1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



11 3 



sixty acres and an elevation at its bot- 

 tom of 138 feet above the level of the 

 ocean. 



The plan contemplates the irrigation not only 

 of the Hope Rancho, but of 3,000 acres of rich 

 lowlands in the Goleta Valley, owned by many 

 different persons. It is believed that this dis- 

 trict, when properly watered, will produce 

 great crops of superior early vegetables for the 

 Eastern markets, which are already eager buy- 

 ers of early California celery, peas, carrots and 

 similar vegetables adapted to long-distance 

 shipment. The land, naturally rich for ordi- 

 nary farming, will, when parceled into small 

 holdings for Chinese or Italian truck gardeners, 

 be worth ten times its present value as a 

 source of revenue to its owners. 



The company, by buying 2,000 acres of rug- 

 ged mountain, has executed a bold stroke, set- 

 ting completely at defiance all the claims of 

 riparian owners along the creek, the source of 

 which is to be practically undermined by the 

 mountain tunnel. Supreme Court decisions 

 and the testimony of experts are quoted to show 

 that the company has the law on its side. One 



of the best known cases is that of Sheffield vs.. 

 Gould, in Santa Barbara, in which Gould was 

 upheld in having bored a tunnel into the moun- 

 tain on his own property and secured by natural 

 percolation water that formerly flowed into a 

 little creek running through the Montecito 

 Valley eastward of Santa Barbara. 



Work will be started on the tunnel imme- 

 diately, and will be prosecuted with vigor. 

 The water system will be completed within a 

 year, so that everything will be in readiness 

 for any further developments incident to the 

 inauguration in May, 1900, of the coast railroad 

 route which runs through Hope Rancho. 



It will cost $25,000 to bore the tunnel, which 

 is expected to yield a constant flow of twenty 

 miner's inches of water, a technical expression 

 better understood, perhaps, by the explanation 

 that twelve inches of water is equivalent to a 

 continuous flow of a stream one foot wide and 

 one inch deep. 



State Mineralogist A. S. Cooper, of this city, 

 and City Engineer J. K. Harrington, of Santa 

 Barbara, both recognized authorities on moun- 

 tain water tunnels, have been perfecting the 

 plans. Jotirnal, N. Y. 



Colorado Advice, 



It is to be regretted that the legisla- 

 tures of Colorado have not given more 

 earnest attention to the preservation of 

 the forests of this State. There is no 

 one thing of so much importance. If 

 the time comes when the snows of the 

 mountains are no longer protected by 

 the shade of the trees, the prosperity of 

 the valleys will vanish. The injury may 

 not come to this generation, but will be 

 visited on those that come after us. 

 Denver Republican. 



Among the many interests of this 

 Western country some of the more im- 

 portant are our forests. To hold the 

 snows, increase the moisture and abate 

 the winds, our forests should have espe- 

 cial care. The Government is giving 

 them more attention, and minimizing the 

 constant waste and almost willful destruc- 

 tion that have been going on. These 

 forests are a most important factor in 

 the comfort and growth of the West. 

 Western Progress, Denver, Col. 



Colorado Experience. 



The ice gorges in the North Platte this 

 season are unprecedented. That at the 

 Cheyenne & Northern bridge, a mile 

 south of Orrin Junction, is on a level 

 with the track. Superintendent Rasbock 

 has sent out a force of men with dynamite 

 to blast it away. The bridge built over 

 the Platte last season by the Platte Val- 

 ley Sheep Company, of which Governor 

 Richards is president, has already been 

 partially wrecked by gorged ice, and its 

 total destruction is said to be inevitable. 

 Higher up the river, at Fairbanks, the 

 county commissioners have had men at 

 work for a week fighting the formation 

 of a gorge, and they are now there per- 

 sonally superintending the work. This 

 latter bridge is of vital importance, as it 

 connects the iron mines at Hartville 

 with the Cheyenne & Northern Railroad 

 at Badger, over which the teams are 

 hauling ore. Western Progress, Denver*. 

 Col. 



