210 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



casin or water-rattler coiled on a tus- 

 sock, or hearing the long-drawn bellow 

 of an alligator. Some of the men use 

 revolvers or rifles, and whatever game 

 is secured serves to break the monotony 

 of camp fare. 



The southern pines yield pitch} 7 heart- 

 wood, called "fat-wood' by the na- 

 tives. This makes cheerful camp-fires, 

 albeit somewhat smoky. With good 

 company of an evening and dry blan- 

 kets, the men can afford to make light 

 of the daily soakings. On the pine 

 lands the work is pleasant enough, and 

 calipering is probably seen at its best, 

 as many as 80 acres having been covered 

 in a day by one crew under favorable 

 circumstances. 



In the north and west mosquitoes and 

 black flies are a pest in early summer, 

 and the caliper-man meets exhausting 

 obstacles in the way of steep, rough 

 mountain sides and dense swamps of 

 tamarack, so thickly grown up with 



saplings that it is well-nigh impossible 

 to keep track of the ones calipered; but 

 the risk of disease is less than in the 

 south, for the water and food are of far 

 better quality. 



For several years back, during the 

 summer, a number of Bureau agents 

 have been engaged in inspecting the 

 forest reserves in the western third of 

 the United States. They have also 

 examined tracts of the public lands in 

 this region with regard to their suit- 

 ability for reserves, both on the ground 

 of timber resources and from the stand- 

 point of conserving the water supply 

 about the sources of streams which sup- 

 ply the adjacent country for irrigation 

 or other purposes. 



The men who do this kind of work 

 ride alone or with a native guide through 

 the mountains, carrying the necessary 

 camping equipment on pack-horses, and 

 thus being entirely free to visit any and 

 all accessible parts of the territory. 



CALtPERING CYPRKSS AND BLACK GUM IN THE LOWLANDS OF SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI, 



