298 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



July. 



at the Cumberland Mine. Elk Moun- 

 tain lies within the borders of the newly 

 created Medicine Bow Forest Reserve, 

 and contains some of the finest timber 

 in the state. 



Tennessee. A serious forest fire, 

 which destroyed a number of houses 

 and barns, occurred in the mountains 

 near South Pittsburg on June 26. Hun- 

 dreds of people turned out to fight the 

 flames, one of whom, Mrs. Mary Eevan, 

 was burned to death. 



Arizona. The serious forest fires 

 which broke out in the Huachuca Moun- 

 tains late in May continued to burn until 



nearl}^ the middle of June. A large 

 amount of timber was destroyed, and 

 many mining properties were saved only 

 through the hardest kind of work on 

 the part of the fire-fighters. TwO' 

 companies of soldiers from Fort Hua- 

 chuca were called out to help fight the 

 flames. 



Virg'inia. A forest fire in the Dismal 

 Swamp, Nansemond county, destroyed 

 several hundred acres of timber, and also- 

 sev^eral houses near Copeland. 



Wisconsin. Forest fires late in June 

 were reported as occurring near Wausau ,. 

 the damage being slight. 



IRRIGATION IN THE EAST. 



STATISTICS FROM THE TWELFTH CENSUS. 



WITH the passage of the New- 

 lands irrigation bill unusual 

 interest is being shown in the subject 

 of the development of the arid West. 

 In this connection, it might be well to 

 call attention to the increasing tendency 

 among the farmers of the East to resort 

 to irrigation. 



The Twelfth Census was the first in 

 which any attempt has been made to 

 ascertain the number of irrigators in the 

 humid regions. The chief difficulty 

 experienced was that irrigation is so 

 widely practiced in a small way though 

 it is almost unknown by this term. In 

 every city, town, village, and well-set- 

 tled suburb of the country the watering 

 of lawns and gardens is car-ried on as 

 a matter of course. People do not des- 

 ignate this as irrigation, yet that is 

 really what it is. The line between 

 watering in this way and the systematic 

 irrigation of larger fields is very diffi- 

 cult to draw, and thousands of instances 

 of watering of market gardens, even of 

 considerable size, have probably been 

 overlooked simply because this opera- 

 tion has not been designated by the 

 term of irrigation. 



The distinction between subirrigation 

 and drainage is also one which is ver}^ 

 difiicult to make. Some lands which 

 are low and naturally too wet for suc- 

 cessful tilling have been made useful by 



systems of drains. These are operated 

 in such a way that they serve to irri- 

 gate the land in a measure by subsur- 

 face means ; and the alternate checking 

 of the drains to secure additional moist- 

 ure in times of drought, and opening 

 them wide to take away superfluous 

 moisture is in effect a method of irri- 

 gating. 



With these difficulties in view, it is 

 readily seen that the number of irri- 

 gators reported in any humid state may 

 be notably increased by a slight differ- 

 ence of opinion. The census figures^ 

 however, serve to show that a consid- 

 erable number of farmers place depend- 

 ence upon an artificial suppl}' of water, 

 even in humid climates. 



The large value of products realized 

 from the investment in irrigation sys- 

 tems testifies to the wisdom of this 

 course of action. 



Maine. Irrigation is reported from 

 Maine on 11 farms in 1899. Of the 17 

 acres irrigated, 15 were in vegetables 

 and small fruits, and 2 in hay. On most 

 of the farms the water was pumped from 

 wells and directed upon the land through 

 pipes and hose. The cost of the irriga- 

 tion systems w^as $2, 170, or $127.65 per 

 acre, and the value of the irrigated crops 

 was $2,555, or $150.29 per acre. 



Massachusetts. In Massachusetts ir- 

 rigation was practiced on 28 farms in 



