364 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



August 



swamping and burning will save large 

 quantities of small timber which will 

 have considerable value in a few years. 

 At McCloud, it is estimated that the 

 logged lands will have on an average 

 of 8,000 feet B. M. per acre in forty 

 years, if they are protected from any 

 fire except the careful burning which 

 removed the slash. Such burning is 

 quite different from that upheld by the 

 advocates of the Indian method. 



In conclusion it may be said that in 

 all parts of the Sierras, where forest 

 growth is economically worth encour- 



aging, the valuable species tend to sup- 

 plant the chaparral. After the young 

 trees have passed a certain age they 

 tend to supplant the underbrush, and 

 are less likely to a great burn than is 

 the chaparral. (Fig. 9.) As the chap- 

 arral in extended acreas is the result 

 of fire and as it is continually liable 

 to fierce conflag-ration, it is the correct 

 policy to make every attempt to reduce 

 it by favoring the growth of commer- 

 cial species. This end can only be ob- 

 tained by the strictest and most intel- 

 ligent regulation of fire and not by 

 reckless burning. 



WATER AND FOREST ASSOCIATION 



An Organization of Public Spirited Citizens That Has Done 

 Much for the Higher Development of California's Resources 



BY 

 T. C. FRIEDLANDER 



Secretary, Water and Forest Association 



ALIFORNIA to-day leads all 

 states in the work that is being 

 done to develop the irrigation of ijts 

 lands. Under the United States Re- 

 clamation Act work is under way to 

 place 100,000 acres under ditch from 

 the water to be derived from the Colo- 

 rado River. Another project under 

 the Reclamation Act contemplates the 

 irrigating of 236,000 acres of land sit- 

 uated partly in California and partly 

 in Oregon. The greatest develop- 

 ment, however, taking place and in 

 contemplation, is in what is known as 

 the great central valley of California, 

 comprising the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin valleys. Southern California, 

 owing to the absolute necessity of the 

 situation, has hitherto made the great- 

 est progress in irrigating land under 

 advanced methods, and the use of wa- 

 ter as practiced to-day in that section 

 stands as an object lesson to all the 

 world of what can be done in this di- 

 rection. 



Since about 1885 up to 1900, but 

 little development had been made in 

 the great central valley of California 

 in the placing of water upon the land. 

 What was known as the Wright Act, 

 which enabled the formation of dis- 

 tricts under a mutual plan for the pur- 

 pose of acquiring a water supply and 

 distributing the water to the lands of 

 the district, had been tried and disas- 

 ter had ensued in many instances. In 

 the Wright Act there were two fun- 

 damental defects which caused its fail- 

 ure. The first was a clause enabling 

 a district to be formed by a vote of all 

 inhabitants of the district and not (as 

 should have been the case) by a vote 

 of the acreage. Districts were formed 

 in which one-half of the acreage ob- 

 jected to the formation of the district, 

 whereas the votes secured in the towns 

 and villages within its borders were 

 sufficient to override the wish of the 

 land owners. A second cause of dis- 

 aster was the operation of the clause 



