1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



either to practice forestry or to cease 

 your operations. 



I do not want to dwell here upon the 

 effects of these two methods upon your 

 industry as a whole. That is not the 

 question before us today, although it is 

 one which vitally concerns the interior 

 development of this country. I merely 

 wish to bring to your notice the fact that 

 practical forestry has certain business 

 advantages. You will not deny that you 

 consider your mill as a part of your plant. 

 Why not look upon your forest as a part 

 of your plant also ? The power to pro- 

 duce and yield you good returns is in 

 the forest just as much as in the mill. 

 It is simply a question whether it will 

 pay you to develop that power, and that 

 is a question which can in every case be 

 determined. It is merely a comparison 

 of capital and of interest. The value of 

 your cut-over lands represents the capi- 

 tal ; the rate of growth of the trees upon 

 them represents the interest. If in 10 

 years, or 20 years, or 30 years, or what- 



ever the period may be, you could cut a 

 second crop from logged-off lands, whose 

 value, less the cost of the taxes and pro- 

 tection of the -lands during the same 

 period, represents a fair interest upon 

 their capital value, then forestry is for 

 you a good and safe investment. No 

 man here would throw away anything 

 which might have a monej^ value until 

 he had first determined whether that 

 money value actually existed . I merely 

 wish to present to you the advisability 

 of applying the same policy to cut-over 

 lands. Before you let your cut- over 

 lands revert to the state for taxes, or be- 

 fore you lumber them in such a way that 

 their productive capacity is destroyed, 

 or before you let fire run through them, 

 or before you sell them at a low figure 

 as agricultural lands, first determine 

 what the}' can yield you in a second crop; 

 and in doing that the Bureau of For- 

 estry is not only willing, but eager to 

 give you its help in every possible 



wav. 



DESTRUCTIVE EROSION ALONG THE 



KANSAS RIVER. 



BY 



GEORGE W. TINCHER. 



THE accompanying illustration 

 shows a scene in the Kansas River 

 valley immediately after the water had 

 receded from the May and June flood of 

 1903. The area shown was a sweet- 

 potato field ten days before the photo- 

 graph was taken. 



The ruined land, which was used for 

 garden purposes, belongs to the State 

 Hospital for the Insane, located on the 

 south side of the Kansas River, at 

 Topeka, Kansas. In 1900 the superin- 

 tendent of the hospital caused all the 

 native timber to be removed from this 

 plot of ground. He removed not only 

 the trees, but the stumps as well, leav- 

 ing the ground in an excellent condition 

 for growing garden crops. Unfortu- 

 nately, the process also left the ground 

 in a favorable condition for total destruc- 



tion by the overflow from the river. The 

 strip of ground shown between the pool 

 of water in the foreground and the river 

 beyond was formerly the bank of the 

 river. A large ice-house which occupied 

 a site at the end of this strip, quite near 

 the river'sedge.wasdestroyedand swept 

 away with its contents. 



The action of the water destroyed 

 about five acres of land, extending 200 

 x i ,000 feet. The flood came with such 

 force that everything was swept before 

 it. The white strip shown in the dis- 

 tance to the center and the right is pure 

 sand, which was deposited upon the land 

 over about 60 acres, making the area 

 wholly unfit for cultivation. This land 

 was held and sold at $100 per acre before 

 the high water. 



The large water pipe which is being 



