1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



231 



The district composing this reserve, 

 and the western end of the "Black 

 Mesa " forest reserve as well, is a pla- 

 teau comparatively level, averaging six 

 to seven thousand feet above sea level, 

 covered for the most part by an open 

 forest of pine timber bounded on the bor- 

 ders, where the plateau descends into 

 the deserts or timberless plains, with a 

 belt, a few miles in width, of scrubby 

 Cedar. On the south it breaks off ab- 

 ruptly into the tributaries of Salt River, 

 the headwaters of which extend into 

 this plateau in the form of precipitous 

 canons one thousand to fifteen hundred 

 feet deep, which are fed by numberless 

 springs that burst out at the bottom of 

 these canons. 



The formation of this entire plateau is 

 volcanic. It is covered with extinct vol- 

 canoes and evidences of volcanic influ- 

 ence. The stratified formation is every- 

 where broken and shattered, and the soil 

 is of a loose, porous nature, so that the 

 rains and melting snows are drunk up 

 by the soil like a sponge and appear 

 again, if at all, only at the bottom of the 

 canons, or small springs at rare inter- 

 vals on the Mesa which disappear in a 

 short distance from the point at which 

 they rise. We have absolutely no run- 

 ning streams on this Mesa, or forest re- 

 serve. It is not precipitous and does 

 not wash. To illustrate : The draw that 

 passes through Flagstaff heads at the 

 foot of Mt. Agassiz and topcgraphically 

 drains an area of more than two hundred 

 square miles, has no outlet but empties 

 into a little valley five miles east of town. 

 It seldom runs to this valley and never 

 more than once or twice during the year, 

 and is often dry the entire year. 



The forest reserve districts of Arizona 

 have been used for grazing sheep for 

 twenty to thirty years. We have never 

 before heard it claimed that "The ca- 

 nals and laterals of Salt River valley 

 filled with sand and silt " because of the 

 sheep grazing on the forest reserves 

 which lie two hundred miles further up 

 the river ; and one familiar with the moun- 

 tain plateaus and with the dry, sandy, 

 dusty, and windy districts and plains 



through which the waters of the Salt 

 River and the canals and laterals of the 

 Salt River valley flow, after leaving the 

 mountain forest reserves, would be hard 

 to convince that the sheep on the moun- 

 tain materially affected the filling of the 

 canals and laterals referred to. If there 

 were any such results, they would be 

 constant, and it could not be said that 

 'Whenever sheep have been driven 

 there in large numbers," etc., these re- 

 sults were seen, because the ranges of 

 these forest reserves have been used con- 

 stantly for twenty years, and the results 

 would be constant and universal in the 

 Salt River valley. 



There is little in common with the 

 sheep-grazing industry of Arizona and 

 that of many districts, perhaps any dis- 

 trict of California. The scarcity of wa- 

 ter on the mountain plateaus of Arizona 

 has confined the summer ranges of each 

 individual sheep breeder to a more or 

 less definite locality during the summer 

 and dry season, within which he owns 

 or controls the permanent water supply. 

 He is a settler. This is his home from 

 which he comes and goes as the season 

 may require. There is no undergrowth or 

 "cover, "and none is needed to "hold 

 back the snow or prevent surface floods. " 



The great enemy to the forest and to 

 the wool-growers is the forest fires which 

 burn up the feed for the flocks and de- 

 stroy the young and tender Pines. The 

 grazing off of the grass and weeds by the 

 sheep and the vigilance of the sheep 

 owners are the greatest safeguards against 

 these forest fires. Where the timber 

 has been cut and the laps and brush left 

 scattered upon the ground, these fires 

 are inevitable, and destructive to much 

 of the larger growth. Steps should be 

 taken to require parties cutting timber to 

 clean up carefully all combustible mate- 

 rial left behind, whether on private or 

 reserve lands. 



It is the popular idea that sheep graze 

 in close, compact herds and hence tram- 

 ple out what they do not feed off. This 

 is incorrect. They are not closely herded 

 or bunched except in driving or corral- 

 ling, which, in well-managed herds, is 



