THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



39 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



BY G. L. SHUMWAY. 



President Eoosevelt is not playing fair. His 

 friends in the last Congress those who made possible 

 his most signal successes were turned against by the 

 chief executive in the last election. 



Probably the policies of the President had no more 

 staunch defender in the United States Senate than 

 Fred T. Dubois; yet Mr. Eoosevelt's appeal and Mr. 

 Taff s personal effort resulted in his defeat. 



Perhaps this is well, for Senator Heyburn, an an- 

 tagonist of the forestry policies which the adminis- 

 tration has inaugurated, comes out of the contest 

 strengthened by a republican colleague, and can do 

 battle royal for a revolution in the methods of that 

 department. 



The representative of the Associated Press who re- 

 ported the Boise Congress and Gifford Pinchot, have 

 been guilty of a weak attempt to do with the press 

 what they failed to do at the Congress discredit Sen- 

 ator Heyburn. The reporter seemed to get his inspira- 

 tion from the forest king, who in turn did not inspire 

 correctly, or treat with proper consideration any inci- 

 dent or event that failed to make him the hero of 

 the hour. 



After crossing the continental divide we picked up 

 dailies which mentioned that event of Mr. Heyburn's 

 attack upon the policies of the Forestry Department. 

 The reports stated that he was hissed and not per- 

 mitted to proceed until he apologized. 



We who were there appreciate that this was an 

 incorrect report, and that the inordinate vanity of our 

 Forest King is responsible for its origin. Heyburn was 

 hissed, but the truth and sentiment and poetry of the 

 words which followed produced a revulsion of feeling, 

 and swept the Congress from disapprobation to spon- 

 taneous and tumultous approval. 



When the American Irrigation Federation met and 

 effected a permanent organization, a report was given 

 to the Associated Press representative who immediately 

 retired with it to Mr. Pinchof s apartments, from which 

 it never emerged. 



If that institution is a disseminator of information 

 of public interest we would advise that the censorship 

 of Gifford Pinchot be eliminated in the future. Col- 

 oring the Heyburn episode, or smothering an account 

 of the Irrigation Federation meeting will not injure 



either, but it does serve to illuminate the pinheads 

 that have managed to get up in official circles. Thou- 

 sands were present and know the facts, and representa- 

 tive men from all parts of the country will carry 

 corrected reports to their respective localities. 



The Forestry Service has attached itself to the 

 great and splendid work of Federal irrigation, to be 

 carried along with it, sharing a portion of the glory 

 of that institution. The theory that forests on the 

 mountains hold back flood waters is largely theory only. 

 If mountain slopes were as destitute of timber as the 

 peaks above the winds of winter would whip and beat 

 the snows into compact bodies and rifts, instead of the 

 loose fluffy material that fills the treetops and covers 

 the ground in the forests, which the first spring rain 

 carries away. 



As Mr. Heyburn said: "The daffodils bloom in 

 the forest while the bare old mountain peaks are white 

 with snow." And I have gathered ripe wild straw- 

 berries near the timber line of the Big Horn moun- 

 tains, where only a few hundred feet away packed snow 

 still covered the earth, although exposed to the rays 

 of the summer sun. 



Every tree contains some warmth, and the snow 

 around its trunk is usually the first to melt, leaving 

 "wells" to the ground. These perforations honeycomb 

 the snow accumulations of the forest and hasten its 

 transition into liquid form. That portion which runs 

 away passes the fields where it might serve for irriga- 

 tion before the irrigation period is on, and the quan- 

 tity which goes into the earth is lost to irrigation, for 

 it later passes into the fibers of trees and undergrowth. 

 Springs of the intermountain country usually come 

 from great depth, or through subterranean channels 

 from the snows lingering above the timber line, and 

 are scarcely affected by surface vegetation, trees or 

 chaparal. 



Forest reserves on the west side of the Cascade 

 Mountains are certainly of no benefit to irrigation. 

 Two-thirds of Washington's forest reserves are on the 

 western slope, and if beneficial to irrigation the waters 

 must be used on the Pacific Ocean, Puget Sound or on 

 lands already supplied with forty to sixty inches annual 

 rainfall. 



It was proposed to extend Nebraska's forest re- 

 serves not because they would in any way benefit 

 irrigation, for the sand hills are east and below the 

 irrigation belt not for planting trees, although a few 

 acres are annually planted but to extend Mr. Pin- 

 chot's policies of overlord ship, and compel an industry 



