Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 71 



villages. No water is retained at the higher levels, so that none is fed 

 underground to the lower soils or to the springs. As a result, even on 

 the plains the water level is too far beneath the surface to be used. 

 Without irrigation and the ingenious terracing of hillsides, by which 

 the rains are made to wash the soil into thousands of miniature fields 

 whose edges are propped up by walls, agriculture would be entirely 

 impossible. Even irrigation calls for the immense labor of drawing 

 the needed water from wells. 



In a word, the Chinese, by forest waste, have brought upon themselves 

 two costly calamities floods and water famine. 



OUR NEIGHBOR'S FORESTS. 



The Government of British Columbia has put into forest reserves at 

 one strike a hundred and fifty million acres five eighths of all the land 

 in the province. In British Columbia the lumberman who wishes to 

 cut trees must deal with the Government, whose enlightened policy, 

 giving the people the control of their timber resources, is carried out 

 by the local government of the province, unlike some of our western 

 states, which hang back in sullen protest while salvation is forced upon 

 them by a distant national authority. 



CONSTRUCTION VS. DESTRUCTION. 



There are nineteen National Forests in the State of California. It is 

 a good thing to devote more time and energy to the wise and careful use 

 of the forests that remain to us than to lamenting those that have been 

 destroyed. Forester Graves has this to say of our present resources in 

 pasture : 



"The forage resources of the National Forests contribute in greater 

 or less degree to the maintenance of over 20,000,000 head of domestic 

 animals. The annual products of these animals amount in value to 

 many millions of dollars and constitute a very large proportion of the 

 meat supplies of the Nation. There is not a state in the Union whose 

 demands for meats, hides, or wool are not met, in part at least, by the 

 products of animals that have grazed upon National Forest lands. 



"With each succeeding year the western stock grower places an 

 increasing degree of dependence upon the forest ranges. The value of 



