October 27, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



427 



the forest, takes the traveler to his destination under the 

 northern base of the same mountain. It is difficult to under- 

 stand, without actual experience, how completely this day's 

 ride isolates one from the busy workaday world. 



On every hand mountains rim the valley in which Seven 

 Oaks lies, with a distance of, perhaps, twenty miles in each 

 direction from ridge to ridge. The Santa Ana River, the most 

 important stream in this section of southern California, trav- 

 erses the valley from east to west, finding its sources at the 

 greatest elevations and fed by smaller tributary streams. 

 From the heights above these waters one may look down, 

 toward the east, upon the wide stretches of the deserts, 

 broken by ranges of low hills with great variety of color and 

 topography. 



The Santa Ana curves to the northern side of this valley and 

 between it and the heights of San Bernardino and Grayback, 

 on the south and south-east, are wooded benches where one 

 may ride for hours in the shade of beautiful trees. Bridle- 

 paths, or trails, traverse them in different directions. Wherever 

 there is moisture from springs or streams, mountain meadows 

 or cienegas are found, and herds of cattle are pastured on 

 these. In spring and summer the grass is abundant and luxu- 

 riant. The slopes on the northern side of this valley are less 

 heavily wooded than on the south. On surmounting them the 

 range could be crossed into another valley of less extent and 

 at a higher elevation, about 6,000 feet above the sea, and here 

 would be found Bear Valley Lake, a storage reservoir for irri- 

 gation purposes. Its outlet is Bear Creek, which rushes away 

 to a junction with the Santa Ana, and the two, united, sweep 

 on their course to the Orange-groves of southern California, 

 their waters keeping the finest of these in health and produc- 

 tiveness. These valleys are among the most important, and 

 are typical, in their general characteristics, of a series which 

 extends from the ocean to the south-eastern slopes of San 

 Jacinto, in a semicircular sweep of more than a hundred 

 miles. 



There are no mills for sawing lumber in this immediate 

 vicinity, although there are a few farther westward. There are 

 some mines, but most or all of these are on the desert-side of 

 the range. Here and there a pioneer had acquired title to a 

 bit of arable ground, with an appurtenant water-right, before 

 these lands were set aside as a forest reservation, and some 

 portions had been granted to railroads. All of these vested 

 interests will, of course, have to be protected or adjusted in 

 whatever regulations may be made for preserving these 

 forests, but no intelligent man who has studied the subject at 

 all could hesitate for an instant in his opinion as to the abso- 

 lute necessity for preserving them. They shelter the sources 

 of the waters upon which depend the prosperity of all of 

 southern California. The orchards which they keep alive are 

 worth not less than thirty-five millions of dollars, which is 

 three times the amount invested in mines in southern Cali- 

 fornia. Irrigation will depend more and more upon storage 

 reservoirs, for the limits of available water-supply under the 

 present system of use are already in sight. If these mountain 

 valleys were denuded of their forests the winter rains would 

 rush down their precipitous slopes in torrents, which would 

 soon overflow the storage reservoirs, and there would be little 

 or no flow of summer waters. Under such conditions Orange- 

 growing in southern California would be a most hazardous 

 occupation, if not impossible. 



The deadliest foes to these forests have been not the miners, 

 or even the lumbermen, but the sheep-herders and careless 

 campers in whose wake came devastating forest fires. The 

 sheep have now been driven away and the campers have 

 seemingly been educated or frightened into greater care. It 

 is certain that forest fires have been less frequent during the 

 past summer than formerly. Appreciable efforts are being 

 made to enforce the laws governing these reserves, and are 

 effecting good results. 



A new and important interest which will be useful in pre- 

 serving these forests is that of the companies now being 

 formed and some of them at work, for establishing plants to 

 generate electricity by the fall of the same waters which furnish 

 irrigation. Some of these plants will each be capable of de- 

 veloping as high as 10,000 horse power, which will be utilized 

 in Los Angeles and at intermediate points for purposes of 

 lighting, manufactures and transportation. These interests 

 will be valuable and will help on the rapid development of 

 southern California. But they, even more than irrigation, will 

 demand a continuous supply of water which must not fall be- 

 low a certain minimum. This flow must be maintained 

 throughout the long dry summers, and every effort will be 

 made to secure the volume of water and to lessen loss from 

 evaporation by expensive systems of tunnels cut through the 



solid rock. These are very fascinating projects, and so feasi- 

 ble that they will doubtless rapidly be pushed to completion. 

 Thus private interests may accomplish more in the end than 

 the fear of the law or Government patrol toward maintaining 

 the integrity of these reservations. 



But roads will be needed in order that these plants may be 

 constructed and maintained. By these roads these unique 

 mountain nooks will be rendered accessible to the multitude, 

 and their charm of isolation and primitive grandeur will be at 

 an end. When the multitude comes into the forests the moun- 

 taineer, to whom they have been sacred, and by whom they 

 have been loved, will have no other refuge than the desert. 

 Progress, which is the greatest good to thegreatest number, is 

 destructive of romance and of the refined pleasures of the few 

 to whom Nature in her lonely and rugged moods is a source 

 of constant pleasure. Comparatively few Californians know 

 their own mountains well. They dwell within sight of them, 

 year after year, ignorant of the beauties which so abundantly 

 repay the slight efforts and sacrifices involved in exploring 

 them. 



Redlands, Calif. William M. Tisdalc. 



Recent Publications. 



Life Histories of Anierican Insects. By Clarence Moores 

 Weed. Illustrated. The Macmillan Company, London 

 and New York. 1897. 



In this, his latest book, the author seeks to give in an inter- 

 esting, readable, untechnical way some account of the trans- 

 formations and short lives of a few of our common or most 

 conspicuous insects, chiefly those to be found in the north- 

 ern or middle portions of this country. The book is divided 

 into twenty-six chapters, each one of which treats of some 

 particular species of insect, or a species and its nearest 

 allies, the last two chapters being devoted to true spiders 

 and so-called "harvest spiders." No attempt is made to 

 give a complete history of any species, nor is any claim 

 made to entire originality, although many of the observa- 

 tions are no doubt the result of Professor Weed's own care- 

 ful studies. In a pleasing, brief, instructive way some of 

 the salient facts in the life history of the insect are touched 

 upon, the end of each short chapter leaving much unsaid 

 that might be told, but giving the reader a desire for more 

 information, and perhaps leading him to the still more pleas- 

 ant and profitable task of personal investigation. The range 

 of subjects is well chosen to illustrate types or modes of 

 life in the insect world, although wood-borers and some 

 others which come under common observation or specula- 

 tion are not referred to. A chapter or two each given to 

 water lovers, earth-burrowers, leaf-eaters, leaf-miners, case- 

 'bearers, predaceous insects, those which are parasitic, etc., 

 are sufficient to give the tyro a good idea of some of the 

 things he should see in the insect life about him and which 

 too commonly pass unnoticed. It would add greatly to 

 the cause of economic entomology and to the proper under- 

 standing of our insect friends and foes if such books as 

 Professor Weed's were more commonly read, for such 

 reading must inevitably lead any thoughtful mind to fur- 

 ther study or the desire for it. The chapter on "Sand- 

 wasps and their Victims " must open the eyes of many 

 readers to episodes in insect life occurring commonly about 

 them, facts familiar to entomologists, but scarcely known 

 except by students of that branch of natural science. Much 

 might be quoted here, but such quotations would give but a 

 slight idea of the many interesting observations on insect life 

 presented in an attractive and popular form in this volume. 



This book might well be used as a reader in connection 

 with the science-teaching in some of our schools. The 

 pages are abundantly illustrated with original or more 

 familiar figures borrowed from other works ; and it is pleas- 

 ing to add that proper credit is always given to other 

 authors or publishers for any observations or figures which 

 have been borrowed. 



Notes. 



A market garden at Gretna, Louisiana, managed by a Chinese 

 company, is briefly described in The Rural New-Yorker. Be- 

 sides Cow Peas, used on old land, a fluid obtained from decom- 



