1 903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



247 



was adopted to completely insure good 

 returns. With comparatively low costs 

 and easy lifts for the pumps used to 

 raise the water from streams and wells, 

 this region has proved extremely profit- 

 able for irrigation, and large amounts 

 of capital have been invested. 



Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin, 

 all within the humid region, are more 

 and more using irrigation for vegetables 

 and small fruits, and chief among these 

 products are strawberries and potatoes, 

 the yields being enormously increased, 

 both in quality and quantity. In the 

 case of strawberries in Missouri, in an 

 exceptionally bad season, many old 

 plants died without sending out runners, 

 but in all cases it was found that irri- 

 gated plants developed strong crowns, 

 thus ensuring crops for the ensuing 

 year. The effect of serious drouth on 

 fruit trees and nursery stock was largely 

 offset by irrigation, and the serious 

 check, from which many trees do not 

 fully recover for several years, was 

 avoided. 



The great distance from eastern to 

 western Texas brings us well into the 

 arid region of the country, and, as we 

 have said, the greatest irrigation inter- 

 ests of the country center about the 



newer states of this area. For a long 

 time there was some difficulty in over- 

 coming a natural fear on the part of the 

 eastern farmer lest the opening up of 

 these marvelously fertile regions by the 

 application of the needed water should 

 tend to lower the values of his own farm 

 products. But it has been ably pointed 

 out by Secretary Wilson and others, that 

 the greater development of the West 

 means a consequent development of 

 many lines of industry, and an industrial 

 expansion which will create home mar- 

 kets for the goods of the eastern cultiva- 

 tor with demands far in excess of those 

 which he had known before. The east- 

 ern manufacturing interests, receiving 

 an impetus from the needs of the grow- 

 ing West, will employ more men to turn 

 out their products, and these men will 

 have to be supplied with foodstuffs, 

 which come from neighboring farms. 

 Also experience has demonstrated that 

 the rancher of California does not and 

 cannot supply the staples furnished by 

 the eastern farmer, but merely supple- 

 ments them. Through this knowledge 

 the East has come to look upon the arid 

 land reclamation as the best and surest 

 policy of expansion for the country to 

 enter upon. 



CONSERVATIVE LUMBERING IN 



TENNESSEE. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SUCCESSFUL APPLICATION OF 

 PRACTICAL FOREST METHODS ON THE DOMAIN OF 

 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, SEWANEE, TENN. 



THE result of the first application 

 of practical forest methods in the 

 cutting of timber in Tennessee is con- 

 tained in Bulletin 39 of the Bureau of 

 Forestry, recently published. 



The Bureau of Forestry in 1900 un- 

 dertook the management of the forest 

 at Sewanee, Tenn., owned by the Uni- 

 versity of the South. The forest had 

 been misused for many years and was 

 steadily declining in value ; but the 

 financial condition of the university 

 prevented any expenditure on its im- 

 provement and demanded that it be 



made to yield immediate returns. Tin 

 spite of these disadvantages a plan* of 

 management was devised and applied 

 which has been profitable and has left 

 the forest in good condition after lum- 

 bering. 



The lands of the University of the 

 South, in and around Sewanee, Frank- 

 lin county, Tenn., comprise about 7,255 

 acres, 6,655 acres of which are timber- 

 lands. About 5,500 acres lie on the top 

 of a spur of the Cumberland plateau, 

 lined by sandstone escarpments of vary- 

 ing height, from the base of which coves 





