igo: 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



241 



contained what part of the country had 

 been having the heavy rain, the flood 

 waters from the Zuiii River carrying the 

 largest amount of silt, while from the 

 volcanic mountain country the per cent 

 of silt would be small. 



Where reservoirs are located near the 

 mountains and catch the mountain flood 

 waters, there is a very small deposit of 

 silt and debris. For example, in the 

 reser\'oirs near Springerville, which are 

 within or near the forest reserve and 

 catch the mountain flood waters, the de- 

 posit of silt during the past fifteen years 

 has been very little, while at Woodruff, 

 a town located on the Little Colorado 

 River, about fifty miles from the moun- 

 tains and below its confluence with the 

 streams from the open range country, 

 a dam forty feet high was built across 

 the river where it flows through a box 

 canyon, and the reservoir above the dam 

 entirely filled with mud in about ten 

 years. As these people were only fig- 

 uring on securing the natural flow of 

 the river by getting it out of the canyon 

 and did not expect the dam to be of any 

 value as a storage reservoir, their object 

 w^as accomplished. 



Quite a number of small storage reser- 

 voirs have been built in northern Ari- 

 zona from which some good lessons 

 might be taken. The most valuable 

 reserv'oirs are those built in coves off to 

 one side of the river, and which are filled 

 during the winter and early spring, when 

 the water is running clear and quite free 

 from silt. If reservoirs could be built 

 of sufficient capacity to store all of this 

 water, the area of agricultural lands 

 could be greatly increased without the 



flood waters. When the flood waters 

 come down heavily laden with silt the 

 flood-gates are opened and the muddj^ 

 water allowed to pass on by. Reser- 

 voirs which have been used in this way 

 for the past fifteen years are in good 

 condition and have accumulated very 

 little sediment. If it happens to be late 

 in the season, in a time when the water 

 is greatly needed, it is turned directly 

 into the ditches instead of the storage 

 reservoir and distributed over the land. 

 It may fill up the ditches a little, but it 

 makes up for this by fertilizing the land. 

 The heavy rainfall and source of per- 

 manent water supply being in the moun- 

 tains, the importance of the forest re- 

 serve as the foundation of a successful 

 irrigation system is very readily seen ; 

 consequently every precaution should 

 be taken for its protection. Investiga- 

 tion having shown that serious damage 

 has not been done in this forest reserve 

 by grazing, and the prosperity of sev- 

 eral of the adjoining counties depending 

 greatly upon the live-stock industry, it 

 is evident that what is needed here is a 

 system of regulation which will insure 

 to the government and the irrigation 

 interests that the forest conditions will 

 be maintained and improved, and to the 

 stockman that if he obeys the regula- 

 tions and continues to use the range ju- 

 diciously he will be allowed the grazing 

 privilege. If the plans for the regula- 

 tion of grazing prove to be practical and 

 the forage crop is thus utilized without 

 injury to the timber or water supply, 

 the result will be an increased sentiment 

 in favor of the forest reserves and a 

 great benefit to the commonwealth. 



ADMINISTRATION OF U. S. FOREST RESERVES. 



By Filibert Roth, 



Chief of Division R, General Land Office. 



PART II. CHANGES OF THE IvAST YEAR. 



AS stated in the last issue of this 

 paper, the work of caring for the 

 National Forest Reser\^es is still in its 

 infancy, having barely finished its fourth 



year. The work was organized under 

 temporary, makeshift conditions, with 

 a vast and constantly increasing field of 

 action and new conditions to be met and 



