26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



It would uo: avail much to call iu all of tliese forces unless they 

 ■were put to work. They are not for consultation alone. They are 

 expected to lay out the work, and if it is approved, the work falls 

 to them to do. Most of the funds jirovided are expended in ways 

 specifically stated. The War Department sx^ends .$20,000,000 of the 

 appropriation yearly — one-lliird of it — in constructing embankments, 

 levees, dykes, opening and deepening channels, building reservoirs, 

 storage basins, artificial lakes, and other engineering works of that 

 kind. This part will be under the direct control of the chief of army 

 engineers, and the whole corps of engineers will be his assistants. 



It should be specifically noted that the reservoir system for water 

 storage is included in the provisions of the bill. That attacks the 

 floods at their source by holding some of the water back. It is pro- 

 vided that the development of water power must be promoted; also 

 that in time of low water the stored supplies in the up-stream reser-- 

 voirs shall be sent down to keep an even stage, as nearly as possible, 

 in the n.avigable stretches of the rivers. 



The monopoly of the engineering work is not allotted to the army 

 engineers. The Eeclamation Service receives $20, 000,000 a year, and 

 this will be expended in building works for both irrigation and 

 drainage. Most of the irrigation will naturally lie toward the 

 sources of the streams, bui the drainage will be lower down. Much 

 of the water stored in reservoirs constructed by army engineers will be 

 used to irrigate land under management of Reclamation Service en- 

 gineers. To a large extent the two departments will work hand in 

 hand, yet separate forces will be at work. 



The Smithsonian Institute is allotted $1,000,000 a year and expends 

 the sum in collecting data from this and other countries that will be 

 valuable in executing the general plans. > 



The Bureau of Plant Industry will receive $6,000,000 a year. The 

 chief function of this bureau will consist in finding ways and means 

 of getting the greatest possible benefit for the resources made avail- 

 able by the engineering works of the War Department and Reclama- 

 tion Service. This bureau has long been engaged in vahiable studies 

 of food and forage plants, and of soils and situations. The value of 

 similar investigations in the past can hardly be calculated. It is 

 proposed to continue them, in a wider field, in order to take ad- 

 vantage of opportunities that will be opened for the first time. 



The Geological Survey's part of the approjiriation is $3,000,000 a 

 year. This will be expended, in part, in stream measurements, and 

 by that means both the Aimy Engineers and those belonging to the 

 Reclamation Service will be greatly assisted in their work. 



The Forest Service is allotted $10,000,000 a year. Half of this is 

 for purchase of lands needed for the iirotection of the courses of 

 rivers, it is understood that purchases of this kind wUl be confined 

 chiefly to regions east of the Mississippi river, but the proposed bill 

 does not specify 'that it shall be expended in the Kast. The remain- 

 ing $5,000,000 a year allotted to the Forest Service will be expended 

 in fire protection, tree planting, and in co-oi)erating with states which 

 appropriate money for such work. 



The underlying principal of the plan is that all shall work together. 

 There will be no duplication of work, no conflict of authority. The 

 scope embraces the entire United States. It is not a scheme that 

 can be completed in a few years. Xo one knows how long it will 

 take, but whatever is done will be permanent. All resources will be 

 used. Rivers which have always flowed unused to the sea will be 

 developed to their highest efficiency for irrigation, waterpower and 

 navigation. Every practical means will be employed to prevent soil 

 erosion by which the lower reaches of the rivers have heretofore been 

 silted up. That in itself viill go far toward curing the flood evil. 

 Storage reservoirs near the sources of rivers, forest and crop cover 

 for the slopes and bottom lands, and levees and deepened channels 

 lower down, will ultimately reduce the flood damage as low as it can 

 te done by the ingenuity of man. 



The machinery for carrying on the work is provided in this bill. 

 The supervising power and authority will lie in a waterways com- 

 jnission. This commission will consist of the President of the United 

 States, who will be chairman of the commission with power to veto; 

 the secretaries of War, Agriculture and the Interior; chairman of 



the Board of River Regulation ; chairman of the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, and chairman of the Panama Canal Commission. 



The Board ol River Regulation will be the active working body. 

 It will consist of the chief of engineers, V. S. Army; chairman of the 

 Mississippi River Commission ; director of the United States Geolog- 

 ical Survey; diu'ctor of the Reclamation Service; the forester of the 

 Agricultural Department; chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry; 

 the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; one civil engineer, one 

 sanitary engineer, one hydroelectric engineer, one expert in transpor- 

 tation, and a chairman of the board. The last five shall be appointed 

 liv the Piesideiit of the United States and hold office at his pleasure. 



Alaska's Timber Resources 



In 1009 R. S. Kellogg was sent to Alaska by the United States 

 l-'orest Service to prepare a report on its timber resources. After 

 traveling several thousand miles in various parts of the region, and 

 loii&ulting various reports prepared by other investigators, he summed 

 ui the situation by saying that the forested area in Alaska covered 

 iil'.iut 100,000,000 acres, or 27 per cent of the territory. About one- 

 fifth of the area which is classed as forest land contains saw timber, 

 and that on the other four-fifths is valuable principally as fuel, on 

 account of its small size. 



There are, of course, patches of good timber and poor interspersed 

 itver various regions, but the chief stands of saw timber are in the 

 southern or southeastern part of the territory. The aggregate stand 

 in that region has been very roughly estimated at 75,000,000,000 feet. 

 The best of this timber lies in the Tongas and Chugach National 

 forests, which contain 26,761,626 acres. The land iu these forests is 

 largely wooded with much fine timber. 



The interior of the territory is forested along the valleys .-ind low 

 liills. Tiees are usually small, but often large quantities of cordwood 

 are cut. Sometimes the amount runs as high as twenty cords per 

 aero. Practically the only fuel used in the interior of Alaska is wood, 

 and the demand is rapidly depleting the supply in the vicinity of 

 camps. Forest fires consume ten trees for every one cut and put to 

 use. but this applies only in the interior where the climate is dry. 

 The heavy forests near the coast have been little damaged by fire 

 because the ground litter never becomes dry enough to burn. 



Trees of the interior forests are generally too small for lumber. 

 They range from three inches to a foot in diameter and from thirty 

 to sixty feet high. In favored localities larger trees occur, in tho 

 interior valleys. The principal species there are white spruce, whito 

 birch, balsam ])0]ilar, black Cottonwood, aspen, black spruce, and 

 tamarack. White spruce is the most important species of the interior 

 and supplies most of the saw timber, and is also much used for fuel. 

 White birch is extremely abundant. This is not the white birch of 

 New England and tlie I-ake States, but an Alaskan .species which is 

 very similar. 



The valuable timber is in the southeastern part of Alaska. The 

 forests are an extension of those of Washington and British Columbia 

 and partake of their character. The rainfall is heavy and the growth 

 is rank. The principal species are Sitka spruce, western hemlock and 

 western red cedar. There are a number of other trees of some 

 importance. Twenty per cent of the stand is Sitka spruce, seventy- 

 five per cent western hemlock, and the remaining small part is made 

 up of western red cedar and other species. 



The spruce is the largest species of that region. Trees occur 

 which are six feet in diameter and 150 feet high. Averages of three 

 feet hold good over considerable areas. Large rafts of logs which 

 average three feet at the butt and twenty inches at the top and over 

 seventy feet long, go to the mills. 



Western red cedar averages three or four feet in diameter, and 

 western hemlock is a little smaller. The forests are overmature. 

 Trees are from 200 to 600 years old. 



About twenty-five sawmills are at work in Alaska and their average 

 cut is about a million feet a year each. Thus far the output has 

 been chiefly spruce. The mills supply local demand in their imme- 

 diate regions. Much of the lumber is made into salmon cases. It 

 costs approximately twenty dollars a thousand feet when delivered 

 at the box factories. 



