138 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



freedom they enjoyed in this direction. As settlement 

 has continued westward, the pioneer lias always been 

 favored with the free use of all resources which could 

 not be ultilized to better advantage under some kind 

 of community control. This happy condition continued 

 throughout the time occupied in the settlement of an 

 area comprising two-thirds of the public domain. A 

 time finally arrived when large interests that are pro- 

 tected by some of the bureaus at Washington found it 

 to their advantage to restrict settlement and by a policy 

 of preservation and conservation increase the value of 

 their own holdings. Some of the bureaus at Washing- 

 ton have co-operated with these large interests and are 

 still, we believe, carrying on campaigns in conjunction 

 with the publicity departments of some of the most 

 powerful interests of the country. 



The people of the West appreciate fully the neces- 

 sity of making a proper use of natural resources. They 

 understand fully the problems which are presented and 

 which must be solved before development can take place 

 and before the best use of resqurces is realized. 



When the pioneer of the West endeavors to prevent 

 some waste by running livestock on an area embraced 

 within the forest reserve, thereby consuming some of the 

 grasses which grown each year, the officers of the Forest 

 Service hold that he should pay the general Government 

 in the proportion to your grazing privilege. The grass 

 which grows this year and dies in the fall is as much 

 lost to the public as the water which has passed down 

 our rivers to the larger streams of the Atlantic and 

 Pacific. While public rights should always be preserved, 

 yet those who develop and those who are the pioneers 

 in any industry should not be taxed until the time ar- 

 rives when a higher and better use can be made of 

 any resource and when such use is necessary in behali 

 of local public interests. The tax on the use of a natuial 

 resource should, therefore, be applied when competition 

 demands such a regulation. 



It can be said without fear of contradiction that 

 the present attitude of the Forest Service would have 

 been impossible had it not been for the widely circu- 

 lated claim of beneficial effects of forests which have 

 no basis in scientific truth. For years the Forest Serv- 

 ice has been advertising that forests conserve the water 

 and regulate the flow of streams. During the past year 

 several prominent engineers of the West ha-ve taken up 

 the question of forests and their influence on stream 

 flow. These men agree that forests do not have a fa- 

 vorable effect on the run-off of streams. Colonel H. M. 

 Chittenden, of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, takes a 

 leading part in this discussion. His observation and 

 investigations have covered a long period and his work 

 has been of the most careful and painstaking character. 

 He has spent much time in the forest areas of the West 

 and can speak from a knowledge based on actual ex- 

 perience. His paper was subject to severe criticism by 

 those who had accepted the theories of the Forest Serv- 

 ice blindly, but Colonel Chittenden's arguments were 

 not thereby weakened in a single instance. A promi- 

 nent California engineer was among those who followed 

 Colonel Chitenden and he shows by actual measurement 

 of streams that those with the forest covered water 

 shed, other conditions being equal, furnish less water 

 per annum than streams which have their source in 

 localities growing no timber. Not only is the volume 

 of water greater from streams belonging to the latter 

 named class, but the season of high water is more timely 



and the floods are less violent. This engineer considers 

 from six to ten streams, of varying character in so far 

 as the timber growth is concerned, so that the results 

 of his investigations are conclusive. If this condition 

 is found to exist in California there should be no doubt 

 as to the effect of forests on stream flow in Wyoming, 

 where every acre-foot of water has a value and where 

 the anuual precipitation is less. Forests do delay the 

 melting of snow for a week or two in the spring. They 

 shade the ground as the melting begins, and the water 

 is at first absorbed by the blanket of snow beneath the 

 branches of the trees. The snow finally becomes satu- 

 rated with water and in this condition it all melts and 

 runs away in a very short period. Regardless of the 

 initial delay in the melting of the snow on the forested 

 area, the total volume of water contained therein reaches 

 the larger streams at a time equally as early as does the 

 water from snows on the exposed areas. The delay 

 which occurs is of a cumulative kind. The floods occur 

 long before water is needed for irrigation and the theory 

 that forests store water is as valueless to the irrigator as 

 is the attraction of the sun and moon. 



The conservation idea has been very contagious. 

 If the national Government, after this spasm of en- 

 thusiasm and bureaucratic advertising, is able to point 

 out how we are to use our coal and lumber and still 

 have it, we will be under obligations. If we can be told 

 how a tax on our most important industries will ever 

 help development, we will be thankful. If we can be 

 shown where, in a single instance, the national Govern- 

 ment has ever even encouraged a careful use of natural 

 resources we will appreciate it. 



The earth has supported man for a number of 

 years in the past. Those regions where our primitive 

 ancestors first lived are still productive. Eygpt contains 

 more wealth today than it did four or six thousand 

 years ago. It has never enjoyed the benefits of a forest 

 service; it has never felt the necessity for conserving 

 everything. Our country presents a greater variety of 

 natural resources than any equal area on the face of the 

 globe. The people of the West have tried to make use 

 of these. They have already obtained title to some of 

 the area embracing these resources and, as far as we 

 know, they have benefited themselves and humanity 

 by so doing. They have not until recently paid any 

 direct tax to great bureaus at Washington but this is 

 neither an indication of any weakness of the Govern- 

 ment, nor is it a criterion by which we may judge as to 

 the effect of the original policy of the Government on 

 succeeding generations. 



In discussing this great question of conservation ; 

 this new idea that the Chief of the Forest Service has 

 brought out, we must not forget that he is responsible 

 for many of the rules and regulations that retard and 

 discourage development. He, more than any other man, 

 has had opportunity to study -methods whereby he might 

 obtain control of large areas here in the West, which 

 are conserved and preserved for the benefit of himself, 

 his friends and posterity posterity, that elusive thing 

 of the future which has, like tomorrow, never been at- 

 tained and which, if ever reached, will be found taking 

 care of itself. This Chief has no family, hence has had 

 no experience in home building and has no personal in- 

 terest in posterity. His activity in everything that 

 tends to make life a long and pleasant dream for our 

 descendants is, therefore, not promoted by any selfish 

 motive. He if a public spirited man. He has some 



