THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



41 



Survey in securing large Congressional 

 appropriations for carrying on their work 

 for surveys of reservoir sites, and other 

 preliminary irrigation work. 



Many sections of the West 

 Waste of 

 the Waters. are beginning to reap the 



bitter fruits of forest destruc- 

 tion. A few years ago the snow would 

 drift ; and pile up in tne mountain gulches, 

 thickly studded with pine and other trees, 

 forming an almost impenetrable forest 

 protection, and there gradually melt 

 away, supplying water for the streams 

 until late in the season. This, now, has 

 too often changed. The timber has 

 gradually, but surely, been cut and burnt 

 away, until now some of the finest forests 

 of the mountains have disappeared, and 

 where the snow banks would remain until 

 late in the season, they now disappear 

 months earlier, and instead of melting 

 gradually, the flood-waters come with a 



rush, and then cease when most needed. 

 There is scarcely anything more im- 

 portant than forest protection and preser- 

 vation, which means a guarding of the 

 water supply; and every state and every 

 section should rouse to active local orga- 

 nization and national co-operation. 



Every dollar expended by the 

 Investment. National Government for the 



building of reservoirs and 

 great irrigation works to reclaim the 

 millions of acres of western aridity will 

 return to the Federal treasury six to one 

 in the form of increased taxes on increased 

 land values and population. Every con- 

 gressman knows this, now that his atten- 

 tion is being called to the subject by 

 eastern manufacturers who want a largeei 

 market in the West for their goods, and 

 all this is required for his favorable 

 action is a strong and aggressive demand 

 from every western State and Territory 

 and Congr < sional district. 



