[22] 



Sheep, 2,167,241 head @ J2.25 9 4,876,292 25 



Wool, 15,706,356 pounds, @ 10 cents 1,570,635 60 



Total for sheep and wool 9 6.446,927 85 



Nearly, or quite, four fifths of the value is in the 1,867,542 sheep kept in 

 the fourteen counties of Eastern Oregon, where, as I have said, precipita- 

 tion sinks below the surface in a manner our eastern friends, who pass reso- 

 lutions to keep the use of our forest lands from us, cannot possibly under- 

 stand. Could these gentlemen become imbued with the knowledge Dr. 

 Fernow gained by his visit to Arizona last fall, and preceive as he did the 

 wonderful effects of water on the arid lands, which by the use of irrigation 

 water will become fields of production — gardens like that of Eden — in 

 which to grow "every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food," 

 they would cease to injure us. To realize Mr. Fernow's conception there is 

 much more necessity for the expenditure of public money, to indicate to 

 the people how to secure the water precipitated during the year, for use in 

 the growing season, than there is for a forestry policy, albeit the experiment 

 station of Utah, by acting on Dr. Fernow's proposition for setting apart cer- 

 tain lands for testing the timber trees, suggested by him in order to find 

 what is best, is taking hold of the forestry question in a practical manner. 

 The experiment station's efforts to find how much irrigation water is re- 

 quired for the production of a given crop is very commendable, as teaching 

 how to make the desert blossom with the rose, in the very midst of the vast 

 area, we now begin to see of value that cannot yet be estimated; but which 

 I believe will be increased, not diminished, by the use of sheep in pasturing 

 all the timbered highlands interior to the Cascade range, as well as on its 

 eastern slopes. 



To close this paper, I will summarize the position I believe the closest 

 possible scientific tests will demonstrate as true. 



First. — Neither in the valleys nor on the mountains of Oregon are either 

 sheep or cattle an injury to the growth of coniferous trees. 



Second. — While the density of the forest growth which Oregon people 

 deem commercial timber makes sheep keeping in it impossible, the grazing 

 of the summit ridges and eastern slopes is beneficial and protective. 



Third. — Snow melts first on those mountains within the timber, or on 

 brush lands, to which I add, both timber and brush lands consume more 

 water than they give out (none of which is given out in any other way 

 than from the leaves). Trees lift the moisture from the earth while grow- 

 ing : the common observation of all who have worked in maple-sugar camps 

 teaches that there is a principle of life in a tree that causes the sap to run 

 when the grass plants are under snow. Still, snow lying from winter till 

 after the middle of July is Incompatible with the growth of timber of value. 

 The surface sources of streams are from snow in the open after that date. 

 To this I will add that no plant known to me dispenses water from its roots 

 — all are drinkers; and when the question becomes so important as it is now 



