Mr. Johnston. 
Mr. Pinchot. 
456 DISCUSSION: FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
owing to the saturated condition of the snow, it disappears within 
a few days. The floods which occur in the West come from the 
forested areas regularly each year. They do more damage to irriga- 
tion works by carrying timber which lodges in dams and head-gates 
than by high water alone. 
If one considers the character of the timber grown on the moun- 
tains of the inter-mountain region, and estimates the volume of water 
necessary for the production of this timber, it becomes an economic 
question whether or not the farmers can afford, ultimately, to permit 
the growth of trees to the injury of the total available water supply. 
Before many years, all the water of our streams will be stored and 
held until the irrigation season begins. When this occurs, agricul- 
tural growth will be hampered unless all the water that can be ob- 
tained for this higher use can’ be made available. As every irrigator 
plants trees, this transition will tend to increase rather than to dimin- 
ish the forest area and the available timber supply. 
By July 1st, the snow has disappeared from the forested areas, 
and the water supply thereafter is derived from occasional rains and 
the great snow banks in the mountains. Later than July 1st, it is 
possible to find small quantities of snow here and there in the forests, 
but, although the writer, for twenty years, has been searching for 
snow in the forests during August, the month when water is needed 
most for irrigation, he has failed to find it. : 
It is fortunate that this important subject is receiving some intel- 
ligent study, and that discussions are being submitted which deal with 
facts rather than with boyhood dreams and theories unsupported by 
experiment or scientific observation. The Government’s forestry work 
should not be affected in any way by the solution of the problems 
considered in this investigation. If the forestry service rightly has 
a place under the National Government, this place is assured, because 
its value to the public must depend on the protection it affords to 
forests and the timber supply. It is not necessary for that depart- 
ment to attempt to perform everything, and particularly to make 
claims which would lead one to believe that trees do not belong to 
the vegetable kingdom, in that they conserve more water than they 
need in their growth and development. 
Grrorp Pincuot, Assoc. Am. Soc. C. E.—In discussing the in- 
fluence of forests on stream flow, it is unlikely that we’ will ever have 
a better statement, in certain respects, of the case against the forests 
than that which Colonel Chittenden has made. It has been restated 
time after time, under different conditions and by writers of different 
nations. This is, perhaps, the best statement ever made in America; 
therefore, it is particularly important, as far as facts are known, that 
the discussion should be as complete as possible. 
