264 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



sea level. Shoshone River discharges 

 a relatively large amount of water, and 

 its summer flow has not been entirely 

 appropriated. Six miles above the town 

 of Cody the river enters a canyon cut 

 through solid granite for a distance of 

 one and a half miles. At the upper 

 end of this canyon it is proposed to 

 construct a dam of uncoursed masonry. 



The dimensions of the dam will be 

 height, 170 feet ; length on bottom, 65 

 feet, and length on top, 150 feet. This 

 dam will form a reservoir in the basin 

 above the canyon with a capacity of 

 159,500 acre-feet. The stored water 

 will be used to reinforce the summer 

 flow. The estimated cost of this project 

 is $2,250,000. 



PLANTING WHITE PINE. 



INVESTIGATIONS BY THE BUREAU OF FORESTRY PROVE 

 IT TO BE COMMERCIALLY FEASIBLE IN NEW ENGLAND.* 



IT has often been held that planta- 

 tions of white pine can not be made 

 profitable. Contentions have constantly 

 arisen to the effect that the first cost, 

 taxes, and interest on the investment 

 are enough to eat up all the returns that 

 may be expected from white pine plan- 

 tations, and that forty years, the time 

 when the first cutting may be profitably 

 made, is too long to wait for the profits 

 involved, should there be any. It is 

 right that all of these things should be 

 taken into consideration, and it would 

 be palpably unwise to undertake a pine 

 plantation on land which could be used 

 to better advantage for general agricul- 

 tural purposes. In fact, white pine 

 planting in the New England and adja- 

 cent states is of most value where a 

 number of uses may be served, as the 

 timber result alone may not be suffi- 

 ciently profitable to make it wise. In 

 the case of waste lands, however, white 

 pine might just as well be raised as 

 scrub growths, which have no chance of 

 adding value. 



Where planting is apt to prove most 

 valuable is on watershed areas in con- 

 nection with reservoirs, on sand barrens 

 and dunes, on bare soils and worn-out 

 pastures, on cut-over land, and for wood- 

 lots. Many of the ' ' abandoned farms ' ' 

 of New England had best be abandoned 

 to a good growth of white pine, even at 

 considerable initial expense. 



Boston and other New England cities 

 depend on lakes and reservoirs for their 



water supply. The better forested the 

 tributary watershed is, the better it is 

 for the water, from the points of view 

 of both quantity and quality, and at 

 Clinton, Mass., 1,500 acres are being 

 planted in white pine and sugar maple, 

 in mixture, for the single purpose of 

 regulating and purifying the water sup- 

 plied to Boston and other towns, though 

 the question of ultimate lumbering 

 operations is also being taken into con- 

 sideration. Often the planting will pre- 

 vent drifting sand from encroaching on 

 valuable property. Again, on bare soils 

 and worn-out pastures, where there is 

 a very slow and unsatisfactory growth 

 of white pine by natural reproduction 

 the resulting growth being low, branchy, 

 and undesirable the expense of plant- 

 ing is minimized, and the probable re- 

 sults more satisfactory. Cut-over lands 

 and woodlots may be planted to pine 

 with every expectation of good results, 

 and in the latter the actual results in 

 fuel and timber are not the only ones to 

 be considered. Where they may be 

 utilized as wind-breaks for buildings or 

 orchards they serve a double purpose. 

 Always it is well to keep in mind the 

 dual or triple usefulness of the planta- 

 tions, and count the profits in more than 

 the single item of sales of timber. 



There is ample opportunity to study 

 the question of profits in New England, 

 because during the period between 1820 

 and iSSc the enthusiasm for white pine 

 planting amounted almost to a fad. Men 



* Bulletin No. 45, Bureau of Forestry, Washington, D. C. 

 New England, by Harold B. Kempton. 



The Planting of White Pine in 



