1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



343 



basis as that of the Atlantic seaboard 

 in the matter of water supply. At pres- 

 ent magnificent operations are going on, 

 and great ventures are being pushed 

 forward under state and national sanc- 

 tion. At present in many localities the 

 bayou supplies are being overdrawn, so 

 that many acres have had to be aban- 

 doned on account of lack of water, and 

 in some instances brackish water has 

 backed up from the sea because the 

 bayou supplies have been so depleted. 

 There seems to be no recognition of 

 water rights on some of these supply 

 streams and bayous, and as a conse- 



quence there are too many pumping 

 plants on some, all of them being poorly 

 supplied in dry seasons. In Texas, 

 where artesian irrigation is used to a 

 greater extent, the flow can be readily 

 measured, the duty of water calculated^, 

 and only enough ground planted to be 

 sufficiently irrigated ; but development 

 for the present threatens to be too rapid 

 for present institutions to keep pace 

 with it, and some radical departures 

 will have to be made to secure all water 

 needed and to protect users in their 

 rights to that water. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE AXE. 



BY 



DR. JOHN GIFFORD, 



NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY. 



FEW of us realize the important part 

 the axe has played in the devel- 

 opment of civilization. Of all tools, it 

 is the one of greatest usefulness and the 

 one which we could afford the least to 

 spare. In early times, when machines 

 and tools were more precious, it was of 

 greater importance, but even today the 

 pioneer uses it in preference to other 

 tools. With it he fells the forest and 

 builds his home. 



Few of us realize also the many 

 changes in the axe from the rough stone 

 hatchet of the savage to the perfected 

 steel implement of today. No wonder 

 the aborigines were unable to combat 

 the forest, and no wonder civilization 

 gained its greatest progress in the 

 grain-yielding plains. 



The savage in the forest of the trop- 

 ics without this implement is barely 

 able to hold his own, and is little more 

 than the hundreds of other animals and 

 plants with which he struggles for a 

 livelihood. 



The axe had its beginning in a pound- 

 ing implement of rough stone. It grad- 

 ually developed into a tool with an edge 

 for hacking and pole for pounding. 

 Its efficiency was finally increased by 



the addition of a handle. It has re- 

 mained a combined pounding and cut- 

 ting implement up to the time of the 

 manufacture of the double-bitted steel 

 axe. A chopper goes into the woods 

 to cut, and the larger the cutting edge 

 at his disposal the better ; but as a tool 

 for general utility the double-bitted is 

 inferior to the common single-bitted axe 

 with curved hickory handle. 



A good axe should be solid steel. It 

 is said that hand- made axes tempered 

 by the heat of natural gas are the best. 

 It should have a curved blade with 

 bulging faces ; such an axe throws out 

 the chips and does not stick. These 

 carefully proportioned curves give to the 

 American axe its great efficiency. A 

 professor of art in Germany once said 

 that a thing with artistic lines is usually 

 the thing of greatest utility, and he gave 

 as an illustration the American axe. 



Illustrations I and II are from the 

 collection in the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. Illustration I shows the evolu- 

 tion of the axe of the Old World. 



Axe No. i is the earliest and simplest 

 form of cutting implement known to 

 have been made by man. It was 

 roughly flaked from a nodule of flint ; 



