26 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



January, 



sion, fills cavities, forms 

 natural storage basins, and 

 conditions fa- 



to artificial irriga- 



ANGORA GOATS FEEDING UPON YOUNG TREES AND BRUSH. 



is an able ally in forest destruction. 

 Then may be named cattle and, last, 

 horses. The horse is a very demure 

 and well behaved animal in a forest, but 

 every farmer knows what a few of these 

 frolicsome animals will do in a meadow, 

 and what they will do in a meadow they 

 will do on the open range, and more, for 

 here there is no restraint whatsoever. 

 It is unfortunate that the ranges of 

 Arizona are so thoroughly stocked with 

 worthless horses. 



The only thing which has in any 

 marked degree withstood these destroy- 

 ing agents has been the plain, homely, 

 despised brush, and this humble ally of 

 the forest needs fostering and more ade- 

 quate protection. It is on the brush- 

 land areas, the boundary between forest 

 and desert, that serious forest problems 

 are being solved. Brush lands are the 

 last barriers between the forest and the 

 desert plains and the valleys. It is 

 the brush which fastens the soil to the 

 mountain side ; it is the brush which 

 defies the flood water in its search for a 

 channel ; it is the brush which turns the 

 flood water out upon the surface and 

 irrigates the mountain, hillside, and 

 plain ; it is the brush which transforms 

 the rocky, barren canon into a narrow 

 valley, filled with soil and teeming with 

 vegetation ; it is the much-despised 

 brush which successfully checks ero- 



establishes 



vorable 



tion and water storage. 



The destruction of this 



forest growth referred to 



will undo all these wise 



provisions of nature. 



I have witnessed the total 

 destruction of ten or fifteen 

 acres of rich, arable, bot- 

 tom land in a single flood, 

 due to the careless cutting 

 of a growth of brush land 

 or dwarf timber. An in- 

 stance of this occurred on 

 Granite Creek, Yavapai 

 County, and Aravaipi 

 Canyon, in Pinal County, 

 last year. At the mouth 

 of a side branch of each of 

 these canons was a growth of scrubby 

 timber which enlocked a great deposit 

 of boulders and silt. These trees were 

 cut for fuel, and, during a flood which 

 followed, a wash opened at the denuded 

 area and continued up the canyon 

 through the small ranches until again 

 checked by the growth of the timber 

 above. 



The forests in question usually con- 

 sist of Mesquite, Cat-claw, Palo-verde, 

 Tornillo, Ironwood, Chapparal, Man- 

 zanita. Walnut, Cherry, Sycamore, Ash, 

 and a dozen species of Oak. Even the 

 numerous species of cacti play an im- 

 portant part in the struggle against 

 erosion. It usually grows on land unfit 

 for cultivation. There is now a livel}' 

 demand for the timbers named for do- 

 mestic and steam purposes at the various 

 mining camps. 



At the present rate of consumption, 

 coupled with incident fires and pastur- 

 ing, it will not be long before serious 

 damage will occur on these watersheds, 

 unless some practical system of adequate 

 protection of cutting and removing this 

 fuel timber is adopted. 



While this class of timber has received 

 due recognition by scientific men, the 

 average citizen has been slow to see its 

 value. Schooled in the east and middle 

 west to regard brush as a thing to be 

 despised, subserving no economic pur- 



