146 



THE FORESTER. 



June, 



tion, covering a period of several years 

 had been collected. It was further ascer- 

 tained that the watershed in question in- 

 cluded secondary drainage basins repre- 

 senting different types of soil cover which 

 varied from dense forests to open chappa- 



ral. 



Conditions appear to be particularly 

 favorable for undertaking the solution 

 of the important problem of soil cover and 

 the run off of streams. The party now 

 going into the field is to investigate the 

 soil cover including forest and chapparal 

 growths on all parts of the watershed. 

 The data regarding soil cover obtained 

 from each of the secondary drainage basins' 

 will later be compared with the data re- 

 garding rainfall and run off on the same 

 basins. It is thought that the investiga- 

 tion will result in the possibilty of arriving 

 at a scientific conclusion regarding the re- 

 lation of soil cover to run off. 



Drouth, Fire, and " A shortage in lumber 

 a Shortage in and consequent higher 

 Lumber. prices for this season are 



predicted by dealers in the West. The 

 shortage is ascribed to the forest fires and 

 the drought in the lumber-producing sec- 

 tions of the Northwest. The shortage of 

 December i, 1899, as compared with the 

 same date in 1898, was 766,000,000 feet; 

 as compared with the same date in 1897, 

 was i, 1 87, 000,000 feet; and with the same 

 date in 1895, was 1,452,000,000 feet, 

 showing a large ratio of decrease in prod- 

 uct. It was expected, on account of ad- 

 vanced values, that the production for 

 1900 would overcome a large part of this 

 shortage for the present season by the 

 stimulation of log output, but because of 

 unfavorable logging conditions there has 

 resulted an additional shortage of log pro- 

 duction. Lack of snow in the lumber 

 districts seriously interfered with the haul- 

 ing of logs to the river bank, and low 

 water in the rivers has prevented the de- 

 livery to the mills of much of the timber 

 sledded to the rivers. There is no likeli- 

 hood of relief in this respect, as the season 

 of floods is past. Added to the shrinkage 

 in supply are the losses of millions of feet 



by forest fires, and the loss by the fire in 

 Ottawa, coupled with the fact that there 

 can be no output this season from the 

 mills burned in that fire."- (New York) 

 Evening Post. 



<* 



A Southern Hard- " The purchase is an- 

 nounced of 156,750 acres of 

 hardwood timber land in Sharkey and 

 Washington counties, Mississippi. The 

 buyer is George T. Houston & Co., and 

 the sellers the Illinois Central and Yazoo <\: 

 Mississippi Valley railroad companies. 

 This tract is the largest virgin forest in the 

 South and is situated in the Yazoo Delta. 

 It consists mainly of White Oak the quan- 

 titv of which cannot be estimated. It is 

 virtually a solid body 70 miles long and 8 

 to 20 miles wide. It is between the Yazoo 

 A: Mississippi Valley Railroad and the 

 Sunflower River. The price exceeds 

 $1,000,000 and gives Houston & Co. the 

 largest holdings of hardwood stumpage in 

 that territory. * * # A number of mills 

 are to be erected on the new acquisition 

 and the lands as soon as denuded of tim- 

 ber will be sold for agricultural purposes. 

 In addition to the White Oak there is a 

 large quantity of Cypress, Poplar, Cotton- 

 wood and Red Gum."- -Mississippi Valley 

 Lumberman. 



J* 



Preserve Natural Mr. T. P. Lukens, vice- 

 president of the Forest and 

 Water Supply Society of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, began an article which appeared 

 recently in the California Cultivator, 

 with the statement that it was not the 

 question of cheap lumber, but that of the 

 water supply which concerned the south- 

 ern part of the State. In the course of 

 this article Mr. Lukens said : Far up the 

 San Gabriel river, there are vertical walls 

 many hundred feet high. At first glance 

 they appear as solid as a marble shaft, but 

 on observing closely, you see innumerable 

 places where water is exuding. Further 

 down the formation is more broken and 

 the granite disintegrated. In fact, our 







mountains are a perfect sponge, admirably 

 adapted for conserving the water, if there 

 is something to hold the excessive precipi- 



