1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



39 



a rule heavy, drenching shows alter- 

 nate with bright sunshine. The result 

 is violent fluctuations in the streams, 

 which often leap into impassable floods 

 and subside again within an hour or 

 two. 



It is as an agency for the control of 

 these flood waters that the Luquillo re- 

 serve is likely to render the most valu- 

 able service. To some extent the for- 

 est will even supply water for agricul- 

 ture, for immediately to the south and 

 west of the mountains the climatic 

 conditions become very different from 

 those on the always profusely watered 

 eastern slopes. The country is drier, 

 evaporation more active, and the vege- 

 tation correspondingly changes its 

 character. So while parts of the island 

 are drenched with water most of the 

 time, other parts, half a day's ride dis- 

 tant, are dependent upon irrigation. 

 But generally it is against too much 

 water rather than the want of it that 

 the protection of the forest is needed. 

 Even with the mountains forest-cover- 

 ed, floods have caused great destruc- 

 tion. Massive stone bridges have been 

 carried away, roads damaged, farms 

 and pastures ruined, and lives lost. 

 Stripped of their forests, the moun- 

 tains would soon be washed bare of 

 soil and the lowlands swept by floods 

 after every heavy shower. 



What the value of the reserve will 

 be as a source of timber supply is more 

 or less problematical. Mahogany, if 

 ever present in the forest, as seems 

 probable, has been entirely extermi- 

 nated, and the cigar-box cedar is also 

 practically gone. Valuable woods re- 

 main, but the essentially tropical char- 

 acter of the forest, in which a great 

 number of species contend with one 

 another for possession, makes the 

 problem of management a very diffi- 

 cult one. "Weed trees" abound, and 

 there is no uniformity of forest 

 growth. Individuals of the same spe- 

 cies occur scattered sparsely and irreg- 

 ularly through the dense forest, and it 

 is an extraordinary fact that within so 

 narrow a range as the island affords 

 certain kinds which in some places 



grow to be large and beautiful timber 

 trees elsewhere exist as shrubs. 



The best of the forest in the reserve 

 is that found in the fertile gorges, ra- 

 vines, and covers from 500 to 2,000 

 feet above sea level, where the trees 

 are protected from the constant winds. 

 There are four leading timber trees 

 the tabanuco, with a wood very like 

 our sycamore ; the laurel sabino, which 

 would grade in the market with yel- 

 low poplar; the ausubo, comparable 

 with the black walnut, and the guara- 

 guao, similar to red cedar. All these 

 trees reach a large size, ranging from 

 two to five feet in diameter. The ta- 

 banuco has, in addition, the very valu- 

 able characteristic that it tends to form 

 pure or nearly pure stands. It pro- 

 duces a kind of gum which may prove 

 to be an article of commercial impor- 

 tance. 



Many climbing vines add to the den- 

 sity of the vegetation. There is also a 

 species of grass which grows five feet 

 high and cuts like a razor at the light- 

 est touch. But the most abundant 

 growth is that of the mountain palms. 

 They are very beautiful, but of little or 

 no value, and to get rid of them will be 

 at once a necessary and most difficult 

 matter if permanent production of sal- 

 able timber is to be secured. They 

 grow forty feet high, and already cov- 

 er fully half of the best part of the re- 

 serve. Yielding as they do an im- 

 mense amount of seed, and growing 

 very thickly, nothing else in the forest 

 can' compete with them for possession 

 on anything like equal terms, so that 

 unless they can be artificially held in 

 check they will certainly gain most of 

 the ground left vacant by the removal 

 of trees cut for timber. They are true 

 weed trees of the most aggressive kind. 



Above two thousand feet altitude 

 the trees are stunted, gnarled, and 

 slow-growing, of many different spe- 

 cies, with moss-covered limbs and 

 roots often bare. They are of no com- 

 mercial value, but are of great impor- 

 tance as a protective forest cover. 



Doctor Gifford believes that the Lu- 

 quillo reserve should be cared for and 



