90 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



size and the wording is so changed that if a fire escapes in spite of due 

 dilligence he may be excused. No amount of diligence should be 

 an excuse because he is always at liberty to stay out of the woods if 

 he does not know how to behave as a woodsman should. 



Of all the people in the world, we, of Southern California and 

 especially of its business center, Los Angeles, are the most vitally 

 ;and immediately interested in forest preservation . Our interest is 

 not remote as in Oregon where the rainfall is so great, and where 

 there is already many times more water than the next century can 

 learn to use. We make talk of our climate and scenery and out of door 

 attractions as we please, and it is all true enough, but after all our 

 prosperity is dependent mainly on the productive power of the soil. 

 For though there are thousands who do not care to cultivate, there 

 are few who care to sit down in a desert for the mere inhalation of 

 climate, and most of these are quite as much opposed to a semi-desei't 

 as to the full-blown article. Our resources are strictly limited by our 

 water supplies and these are limited by our watersheds. That is so 

 far as we know. We have no right to assume that any of our water 

 comes from the Sierra Nevada of the north or any other distant 

 source. We know nothing about it. But we do know that our local 

 watersheds are sufficient, aided by the vast gravel reservoirs of the 

 slopes and plains, to account for all the water we yet have and con- 

 siderably more. But where the rain shed from a single acre of the 

 mountain top in winter is worth one hundred dollars or more in the 

 land below we cannot afford to risk one drop of it to accommodate the 

 whimsical, the reckless or the lazy. 



