1908 



NEWS AND NOTES 





TT ^. Mrs. W. I. Higgins, 



Voting on ,-,, . 



State Tree Chairman of Forestry 



Committee, .Montana 

 Federation of Women's Clubs, writes 

 that Arbor Day in that State has been 

 changed this year to the third Tues- 

 day in April, which is an improvement 

 on the former date, being more suit- 

 able to planting conditions and school 

 work. 



She says that this spring the school 

 children are going to vote on a State 

 tree. This vote will take place on Ar- 

 bor Day. 



The literature which they expect to 

 receive from the Forest Service will 

 be distributed by the County Superin- 

 tendents to the teachers ; then the chil- 

 dren will make an investigation of the 

 trees and vote for their choice. This 

 is one way of teaching the oncoming 

 generation about trees. 



Maine The Forestry Committee 



Clubs 6 "' 5 of the Maine Federation 

 of Women's Clubs urges 

 that every club in Maine give this year 

 one program, or at least a part of a 

 program, to that most important sub- 

 ject, forestry. It urges them to ar- 

 range a forestry exhibit, to observe 

 Arbor Day, and otherwise promote 

 public sentiment in favor of forestry, 

 and to call attention to the White 

 Mountain-Appalachian forest propo- 

 sition. It asks also that the club wo- 

 men join the Maine Forestry Asso- 

 ciation. 



At the midwinter meeting of the 

 federation at Lewiston it was unani- 

 mously voted to support a movement 

 to make Mt. Katahdin and the adjoin- 

 ing region a State forest reserve. 



New 



Mexico 



Industry 



Concurrently with the 

 Sixteenth National Irri- 

 gation Congress, to be 

 held at Albuquerque, N. M., Septem- 

 ber 29 to October 3, 1908, the people 

 of New Mexico will hold a State In- 

 dustrial Exposition. The congress 

 alone would furnish a large attendance 

 for an exposition if all the delegates 

 should attend the show. 



Another At 1'rineville, Illinois, a 



FoTes C t P wealth >' citiz c "'as B 



forty acres of woodland 

 to the town, and it is to be used in na- 

 ture study for the school children. It 

 will be developed and administered 

 as a public property. 



Immense The streams whose 



Wa^Powers headwaters 



the peaks of the South- 

 ern Appalachians, flowing westward 

 to the Mississippi or eastward to the 

 Atlantic, furnish opportunities f.>r tin- 

 development of water power so won- 

 derful that the meagerness of their 

 present use for this purpose is little 

 less than marvelous. 



Engineers of the United States 

 Geological Survey, after making a 

 careful study of the streams, the 

 quantity of water they carry, and 

 their fall in various portions of their 

 courses, have estimated that they af- 

 ford a minimum of about 2,800,000 

 horsepower ; at least 50 per cent of 

 which, or 1,400,000 horsepower, is 

 available for economic development. 

 These figures, it should be noted, rep- 

 resent the minimum horsepower. If 

 the flood waters could be stored and 

 the flow of the streams properly regu- 

 lated, the ininumum power available 

 for economic development might be 

 increased from three to fifteen tiir< 



The estimates of the engineers of 

 the Survey are based on the present 

 condition of the drainage area, but if 

 the abuse of the upland area is con- 

 tinued, the available power will lie 

 largely reduced. Not the height t' 

 the floods, but the length and depres- 

 sion of the low-water season, govern 

 the power that any stream will yirld. 

 The more uniform the flow of a riv- 

 er, the greater its value for power, i 

 for all other purposes; and this uni- 

 formity is dependent solely on the 

 condition of the land Mir faces. An 

 upland bared of forests di-charges its 

 rain so quickly that in dry seasons 

 there is no water left in the ground to 

 supply a flow. 



