty years, sell stumpage in such a manner as to pay expenses and 

 probably a profit ? Germany has done it, and is already fifty years 

 ahead of us in internal agricultural improvement. She has thirty-five 

 million acres of forest lands, manages them scientifically, and makes 

 money out of them. She never cuts a tree without planting another. 

 She has actually improved the productive capacity of her agricultural 

 lands, and yet it takes forty years for her to develop a good-sized tree, 

 where it would take us not more than fifteen. Other States, more wide- 

 awake than ourselves and with less necessities, have bought denuded 

 lands at from fifty cents to two dollars per acre, have replanted them, 

 and are now managing them under approved rules of forestry. Why 

 cannot we do the same ? There is nothing the State needs so much 

 as a complete non-partisan forestry system working in harmony, pos- 

 sibly in partnership, with the Federal Government. 



Flood Waters. — A large percentage of our annual rainfall is carried 

 by our torrential streams to the sea. This does not belong to the 

 riparian owner, but to the State. This should be impounded and used 

 at seasons of low water. The investigations of the United States 

 Geological Survey during the summer of 1900 showed the possibility 

 of constructing storage reservoirs at an average cost of eight dollars 



