I go: 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



23 



forest, which promises full compensa- 

 tion under the protection of a forest re- 

 serve. 



The remains of extensive ruins in al- 

 most every section of Arizona warrant 

 the conclusion that a populous prehis- 

 toric people occupied the land during a 

 period of many centuries. 



The unwritten history of the South- 

 west is phenomenal. These prehistoric 

 aborignes must have exerted a marked 

 influence upon the vegetation of the 

 country. Their fires, and those of the 

 historic races, unquestionabl}- account 



as the forests of the Mogollon Moun- 

 tains, extending through New Mexico 

 and Arizona. This is due not entirely 

 to the arid condition, as is popularly 

 supposed, but to the continued occu- 

 pancy of the country for centuries by 

 prehistoric races, who merged into the 

 Indian tribes occupying the country at 

 the present time. All through Arizona 

 the regrowth of pine forests dates some- 

 where during the pa.st half century, and, 

 with a few exceptions, nowhere ante- 

 dates the earl>' settlement of the coun- 

 try b}' our own race. 



BORDER OF THE " BtACK FOREST." A CEDAR FORESTED AREA BETWEEN THE 

 SAN FRANCISCO MOUNTAIN AND PRESCOTT FOREST RESERVES, ARIZONA. 



for the open condition of the forests, to 

 which reference has been made. The 

 high pine forests were their hunting 

 grounds, and the vast areas of foothills 

 and plateaus, covered with oak and nut- 

 bearing pines, their harvest fields. Here 

 they lived in their summer homes, 

 kindled their camp-fires, and harvested 

 crops of acorns, nutritious nuts, and in 

 many instances cultivated vegetables 

 and cereals. 



Possibly no forests on the Pacific coast 

 show so small a percentage of regrowth 

 and so slight a tendency to reproduction 



From Puget Sound to the Gulf of 

 California these strange people rambled 

 at will, but their abiding place was on 

 the border land between the forests 

 proper and the ' ' Staked Plains ' ' in the 

 southwest. The extensive ruins indi- 

 cate that the>- inhabited the fringe, so 

 to speak, of the forests which, like van- 

 guards, were working their way down 

 from the mountain tops into the desert 

 plains. The mo.st potent and powerful 

 weapon in the hands of these aborigines 

 was the firebrand. It was alike used 

 to capture the deer, the elk, and the 



