354 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



July 



of the annual increments. It is rather 

 the result of man}- and complex biologi- 

 cal and economic forces, to analyze 

 which all the skill of the technical 

 forester is required. 



A second peculiarity of the forest is 

 that there is no definite time when the 

 crop is mature, as there is in every form 

 of agriculture. To say at what par- 

 ticular time a forest should be cut and 

 replaced by a young crop, in order to 

 get the highest possible value, very 

 elaborate analyses are needed, taking 

 into consideration physical, biological, 

 and economic factors. This cannot be 

 done by the economist who is not also 

 a forester, and consequently the field is 

 not attractive to him. 



An additional reason, perhaps, why 

 American and English economists have 

 so conspicuously neglected the economic 

 relations of the forest is the circum- 

 stance that in neither of these countries 

 has there hitherto been much productive 

 forestry. England has depended for 

 its lumber supply upon importation, and 

 in the United States we have merely 

 harvested the supply unaided Nature 

 provided. We have practiced what 

 might be called extractive instead of 



productive forestry. As a consequence 

 the commercial side of the lumber trade 

 has seemed more important than the 

 productive, and our economists may 

 have taken the statistics of this trade 

 for all there was of the economic rela- 

 tions of forests. 



It must be obvious to the economist, 

 forester, and statesman that the adop- 

 tion of a proper forest policy by this 

 country must be even worse than the 

 hit or miss affair it will be under the 

 best circumstances unless this economic 

 factor is fairly well studied. Nor will 

 it be sufficient for our purpose if we 

 simply acquaint ourselves with the re- 

 sults of the German forest economists' 

 work, for they have naturally concerned 

 themselves almost exclusively with con- 

 ditions where forest wealth is the prod- 

 uct of cultivated woodlands, while in 

 this country we are at best in the tran- 

 sition stage of what I have called ex- 

 tractive forestry, and the economic 

 consequences must of necessity differ 

 accordingly. 



There is here an inviting and almost 

 virgin field for the labors of a few well- 

 trained and intelligent American econo- 

 mists or foresters. 



FLOODS AND IRRIGATION. 



A SUGGESTION AS TO HOW DESTRUCTIVE 

 FLOODS IN CERTAIN REGIONS MAY BE CON- 

 TROLLED AND TURNED TO VALUABLE USE. 



BY 



GUY ELLIOTT MITCHELL, 



EDITOR THE NATIONAL HOMEMAKER. 



EVERY manufacturer in the United 

 States has had a twofold economic 

 interest in the great floods which have 

 been sweeping down the Missouri and 

 the Mississippi. The most generally 

 recognized interest lies in the fact that 

 much property has been destroyed, 

 many farms devastated, and the pur- 

 chasing capacity of a large number of 

 producers crippled, handicapped, and 

 in many cases obliterated. Another 



feature of the flood problem which i- 

 not so often thought of is the question 

 of the solution of this national problem 

 through the construction of govern- 

 ment storage reservoirs. It has been 

 demonstrated beyond question that a 

 comprehensive system of reservoirs to 

 store and regulate flood waters which 

 can be depended upon every spring, at 

 the heads of the Missouri, the Arkan- 

 sas, the Platte, and their tributaries, 



