174 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



April 



The two trees that occupy by far the 

 largest share of the land under 9,000 

 feet altitude are the rock pine (jPinus 

 ponderosa scopulorum, also known as bull 

 pine or yellow pine) and red fir (Pseu- 

 dotsuga taxifolia) . 



They are almost coextensive in distri- 

 bution, yet seldom occur in mixture. 

 While the first, in its usual open habit, 

 covers the southerly slopes and more 

 level country, the latter, in much denser 

 stand, takes to the steeper, cooler slopes. 

 It makes the most abundant and gener- 

 ally distributed young growth below 

 9,000 feet. The pine also reproduces 

 readily where chance is given. It is a 

 good fuel wood and yields some clear 

 lumber. The red fir is locally known 

 as red spruce and esteemed the best tim- 

 ber of the region. It is much sought for 

 lumber, mine timber, ties, poles, and 

 piles. 



The tree which eventually will thickly 

 dot even the barest southerly slopes be- 

 tween 9,000 and 1 1 ,000 feet is the limber 

 pine (Pinusflexilis) , natively called white 

 pine ; but the process is extremely slow. 

 In the situations mentioned a few bodies 

 of timber composed mainly of this tree 

 are left, yielding many ties and mine 

 timbers, and some saw-timber. It usu- 

 ally makes a fairly straight log twelve 

 to sixteen feet clear. Its fuel value 

 ranks close to that of bristle-cone pine. 

 Owing to its rather dry, sunny habitat, 



it ranks as a water-conserver probably 

 no higher than red fir. 



To the Engelmann spruce (Picea 

 Engelmanni) , locally known as white 

 spruce, easily belongs the preeminence 

 as a water-conserver of these mountains. 

 Following the streams of the canyons 

 as far down as 7,000 feet, it covers in 

 more or less pure stands most of the 

 northerly slopes from 9,000 to 11,500 

 feet, and finds its ideal realm in the 

 frigid shadows just below the timber 

 line. Commercially it is as yet of no 

 great moment, owing to difficulty of ac- 

 cess as well as knotty and often twisted 

 bole. Nevertheless, some lumber has 

 been sawn from it, and the tree may 

 become valuable as pulp wood. It is 

 ordinarily of very slow growth, but va- 

 ries in dimensions between great ex- 

 tremes. A tree half a hundred years old 

 may be one foot or fifty feet in height. 

 Ten years under favorable conditions 

 will suffice to grow good-sized catalpa 

 poles. Some pole stands of Engelmann 

 spruce of similar size occur that have 

 taken 250 years to grow. Eight thou- 

 sand forty-year-old trees have been 

 counted upon one acre. It is this unusual 

 and persistent density, together with the 

 shady slopes at high altitudes, that pre- 

 serve the snow for eight to nine months 

 of each year, feeding the streams as they 

 need it the water of life for the thirsty 

 fields and multitudes below. 



RECLAMATION OF ALKALI LANDS IN 

 UTAH AND CALIFORNIA. 



COMPILED FROM CIRCULARS Nos. n AND 12 OF THE 

 BUREAU OF SOILS, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



BY 



THOMAS H. MEANS AND W. H. HEILEMAN. 



A Demonstration Near Salt Lake City, 



Utah, in Cooperation with the Utah 



Agricultural Experiment Station : 



In 1899 a party from the Bureau of 



Soils made a soil survey of that portion 



of the Salt L,ake Valley lying west of the 



Jordan River. In this report full con- 



sideration was given to the question of 

 the alkali soils around Salt Lake City, 

 the cause of their formation, their char- 

 acter and present extent, and the means 

 of their amelioration and reclamation. 

 The following paragraphs are taken 

 from this report : 



