370 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



count for the record. In soil conditions, 

 and especially in the condition of the sur- 

 face, however, the change has been marked. 

 At the beginning of the period of measure- 

 ment, in 1S90, the countrj^ was for the most 

 part occupied by large ranches. The na- 

 tive prairie sod had never been broken up. 



"On the part of the watershed lying in 

 Texas there had been some settlement at 

 an early date, but as late as 1900 no more 

 than 12 per cent of the Texas part of the 

 watershed had been improved. In the Ok- 

 lahoma part of the basin, in the same year, 

 the improved portion was 16 per cent. De- 

 velopment began most extensively about 

 1900. In southwestern Oklahoma, in that 

 portion drained by the Red River, it was 

 stimulated by the opening of Indian reser- 

 vations to settlement. The Cheyenne, the 

 Arapahoe, and the Wichita lands were 

 opened, it is true, in 1890, but the real 

 opening of the country to settlers came 

 in 1901, when the Comanche, the Apache, 

 and other Indian lands were opened, aggre- 

 gating over 10,000 square miles, or more 

 than one-fourth of the entire Red River 

 basin above Arthur City. Another tract of 

 over 8,000 square miles, the Choctaw and 

 Chickasaw lands, began its development 

 about the same time. A summary of these 

 figures shows that in 1908 the Red River 

 basin in Oklahoma had 10,200 square miles 

 of improved land, instead of 3,284 square 

 miles in 1900. Statistics are not complete 

 for the Texas portion of this basin but the 

 Texas portion has developed at about the 

 same rate as the Oklahoma part. It is 

 probable that the whole Red River basin 

 above Arthur City, in Texas and Oklahoma, 

 had 40 per cent of its land under im- 

 provement in 1908, instead of 14 per cent 

 eight years earlier. 



"The results which have appeared in the 

 form of change of the flow in the Red 



River are precisely what ought to be ex- 

 pected from the changes in surface condi- 

 tions. Theoretically, such results should 

 appear, and as a matter of fact, they have 

 appeared. The hardened prairie soil has 

 been broken up and changed into culti- 

 vated fields over 40 per cent of the area, 

 and thereby the absorptive capacity of the 

 soil has been much increased. Over the 

 remainder prairie fires have been kept out 

 and better growth of grass secured. The 

 extensions of cultivation and the improve- 

 ment of the grass land has tended to equal- 

 ize the flow of this river. The river's be- 

 havior has become better as the area of 

 wild land has decreased. In other words, 

 wild, barren land, being the worst condi- 

 tion for the protection of a watershed, and 

 cultivated farm lands being next to forests 

 the best condition, the change of a large 

 part of the watershed from the worst con- 

 dition to the next to the best condition 

 has brought about this result. 



"The same law is thus seen to work on 

 both the Cumberland and the Red River 

 watersheds, but in different directions. On 

 the Cumberland, as the watershed changes 

 from the forest (the best condition for 

 stream protection) to farm land, to pas- 

 ture land, and even to barren condition 

 (the very worst condition for absorption), 

 the flow of the river is made more extreme, 

 both as to floods and low waters. On the 

 Red River watershed, beginning with a 

 wild, almost barren, compacted surface, cul- 

 tivation has changed the condition to that 

 of permeable farm lands, which, next to 

 forests, offer the best conditions. These 

 two extremes exemplify, therefore, in dif- 

 ferent directions, the working of the same 

 law that there is a vital relation be- 

 tween the condition of the surface of the 

 watershed and the manner of flow of the 

 stream which drains it." 



NEWS AND NOTES 



Forestry Neeting at Bretton Woods 



The Society for the Protection of New 

 Hampshire Forests will hold its annual 

 meeting this summer at Bretton Woods 

 on the 2nd and 3rd of August. The head- 

 quarters will be at the Mount Pleasant Ho- 

 tel, where a special rate of three dollars 

 and a half a day has been given for those 

 who attend the meeting. President Taft 

 has been invited to be present and may do 

 so. The National Forest Reservation Com- 

 mission, appointed under the new forest 

 law, has also been invited to hold a meet- 

 ing at the same time and place. The Di- 

 rectors of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion are contemplating holding a summer 



meeting at the same time and may arrange 

 for a field meeting of the Association con- 

 juiiiLiy with the New Hampshire Society. 

 Those who have experienced the pleasure 

 Oi a slay iu the heart of the White Moun- 

 tains will appreciate the attraction which 

 this meeting offers. 



Minnesota State Forest Service 



The State Forestry Board under the new 

 forestry law which was published in Ameb- 

 icAN Forestry last month, has appointed 

 William T. Cox, assistant forester. United 

 States Forest Service, chief forester, and 

 D. P. Tierney assistant. 



Mr. Cox is a native of Minnesota where 



