FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



July 



Michigan The seniors in the for- 



Students* est courses at the Mich- 



Trip, igan State Agricultural 



College recently made a 

 trip to the pine lands in the northeast- 

 ern part of the lower peninsula, visiting 

 several wood-working factories en route, 

 free transportation having been fur- 

 nished north from Bay City by a rail- 

 road company interested in forestry. 



Huge Announcement has been 



Irrigation made that work will be 



Enterprise. begun immediately on 

 the completion of the 

 water system of the California Moun- 

 tain Water Company, of which John 

 D. Spreckels, of San Francisco, is 

 president. This system already con- 

 sists of two large reservoirs, the Lower 

 Otay and the Upper Otay dams, which 

 impound many billions of gallons of 

 water, and the work remaining to be 

 done consists of constructing the Bar- 

 rett dam at Morena, the building of the 

 conduit to carry the water from there 

 to the Lower Otay dam, and the laying 

 of the pipe line from Bonita to this city. 



The cost of the work now to be un- 

 dertaken will be more than $2,000,000. 

 The watershed tributary to the Barrett 

 reservoir has the greatest rainfall of any 

 section south of San Francisco, and with 

 the system completed there will be am- 

 ple water supply for a city several times 

 the size of San Diego. The average 

 rainfall in that section is about forty 

 inches a year. Thousands of acres of 

 agricultural land will be brought under 

 irrigation, and the towns of National 

 City, Chula Vista, and Otay will be 

 supplied. 



The announcement that this work is 

 to go forward at once and as rapidly as 

 possible is regarded as one of the great- 

 est events in the development of San 

 Diego. 



Nebraska In the University of 



Forest Nebraska about thirty 



Students. men have been in the 



courses in foresty the 

 past year, a very good showing for the 

 second year of its establishment. At 



the recent commencement three men 

 completed the forestry work and were 

 graduated with the degree of Bachelor 

 of Science (in forestry). These men 

 had been taking work in other scientific 

 courses, and on the establishment of the 

 forestry courses were transferred to the 

 latter, which they completed in two 

 years. The full course is four years in 

 length, and entrance to the freshman 

 class requires the same preparation as 

 for the scientific or literary courses. 

 The students in advanced classes in for- 

 estry in the University of Nebraska spent 

 a month this spring on the Dismal River 

 Forest Reserve, at \vork under the di- 

 rection of the Bureau of Forest} 7 officers. 

 They helped in the work of planting the 

 sand hills with seedling pine trees. 



Benefit of The parable of the sower 



Hydrographic is applicable to all edu- 

 Records. cational work. Much 



of the mission of the 

 great departments maintained by the 

 government, especially the scientific 

 bureaus, is educational in its nature. 

 The government is in the position of 

 a progressive and ambitious instructor 

 in a modern college, who, surrounded 

 by every laboratory and library facility, 

 spends part of his time in making orig- 

 inal investigations and part in commu- 

 nicating to his pupils the results of his 

 studies. The seed he sow r s falls on all 

 kinds of soil, but, however poor the 

 ground, it is sure to bring forth fruit 

 in some measure, if there is life in the 

 kernels that he sows. There is great 

 variation in the returns from the differ- 

 ent kinds of educational work prose- 

 cuted by the government. The ultimate 

 value of much of it can be determined 

 only after the lapse of many years, but 

 some of it seems to bear fruit a hundred 

 fold from the very start. An instance 

 of this is seen in the results that have 

 followed the hydrographic work of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey in many quar- 

 ters. The cases in which it has been a 

 benefit to the one State of Colorado, for 

 example, are numerous and interesting. 

 None of the irrigation work contem- 

 plated by the government would, ordi- 

 narily, be possible without long delay, 



