448 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



November, 



of fact and not of law, and a proper 

 subject for a jury to pass upon in each 

 particular case. 



Not only have the doctors of law dis- 

 agreed, but even the professional botan- 

 ists have become bewildered and have 

 attempted to estrange the members of 

 this interesting family into two species, 

 making no concessions for, as I believe, 

 the multiform varieties of growth, due 

 to difference of environment. 



Professor Wooten has classified this 

 plant as Prosopis juliflora and Prosopis 

 velutina, the latter being an arboreal 

 form of the Mesquite. This classifica- 

 tion may be necessary, but it seems to 

 me there is only one variety, and that 

 the difference mentioned is due entirel}^ 

 to locality, soil, wind, and various other 

 conditions, and not to difference in the 

 organic species. 



There is unquestionably a tendency 

 among botanists to carry classification 

 too far so far, in fact, that if a distinc- 

 tion does exist, only a study of the 

 plant by an expert can detect the dis- 

 similarity. 



These controversies have been enough 

 to discourage a less tenacious and per- 



sistent representative of the vegetable 

 kingdom; but the Mesquite has contin- 

 ued to flourish despite drouth, failure 

 of appropriation for irrigation, and in 

 the face of adverse judicial decisions. 

 On the Colorado it has attained a height 

 of 35 feet, 35 feet on the Verde, and in 

 some instances 65 feet on the Santa 

 Cruz River near Tucson, Arizona, with 

 many other instances of similar growth 

 throughout Arizona and New Mexico. 

 It also continues to receive due recog- 

 nition as the principal fuel of the terri- 

 tory, notwithstanding the ban placed 

 upon it, and gives warmth alike to the 

 just and the unjust. 



Under the most favorable conditions, 

 which are found on the higher well- 

 drained bottom lands, it attains a large 

 size, ranging from 18 to 30 inches in 

 diameter. Under such conditions it ac- 

 cumulates in its wide-spreading branches 

 large quantities of fuel timber, ranging 

 from a few hundred to as many as i ,000 

 cubic feet. 



As an economic plant the Mesquite 

 has not received general recognition be- 

 yond fuel and for fencing, although it 

 also enters largely into the construction 



MATURE MESQUITE TREE ON VERDE RIVER, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA. 



