332 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



July 



ive forests. Texas has sold nearly all of posed detriment. The cattleman on his 

 its forest lands, and could not establish river watershed grazes his cattle and 

 forest reserves without repurchasing on burns the prairie without any regard tc 

 a large scale. It is doubtful whether the what effect it will have on the flow of the 

 people of the state would, at this time, river, upon which the lowland farmer is 

 favor such a policy. So that any general so dependent. And it is here that state 

 system of conservative forest manage- action and protection should come in. 

 ment must be put into effect by private The rough hillsides, canyons, and eroded 

 individuals, who now own 95 per cent of slopes of the headwaters and middle 

 the commercial woodlands. In this man- courses of the rivers should be kept 

 agement large benefits, both public and under good forest cover. Properly safe- 

 private, will come from the proper control guarded with this permanent forest 

 of the woodlot and larger tracts. In this cover, the flow of Texas rivers would be 

 work every farmer in Texas can be an far better regulated than now. Danger 

 assistant. By protecting and properly from floods, that almost annually destroy 

 utilizing his own little tract of woodland great crop areas and much valuable 

 he can not only raise his own fuel and property, would be materially lessened, 

 farm repair material, but can also con- What is still more important, these pro- 

 tribute his mite toward helping to reforest tective forests would cause a storage oi 

 the state, and thereby increase the reserve water, to be given out in regular supply 



water supply. To this end the practice 

 of forestry becomes a very important 

 matter all over that state. The two great 

 causes of complaint there are heat and 



to streams and thus made most available 

 for use in the dependent agricultural 

 sections. 



For the last two years the Bureau of 



drouth. Both can be mitigated by pre- Forestry has been engaged in a careful 

 serving and extending, where proper, the study of forest conditions in Texas. Its 



forests of the state. 



There is one phase of the question, 

 however, that goes beyond the power of 

 the private owner. It is when, for in- 

 stance, the relations of the lowland 

 farmer to the upland cattle grazer are the determining causes of their distri- 

 considered. The latter can not be ex- bution, and discusses fully both private 

 pected to regulate his affairs for the ben- and state management, will be issued 

 efit of the former to his own real or sup- soon. 



collaborator in that work, Prof. William 

 Iy. Bray, has now prepared a bulletin 

 entitled ' ' Forest Resources of Texas. ' ' 

 This bulletin, which describes and classi- 

 fies the forests of the state, deals with 



SOUTH DAKOTA RECLAMATION WORK. 



TERRITORY IN VICINITY OF BLACK 

 HILLS MAY BE RECLAIMED SOON. 



THE Reclamation Service has re- 

 ceived a report from Mr. Ray- 

 mond F. Walter, engineer for South 

 Dakota, which contains some interesting 

 information in regard to the work being 

 carried on in that state. 



Attention has been given only to rec- 

 lamation possibilities west of the Mis- 

 souri River, and more especially to those 

 in the vicinity of the Black Hills, and it 

 is found that any reclamation attempted 

 on any of the streams of this section 



must be founded on storage of storm 

 water and spring and winter flow. With 

 this in view, the country around the 

 Black Hills has been carefully investi- 

 gated for storage possibilities and the 

 north side has been selected as the most 

 promising. This project is known as 

 the Belle Fourche Project, the water 

 supply being taken from the Belle 

 Fourche River and its tributaries. 



The Belle Fourche River rises in the 

 east central portion of Wyoming and 



