Canadian Forestry Journal, December, 1915. 



281 



Picture shows a C. P. R. Irrigation block. Note the splendid showing of wheat 

 in the field to the right. The farmer who owns that crop ought to be a friend to 

 forest preservation for without the standing forests on the eastern slopes of the 

 Rockies the irrigation projects would represent wasted capital and labor. 



corded from ancient times to the 

 present. 



The shade afforded by the crowns 

 of trees provide a more or less dense 

 roof at a certain distance from the 

 ground, thus intercepting the rays of 

 the sun and the falling rain ; ob- 

 structing the movement of air cur- 

 rents and reducing the radiation of 

 heat during the night. 



In all forests there is more or less 

 vegetable matter made up of leaves, 

 old wood, mosses and decaying her- 

 baceous plants, all of which form a 

 layer of organic matter or humus 

 which covers the earth and fills in 

 the places between rocks. In what- 

 ever position it rests, it absorbs and 

 retains a large amount of rainfall or 

 moisture produced from the moun- 

 tain snow, until it slowly sinks into 

 the ground below, or is taken up by 

 evaporation. 



A portion of the water which thus 

 enters the soil is taken up by the 



tion descends beyond the reach of 

 the roots, and finding subterranean 

 channels is carried onward until it 

 again comes to the surface in 

 springs, or sinks to lower depths and 

 entirely disappears. 



Natural Reservoirs. 

 That the vast deposits of vega- 

 table matter in our great forests are 

 the reservoirs from which innnum- 

 erable springs and brooks are sup- 

 plied is unquestionable. In all re- 

 gions where there is considerable 

 snow in winter it remains much 

 longer in the woods where it is 

 shaded than upon the bare hills and 

 mountains; hence the more contin- 

 uous flow of brooks that have their 

 source in elevated forest covered 

 regions. If the trees are removed 

 from the hills, mountains, and ele- 

 vated regions of a country, the great 

 masses of vegetable mould which 

 absorbs, retains, and checks the 

 rapid descent of water from the 



trees and exhaled by their leaves, higher to the lower levels disappear, 

 thereby adding humidity to the sur- and instead of water falling upon a 

 rounding atmosphere ; another por- sponge-like bed, it strikes the bare 



