FOREST POLICY. 



the Mt. Rainier National Park of 207,360 acres, with its unrivalled 

 combination of ice and woodland scenery. 



(d) Part (about 104,000 acres) of the Priest River forest 

 reserve. 



(e) Blue Mountain forest reserve. 



9. Irrigation: Irrigation is profitable on the east side of 

 the Cascades. 



Small farms, along the -narrow strips of land left between 

 the river and the foot of the cliffs framing the canyons, are found 

 along the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Here, the irrigation of 

 fruit orchards is particularly remunerative, the water being lifted 

 from the river by bucket wheels. 



In the Great Bend country it will be necessary to construct 

 reservoirs, storing away the supply furnished by intermittent 

 and uncertain streams. 



Washington hops are famous. The seemingly arid soil of 

 the rolling uplands in the east has been found to produce splen- 

 did wheat, without irrigation, owing to its remarkable hygro- 

 scopic qualities. 



The irrigated farms, covering 135.000 acres, produced anno 

 1899, from irrigation works costing $1.700,000. a crop valued at 

 $2,400,000. 



FORESTRY CONDITIONS OF WEST VIRGINIA: 



1. Area: 18,400 square miles, or 73% of State, are stocked 

 mostly with merchantable timber. 



2. Physiography: West Virginia has the poorest shipping 

 facilities of any State in the east. The main rivers (the Big 

 Sandy, Guyandotte, Kanawha and Cheat) which are not naviga- 

 ble rapidly traverse a plateau sloping from the crest of the Alie- 

 ghanies westward to the Ohio River. The Potomac alone, rising 

 in the extreme northeast, finds its way to the east along the 

 Maryland line. 



3. Distribution: The hardwoods prevail by far. Echimiia 

 pine is found scatteringly on a narrow belt lying half way between 

 the mountains and the Ohio River. Pinus virginiana, rigida and 

 pungens occur on the east slopes and on the poorer soil of the 

 plateau. A few Pinus resinosa, found in the high mountains, are 

 the southernmost representatives of that species. 



102 



