1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



123 



plentifully every second or third year, 

 but in this section drought often inter- 

 feres with the development of the seed 

 or prevents their germination. If a 

 good seed year meets a moist season 

 excellent reproduction results, but if 

 drought continues for several years, 

 seeds are not produced, or very many 

 of the seedlings die. Yellow pine is, 

 however, a hardy tree, and if the seed- 

 lings obtain a year's growth a good 

 number may live through succeeding 

 droughts. 



The study which has brought out 

 these facts reveals conditions and pos- 

 sibilities of great importance to Colo- 

 rado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The 

 forests of this region are a valuable 

 source of lumber for home use and for 

 the maintenance of important indus- 

 tries. The timber is good, the forests 

 are easily logged, and industries other 

 than farming and grazing are needed 

 for a rounded development of the re- 

 gion. Without these forests the rail- 

 roads also would be forced to haul 

 their construction supplies long dis- 

 tances. Most of the land in the forest- 

 ed area is too high to be irrigated, but 

 if the tree growth is fostered the land 

 which it occupies may become an im- 

 portant factor in the conservation of 

 water for the development of agricul- 

 ture in adjacent regions. The rainfall 

 in this section is largely the product of 

 brief, heavy thunderstorms, or it comes 

 as snow during the winter. Gentle, 

 continuous rains are rare. This condi- 

 tion emphasizes the need for a forest 

 cover on all the slopes, for when the 

 hills are bared by injudicious lumber- 

 ing, fire, or overgrazing, the storm 

 waters rush rapidly to the bottom, 

 bearing great quantities of soil and 

 rock, or the snow melts with undesir- 

 able rapidity under the direct rays of 

 the sun. 



For successful reproduction of pine 

 on lumbered areas, fire and overgraz- 

 ing the two controllable agencies 

 most destructive at the seedling stage 

 must be controlled. On the moist 

 slopes and high elevations seed bear- 

 ing and reproduction are relatively 

 abundant, forage plants are plentiful, 



Black Jack type of the Western Yellow Pine. 



and water holes and streams are nu- 

 merous, hence there is little danger to 

 seedlings from trampling or browsing, 

 as is evidenced by the very excellent 

 reproduction often found in places 

 which have been sheep grazed for 

 years. Here fires are the greatest dan- 

 ger, as there is more grass and litter to 

 feed them than at lower levels and on 

 dry slopes. A very careful fire patrol 

 of such territory, keeping close watch 

 on sheep herders and campers during 

 the periods when the forest is free 

 from snow, will insure good reproduc- 

 tion of pine over these moist areas. 



( "hi the lower and drier slopes over- 

 graxing is the most destructive agvnt 

 working against reproduction. Good 

 seed years are less frequent, the quan- 



