468 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



October 



on which there is but little covering, 

 being very rocky and bare. The engi- 

 neers did not have time to take meas- 

 urements there for me, but I made 

 them myself as carefully as I could, 

 and I found in the six miles there was 

 a shrinkage of over 20 miner's inches. 

 This certainly was proof to me of the 

 great value of stream covering. Dur- 

 ing the past summer, while we were 

 gathering spruce seed on the Santa 



to be imperceptible. During this pe- 

 riod the weather was very warm and 

 clear, and the flow of the stream had 

 declined only one inch in six weeks. 

 Further down the same stream the 

 slopes of the mountain and the stream 

 cover were entirely burned by fire in 

 1900, doing a vast amount of damage. 

 Extending up the stream for six miles 

 from its mouth, the covering was en- 

 tirely gone, and there I took measure- 



VIEW IN SAN GABRIEL REGION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, WHERE ONLY SMALL BRUSH IS 



LEFT ON IMPORTANT WATEBSHKDS. FORESTS SWEPT AWAY BY 



RKCKLESS CUTTING AND FIRE. 



Anita Creek, in the San Gabriel Re- 

 serve, I had measurements taken by 

 weir in the morning at seven and in the 

 afternoon at four o'clock. Above this 

 point three miles, toward the head of 

 the stream, there is the most perfect 

 covering for both stream and water- 

 shed that we know of in southern Cali- 

 fornia, consisting of big-cone spruce and 

 oaks on the slopes, while the stream is 

 covered with alders and maples. We 

 found the variations between morning 

 and evening measurements so slight as 



ments for a few days and found the 

 variation between morning and evening 

 was from 35 to 50 per cent loss in the 

 six miles. 



This is quite common. I could go 

 on and give many such instances of loss 

 of water through the destruction of 

 trees and chaparral by fire. Even 

 where watershed areas are well covered, 

 if the stream is exposed to the wind 

 and sun in this hot, sunny climate, the 

 loss is very serious. The relative fall 

 from the timbered, chaparral-covered, 



