324 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



per acre, a sure crop coming every year without regard to weather, 

 without trouble and work, and raised on the poorest part of the 

 farm. It is questionable whether such net results could be secured 

 with the same steadiness from any other crop. Nor must it be over- 

 looked that the work in harvesting this crop falls into a time when 

 little else could be done. 



Wire fences and coal fires are, no doubt, good substitutes, but 

 they require ready cash, and often the distance of haulage makes 

 them rather expensive. Presently, too, when the virgin woods have 

 been still further culled of their valuable stores, the farmer who has 

 preserved a sufficiently large and well tended wood lot will be able 

 to derive a comfortable money revenue from it by supplying the 

 market with wood of various kinds and sizes. The German State 

 forests, with their complicated administrations, which eat up 40 per 

 cent of the gross income, yield, with prices of wood about the same 

 as in our country, an annual net revenue of from $1 to $4 and more 

 per acre. Why should not the farmer, who does not pay salaries to 

 managers, overseers, and forest guards, make at least as much money 

 out of this crop, when he is within reach of a market? (Y. B. 

 1895.) 



Rock River Valley Conditions. For some years past the Rock 

 River, in Wisconsin and Illinois, has been decreasing its volume, 

 or at least changing in the regularity of its flow. In summer the 

 upper tributaries and smaller creeks have occasionally run dry. 

 Should these changes continue, they would interfere with various 

 industrial interests of the region. Numerous mills and other man- 

 ufacturing plants in the towns along the river depend upon its 

 water power. There are also dams and locks for slack-water nav- 

 igation at the principal cities. A canal that extends across the State 

 of Illinois from the lower end of the Rock River to the Illinois- 

 River draws upon the Rock River for a part of its water supply. 

 Moreover, the agricultural interests of southeastern Wisconsin, in- 

 cluding extensive cultivated and pasture lands situated among the 

 numerous headwaters and smaller tributaries of the Rock River, 

 rely to some extent upon these sources for sustained moisture in the 

 soil, particularly during seasons of irregular or diminished rain- 

 fall. These various industries manufactures, transportation, and 

 agriculture are closely dependent upon a steady water supply, and 

 therefore upon the forest, which is an agency of the first importance 

 to this end. 



Besides their importance as an agency in regulating the water 

 flow, the forests of the Wisconsin watershed add to the attractive- 

 ness of the region, which is annually visited by many people be- 

 cause of its beautiful scenery and the excellent fishing and shooting 

 it affords. 



A possible method of equalizing the flow is through the agency 

 of forest growth. The present condition is largely the result of for- 

 est destruction and forest deterioration incidental to the agricul- 

 tural development of the region. In this case, therefore, the ques- 

 tion becomes, can it be shown to landowners in the region that it 



