126 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



March, 



VOLUNTEER STAND OF PURE MAPEE TWENTY TO TWENTV-FIVE YEARS OLD, BADEY IN NEED 



OE THINNING. 



more economically expended in utiliz- 

 ing and improving this natural growth 

 which is to be found in patches of vary- 

 ing size on almost every farm in Wind- 

 sor County, rather than in trying to 

 establish artificial plantations of maple 

 on waste pasture land. For this pur- 

 pose volunteer seeding of Red Spruce or 

 White Pine is much better adapted for 

 many reasons. The work of thinning 

 natural or volunteer growth is simple, 



requiring nothing but common sense, 

 such as is possessed by the average 

 farmer in this locality. Planting, on the 

 other hand, to be successful, requires a 

 knowledge of the principles f forestry, 

 which is at present rareh' to be found. 

 For the.se reasons it is hoped that in 

 future more attention will be paid to 

 the thinning of volunteer second-growth 

 maple, such as is shown in the accom- 

 panying illustration. 



LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS. 

 By Guy EivLiott MitcheIvL, 



Editor The National Hotneniaker. 



TWO years ago the eastern half of 

 the United States knew practi- 

 cally nothing of irrigation in the West 

 or of the possibilities lying in the rec- 

 lamation of arid America. It was hardly 

 known that irrigation was practiced in 

 this country. Eastern papers published 

 little or nothing on the subject. Editors 

 considered that an article submitted to 

 them descriptive of the ancient irriga- 

 tion systems of Egypt, Syria, or Peru 



was of more general interest to their 

 readers, and published it in preference 

 to accounts of the wonderful irrigation 

 works of California and Colorado. Now 

 and again, when the question of the rec- 

 lamation of the Great American Desert 

 was discussed in a Sunday issue of some 

 of the large dailies of the East through 

 the medium of some facile pen, the sub- 

 ject appeared as one of those fancy 

 sketches of the di.stant future an im- 



