[901 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 





prices of cattle, the ranges now carry but a 

 tithe of what they once did. It is impos- 

 sible to procure definite figures ; but rough 

 judgment, based upon observation and con- 

 versation, with the stockmen of this de- 



A large portion of such a flood al 

 into the ground, joins the underflow, 

 characteristic of the great valleys of 

 Southwest, and finds its way to lower 

 levels yet more slowly. At one point with 



pleted range, shows it to have been almost which I am familiar, the wat 



commercially destroyed. In the San distance of ten miles in about three months 



Simon valley alone, it is judged, on these in just this way. 



grounds, that within the past decade the The result of these agencies was a con- 

 number of cattle has fallen off from 75 to stant and not excessivdv muddy How of 

 90 per cent. In the Sulphur Spring val- water whose fluctuations were nol extreme, 

 ley, adjacent, it is stated that during the thus yielding to the irrigation farmer a 

 season of 1900, which was a very severe comparatively regular and cleanly supply 

 one, the losses of cattle by starvation were of irrigating water. 



from 15 to 50 per cent., averaging about When a range has been bared by cattle, 



25 per cent. however, and its surface ground to powder 



These instances represent the condition by their hoofs, and especially when the 



of the cattle industry in scores of great gullying process has begun in the larger 



valleys, and from the stockman's point of valleys, the rains quickly collect into sud- 



view, indicates the urgent need of adminis- den and destructive floods of extremely 



trative measures planned for the salvation muddy water, which pass away as quickly 



of this great industry. as they come. The water supply is thus 



But the hardship merely begins with the made much less constant in character, over- 

 stockman ; far below him, on the land ad- whelming the farmer with excess one week. 



jacent to the rivers, is the irrigating farmer, 

 who depends for by far the most part upon 

 the range watersheds for his water sup- 

 ply. As previously stated, the vegetation 

 on the range, especially the bunch grass 

 in the lower swales, at one time so ob- 

 structed the flow of water that the rainfall 



and threatening him with drouth the next. 

 The excess of mud contained also embar- 

 rasses the irrigator, increases the expenses 

 of maintaining his ditches in good order, 

 and often causes severe loss in coatin<r the 

 leaves of tender vegetation with mud. The 

 quantity of mud which may result under 



found its way but gradually over the sur- these conditions may be judged when I 



face of the ground to the main water- 

 courses. I well remember once being 

 overtaken by a flood in country of this 

 character. A heavy storm in the moun- 

 tains, some fifteen miles away, gave rise 

 to a great volume of water, which slowly 

 and almost noiselessly found its way 

 through the abundant grass to lower levels, 

 and the first intimation of the presence of 

 the flood, which was several miles broad, 

 was the splashing of my horse's hoofs in 

 the quietly moving sheet of water. 



state that in my laboratory I have several 

 composite samples of water, each repre- 

 senting one week's flow of the Gila River 

 at Florence, which, after iz months set- 

 tling, show 6 to iS per cent, by volume of 

 mud. This enormous quantity of sedi- 

 mentary matter for such considerable 

 periods of time shows not only the magni- 

 tude of the erosion which is being accom- 

 plished by these rivers, hut indicates the 

 difficulties which they impose upon the 

 farmers using the water. 



