1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



343 



Forest A representative of the 



Planting Forest Service recently 



on Watershed -, j ,1 1 



visited the nearly com- 

 pleted reservoir of the Metropolitan 

 Water Board at Clinton, Mass., where 

 extensive forest planting work is be- 

 ing carried on. This reservoir and 

 dam is one of the largest in New Eng- 

 land, and to insure sanitary conditions 

 at the sources of the water supply the 

 adjacent region through which the 

 streams flow has been acquired and is 

 under the management of the board. 

 Part of this area is covered with 

 natural timber ; other portions are bar- 



the several species are planted at vari- 

 ous distances apart and in mixtures 

 which are intended to give the best 

 forest conditions at maturity. In order 

 to supply material for these field plant- 

 ing operations, two forest nurseries 

 have been established, one for the pro- 

 duction of evergreen trees and one for 

 hardwoods. 



Trouble 



on Colorado 



River 



A combination of pecu- 

 liar topographic features 

 and prolonged floods has 

 wrought great havoc in southern Cali- 

 fornia and southwestern Arizona, and 



>$- 



Henniger Flats Nursery. San Gabriel Forest Reserve 

 (See article in this number % T. P. Liikens) 



ren or brush covered. Upon the open 

 lands forest planting is being done. 



The planting work has been going 

 on for about four years and approxi- 

 mately 200 acres are planted annually. 

 The species thus far used are white 

 pine, chestnut, maple, and hickory. On 

 some of the brush covered areas white 

 pine seedlings were planted 10 feet 

 apart and hickory nuts planted between 

 them. In other places sugar maple 

 seedlings have been mixed with the 

 white pine to act as a lowerstory to the 

 more rapid growing evergreen tree. 

 On one field a series of experimental 

 plantations have been made in which 



still greater calamity threatens the set- 

 tlers unless immediate steps are taken 

 to keep the Colorado River between 

 the banks of the original channel. 



The silt borne down from the moun- 

 tains through past centuries by the 

 Colorado River has built up a great 

 delta, cutting off an arm of the sea 

 and gradually raising the river bed 

 till the water flows on a ridge nearly 

 400 feet above the basin, which has 

 long since been dried out by evapora- 

 tion. 



In 1004 the California Development 

 Company cut a canal about four miles 

 below the Mexican boundary, opening 



