498 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



November 



clear by one or more examples, and 

 where there are several ways of doing 

 the same thing, the preferred one is 

 indicated. 



The book is sparingly illustrated, 

 though one finds that all the important 

 instruments and their use are fully ex- 

 plained. To make up for any deficiency 

 that may be felt in this direction the 

 appendix is rich in information that 

 the forester often wants and cannot 

 readily find. It includes a digest of 

 all State laws regarding lumber meas- 

 urement, a full list of works on Forest 

 Mensuration, tables of cubic volumes, 

 volume tables and form factor tables 

 for the most important species Euro- 

 pean and American, and the most 

 trustworthy yield tables. 



In the use of technical terms the 

 book consistently employs those 

 recommended by the Society of Ameri- 



can Foresters, and adopted by the For- 

 est Service. Except that increment is 

 used for accretion "increment borer," 

 and system for method, "selection sys- 

 tem," a few times the book does much 

 to establish the preferred technology. 

 One can scarcely rate Professor 

 Graves' book too highly. The style is 

 clear and direct and the practical pur- 

 pose to be served is never lost sight of. 

 If faults be sought, the greatest is 

 probably found in an excess of ex- 

 planation. There is a little of the 

 lecture room which might have been 

 spared. Minor errors of typography 

 are unfortunately quite common, some 

 of the tables are not well placed, e. g.. 

 that on page 237, and in the table of 

 metric contents of cylinders, pages 286 

 to 393, feet instead of meters appears 

 throughout. 



A. G. 



PROGRESS OF RECLAMATION WORK 



BY 

 F. H. NEWELL 



Chief Engineer V,. S. Reclamation Service. 



FTER an inspection trip, during 

 which examination was made 

 of the condition of construction work 

 in North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, 

 Washington, Oregon, California, Ari- 

 zona, and New Mexico, it may be said 

 that in general the work is progress- 

 ing favorably, and construction has 

 reached a point where results can be 

 seen. 



The chief drawback at the present 

 time is the difficulty of securing com- 

 petent laborers. Men who can be had 

 for this western work are, as a rule, 

 restless and rarely stay more than a 

 few days or weeks at any one point. 

 They travel from job to job, staying 

 just long enough to get well fed and 

 accumulate a few dollars, then leave 

 for the next place. The large amount 

 of railroad construction, as well as the 

 number of contracts under way with 

 the Reclamation Service, make it pos- 



sible for laborers to strike a new job 

 wherever they stop. 



A contractor having on an average 

 a thousand men at work will have on 

 his pay roll for the month from 2,000 

 to 3,000 names. There is a small army 

 of laborers tramping backward and 

 forward along each railroad line, the 

 greater part at present being headed, 

 of course, for California and the 

 Southwest in general. 



The difficulty in obtaining and hold- 

 ing good labor and the increase in the 

 cost of materials have resulted in put- 

 ting out of business a number of small 

 contracors and subcontractors, es- 

 pecially those who took their con- 

 tracts six months or a year ago. The 

 outlook for the future is also so uncer- 

 tain that it is extremely difficult for 

 contractors to bid with any degree of 

 confidence, and hence there are very 

 few proffers for future work. This 



