ful irrigation; for, without the forests, the melting snows in win- 

 ter and spring fill the streams, and leave them empty and 

 dry in summer and autumn, when, more than at any other sea- 

 son of the year, water is needed for irrigation. It is not claimed 

 that the denudation of the forested mountains causes a decrease 

 in the amount of snow and rain that falls upon them, but it is 

 certain that the fallen leaves beneath the standing forests act as 

 filters for the water that falls upon them and hold it back, so 

 that it is dealt out to the streams and rivers through a longer 

 part of the year. Removing the trees removes the leaf-filters, 

 and this, in turn, allows the water to run off in floods, scarring 

 the mountains, filling up the streams with detritus, flooding the 

 lower reaches of the rivers and leaving them at low ebb or 

 empty at the very seasons when the irrigating ditches call for 

 their greatest supply of water. The irrigationist, therefore, is, 

 like the reclamationist, the steamboat men, the drainage men, and 

 all others who depend upon deep, full rivers, vitally interested in 

 the preservation and the extension of the forests of California. 

 He should join hands with all the others in demanding that the 

 State should do all that it can to this end." 



The next item on the program was the selection of the place 

 for the next meeting, the eighth semi-annual, to be held in the 

 following December. Francis Cuttle, president of the Rivierside 

 Chamber of Commerce, extended an invitation to the committee, 

 on behalf of his organization, to visit Riverside. H. A. van C. 

 Torchiana extended a similar invitation on behalf of the Santa 

 Cruz Board of Trade and the Watsonville Chamber of Com- 

 merce to the delegates to meet in Santa Cruz. He dwelt on Santa 

 Cruz's claims as an ideal convention city. 



John H. Hartog, secretary of the Colusa County Chamber of 

 Commerce, seconded the invitation of Riverside, as did also 

 D. W. Coolidge, secretary of the Pasadena Board of Trade, and 

 Dr. L. A. Perce, president of the Long Beach Chamber of Com- 

 merce, and George Henderson of the Humboldt Chamber of 

 Commerce. H. F. Emlay, secretary of the Watsonville Chamber 

 of Commerce, spoke in behalf of Santa Cruz. 



The chairman stated for the information of those present that 

 Fresno had put in a claim for the meeting a year before, and 

 had given way to Petaluma at the previous meeting in San 

 Diego with the understanding that it should have the eighth semi- 

 annual meeting. He stated that the absence of the Fresno dele- 

 gation was rather strange, and that they might have made bad 

 connections. Mr. Sbarboro stated that he thought it only fair to 

 Fresno to make the explanation. Santa Cruz then withdrew in 

 favor of Fresno for the next meeting. F, W. Yokum, secretary 



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