1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



181 



since hewing is a very wasteful method is a small matter in the case of each 



of tie production. Under it many of tie, but as they are cut by the million 



the larger trees are cut with unneces- the excess represents in the total a 



sarily high stumps in order to save very large waste of wood. It means 



labor in hewing down the butts. In also an unnecessarily great consump- 



many other cases the trees are not tion of creosote or other material used 



used as far up into the tops as they in the preservative treatment, since the 



might be. Further, the hewing pro- total bulk of wood which must be 



cess itself is very wasteful and leaves treated is greater, 

 in the woods a quantity of litter in the It is estimated that from 48 to 70 



shape of slabs and chips in which fire per cent, of the timber cut for pole ties 



is often started and the forest seriously goes into chips, slabs, and excess over 



damaged. the maximum dimensions required. 



If hewing is continued it would be Adding all causes of waste it is found 



unwise to restrict the cutting to 14, that the percentage of timber actually 



15, and i6-inch trees for that would 

 involve increased waste, but the value 

 of the smaller sizes demands this re- 



used in hewn ties is no more than 25 

 to 30 per cent, of the total volume of 

 the trees felled. 



striction, and sawing should take the Loblolly pine grows so rapidly that 

 place of hewing. When the larger two crops of pole ties can be produced 

 logs are sawed several boards can be in less time than is required to grow 



one crop of longleaf pine ties, and 

 from each of the two crops there will 

 be a larger average yield of ties. This 



tremendous advantage of loblolly pine 



obtained from the wood now wasted 

 in slabs and chips as the hewing pro- 

 gresses. 



There is still another form of waste 

 resulting from hewing. In grading is increased by the marked ability of 

 ties the railroads are very strict about the tree to reproduce itself. Condi- 

 accepting none under specification tions in east Texas are almost ideal 

 sizes, but they do not object to some for the maintenance of forests of this 

 excess in size. This, and the fact that tree, and the opportunity to earn good 

 less labor is required to produce large returns by their conservative manage- 

 ties, has induced hewers to make many ment is equalled in few parts of the 

 ties larger than they need be. This country. 



LIGNITE OF NORTH DAKOTA AS AP- 

 PLIED TO IRRIGATION 



TINDER the direction of Mr. N. H. 

 Darton, of the United States Ge- 

 ological Survey, who is making a gen- 

 eral investigation of the underground- 

 water resources of western United 

 States, Mr. F. A. Wilder has recently 

 examined the lignite deposits of North 

 Dakota and studied their relation to 

 irrigation. 



The areas most favorably situated 

 for irrigation in North Dakota are the 

 broad terraces along the Missouri and 

 its tributaries. These streams are 

 deeply intrenched, and it does not 



seem possible by means now available 

 to raise water from them a vertical 

 distance of 150 to 400 feet over the 

 bluffs that rather sharply bound the 

 broad valleys. 



The fertile terraces in the valleys of 

 the streams range from 15 to 100 feet 

 in elvation above water level. As 

 there is an abundance of lignite along 

 these streams, it has seemed desirable 

 to consider the possibility of irrigating 

 the 250,000 acres included in the ter- 

 races by pumping water directly from 

 the rivers, using lignite as a fuel. To 



