1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



499 



condition, holds not only for the Re- 

 clamation Service, but also for the 

 railroads. On one extension four dif- 

 ferent contracors in succession have 

 thrown up the work during a period 

 of six months. 



The largest work of the Reclama- 

 tion Service now in hand is the Roose- 

 velt dam in Arizona, the foundation 

 of which is now in and is approaching 

 the river level. If the floods in the 

 Salt River do not occur for a month 

 or two, the foundations, which cover 



about an acre in extent, will be above 

 water level. 



The Laguna dam on the Colorado 

 River, 12 miles above Yuma, is being 

 successfully pushed by J. G. White 

 & Co., of New York City, and its suc- 

 cess is now assured through the clos- 

 ing of the break in Colorado River 

 some 30 miles below on Mexican ter- 

 ritory. The gap was closed by the 

 Southern Pacific Company after weeks 

 of great exertion and the expediture 

 of many hundred thousands of dol- 

 lars. 



FORESTRY IN CANADA* 



A Careful Discussion of the Forest Wealth of the Do- 

 minion with Suggestions as to its Proper Exploitation 



BY 

 JUDSON F. CLARK 



N the case of most crops produced 

 by the soil there is a distinct seed 

 time and harvest and the methods of 

 the seed time are as different as may 

 be from the methods of the harvest. 

 Wood crops form a notable exception 

 to this rule, for normally the new crop 

 is launched by the act of harvesting 

 the crop which is mature. Where there 

 is no wood crop to harvest, artificial 

 sowing or planting must be resorted 

 to if a wood crop would be grown, but 

 in Canada the areas which must be so 

 treated are limited and comparatively 

 unimportant. 



Nature unaided by man has pro- 

 duced vast and magnificent forests and 

 maintained them for ages. The earliest 

 foresters went to Nature centuries ago 

 to learn her method of forest repro- 

 duction. They found that wherever 

 trees were removed by decay, wind- 

 fall or other cause, so as to make a 

 break in the forest cover, and thus ad- 

 mit light to the soil, the opening be- 

 came quickly filled with a vigorous 

 reproduction of young trees. Trees 

 are tolerably prolific seeders, but tree 



* Paper read by Mr. Clark before the Canadian Forestry Association, Vancouver, B. C. 

 September 25-27, 1906. 



seeds on germination require light if 

 they are to develop into forest trees. 

 The more light they get the more 

 rapidly they grow, and light may be 

 given them by the removal of the ma- 

 ture trees. Such were the lessons 

 learned from Nature by the first for- 

 esters, and the natural laws behind 

 these lessons must ever form the basis 

 of all natural methods of forest con- 

 servation. 



The forester was quick to see where- 

 in man might aid Nature to the ad- 

 vantage of the forest. Nature's method 

 of waiting an age for the trees to dis- 

 appear after they had passed their 

 prime was wasteful alike in time and 

 material. The forester with his ax 

 saved the material and the time. In 

 the virgin forest the fittest to survive 

 occupied the soil, but the fittest to sur- 

 vive were not always the best fitted 

 to supply the needs of man. This was 

 remedied by the forester in the suc- 

 ceeding crop by favoring as seed trees 

 those kinds which, because of rapidity 

 of growth or quality of product, were 

 regarded as the more desirable. 



