240 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



June, 



on the forest reserves and by the graz- 

 ing of large flocks of sheep and herds 

 of cattle and horses over the drainage 

 basins. This would lead one to believe 

 that if the timber cutting were stopped 

 and the sheep, cattle, and horses ex- 

 cluded from the forest reserve, an ideal 

 condition could be obtained and the 

 quantity of silt and debris carried in 

 the water would be sufficientl}^ dimin- 

 ished to obviate the danger of filling the 

 canals. 



It is doubtful if this would be so for 

 two reasons : first, because a very small 

 proportion of the silt comes from the 

 forest reserves, and, second, that the 

 flood waters coming from outside of 

 the reserve carried a large amount of silt 

 before the country was stocked with 

 cattle and sheep. That the amount of 

 silt coming into their canals during the 

 last few years is greater than it was 

 previously is true, and the cause of this 

 condition is the serious damage that has 

 been done to the open range outside of 

 the mountains by overstocking with 

 cattle, horses, and sheep, and also the 



number of dry years from which the 

 country has suffered. Until .some sys- 

 tem or plan has been devised for con- 

 trolling grazing upon the open range 

 which will benefit the stockmen by im- 

 proving its condition and permanent 

 wealth-producing capacity, as well as 

 protecting the irrigation interests, this 

 condition regarding the flood waters can 

 not be very greatly remedied. 



In the early years of the live-stock 

 industry in northern Arizona, while the 

 country was new and had not been in- 

 jured by overgrazing, the summer rains 

 were generally thunder showers, coming 

 up suddenly and just falling in spots, or 

 from a cloud-burst, with the water fall- 

 ing in torrents over an area of a few 

 square miles. A dry wash would in a 

 very short time become a running 

 stream, which would swim your horse 

 if you undertook to cross it. These 

 storms always caused floods in the river, 

 and the water carried a large amount of 

 silt, one remarkable feature being that 

 you could often tell from the color of the 

 muddy water and the quantity of .silt it 





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CATTI,E RANGE WITHIN THE FOREST RESERVE ON THE SLOPE OF THE VERDE RIVER. 



