1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



143 



would sufficiently improve the tree 

 growth to warrant the expense. This 

 question has additional importance in 

 view of the large amount of land of 

 this character lying along the west 

 Florida coast and extending well back 

 into the interior of the state. 



_ . A plan has recently been 



Co-operative r , r 



State Work approved for co-opera- 

 tive forest experiments 

 between the Forest Service and the 

 University of Nebraska. The univer- 

 sity is to donate twenty-five acres of 

 land at the North Platte substation, 

 and systematic experimental planting 

 is to be carried on under the supervi- 

 sion of the Forest Service. The aim 

 is to increase the knowledge of forest 

 planting in western Nebraska, laying 

 especial emphasis on the valuable new 

 species, the general relation of species 

 to soil and climate, spacing, mixtures, 



cultivation, etc. The work will run 

 through a period of years and only 

 small lots will be planted annually. 



An estimate of the timber growing 

 on what is known as the "north grove" 

 of the Calaveras Big Tree Grove, in 

 California, has just been completed by 

 the Forest Service. The area covered 

 by the big trees is about one hundred 

 acres. The entire north grove com- 

 prises 640 acres. This work forms 

 part of the co-operative forest studies 

 which the Service has undertaken at 

 the request of the state of California. 

 There is an earnest and widespread 

 desire to save the Calaveras grove 

 from such a sale as would result in its 

 destruction. The owner is willing to 

 dispose of it, and an accurate and sat- 

 isfactory appraisal of the value of the 

 timber should help to an agreement on 

 a fair price if Congress sees fit to pur- 

 chase it. 



THE YUMA RECLAMATION 



PROJECT 



One of the Largest of the Many Irrigation Works 

 Undertaken by the Government Similar to Nile Projects 



A SPECIAL interest attaches to the into the Gulf of California for hun- 



** Yuma reclamation project in Ari- dreds of miles. It has cut its channel 



zona and California, one of the great more than a mile deep through the 



national irrigation works now well plateaus, carving out abyssa canyons 



started, by reason of the unusual phys- which are the most wonderful in the 



ical conditions of that section of the world. In flood its waters carry in 



Southwest, and the somewhat unique solution millions of tons of silt and 



engineering problems which are in- detritus which for ages the stream has 



volved. deposited in the sea building up a 



Physically and climatically the Colo- broad delta through which it flows 



rado Delta is singularly like that of on to P of a dyke so that its normal 



the Nile. Like the great river of 

 Egypt, the Colorado rises in far-dis- 



channel is elevated considerably above 

 the country on either side. In time of 



tant mountains and empties through fl ood it spills over its dyke inundating 



great tidal flats into an inland sea, its a portion of its valley, 

 valley and climate all bearing out the The engineering works involve a 



likeness. The Colorado is one of the dam across the river, canals on both 



great rivers of the arid West. It sides of the stream, and an extensive 



drains an area of more than 225,000 system of levees to protect the lower 



square miles and pours a turbid flood lands from flooding. The dam known 



