FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



187 



The elevation of the dam will 



feet above the river. The plans 



i a power plant for the making 



cement to be used in the con- 



Dn of the dam. 



question of water storage in the 

 iver valley has been given close 

 on by the Reclamation Service, 

 P. Davis, Principal Engineer, 

 made a special study of the 



completion of this project will be 



timable value to the Salt River 



for agricultural development, 



after remarkable growth in late 



years, is almost at a standstill, owing 

 to drouth and the inability of private 

 enterprise to store sufficient water for 

 present needs. Thus not only is the 

 present prosperity of the valley threat- 

 ened, but future development is ren- 

 dered practically impossible. The cli- 

 mate of this region is especially adapted 

 to the raising of diversified crops, and 

 with a steady water supply would be- 

 come one of the richest agricultural dis- 

 tricts of the United States. 



The accompanying illustrations will 

 give some idea of the dam and reservoir 

 sites. 



HE FARM WOODLOT IN MICHIGAN. 



BY 



F. G. MILLER, 



BUREAU OF FORESTRY. 



the Michigan State Census re- 

 irns for 1894, 42 per cent of the 

 rea of the state, or 15,296,078 

 ire classified as farm lands, di- 

 nto 178,081 farms, each contain- 

 average of 85.9 acres. Nineteen 

 tof the total farm area, or an aver- 



16.5 acres per farm, is in wood- 

 Beginning at the southern limits 

 state, the average woodlot occu- 



per cent of the average farm in 

 t four tiers of counties, and stead- 

 eases as you pass northward till 

 northern peninsula 57 per cent 

 iverage farm is in forest, 

 le northern part of the state, 

 the farm land occupies only from 

 :ent of the total area in the north- 

 inties of the southern peninsula, 



than 5 per cent in the northern 

 ila, and where, too, so large a 



the farms is still in timber, the 

 n of further clearing the land 

 icultural purposes is simply one 

 idiency. It would be highly de- 

 to clear off and put under culti- 

 whatever forest lands still re- 

 g there that would yield greater 



for agricultural purposes than 

 red to remain in timber ; but in 



the southern, counties where 89 per cent 

 of the total area is already in farm 

 lands, and where, as stated, but 14 per 

 cent of this farm area is occupied by 

 woods, the danger line in the clearing 

 of the forest lands has already been 

 reached. 



The southern portion of Michigan is 

 essentially an agricultural region. Au- 

 thorities contend that the highest inter- 

 ests of agriculture are subserved when 

 from one-fourth to one- third of the land 

 is in forest. Since practically all of the 

 forest area of the southern counties 

 is contained within the farm lands, it 

 will be seen that the timber land has 

 already been reduced below even the 

 one-fourth limit, and is steadily de- 

 creasing, as a comparison of the census 

 returns for consecutive decades con- 

 clusively shows. 



Again, it must be added that large 

 quantities of the best timber are har- 

 vested from these farm woodlots every 

 year. The total value of the forest prod- 

 ucts on the farms of Michigan in 1899 

 was$7,53O,369. These products include 

 firewood, fence posts, railroad ties, bark, 

 telegraph and telephone poles, lumber, 

 etc. ; but do not refer to the products of 



J 



