164 REPORT OF THE 



paratively small. The real danger to the sources of water-supply is not 

 lumbering but fire, which has too often followed the logger. Under the 

 conservative methods recommended, the danger from fire after lumbering 

 is practically removed. 



Under the plan of lumbering proposed for Township 40, then, the forest 

 cover will be but slightly opened, and that only for a time; the bed of 

 humus, or the forest floor, which does more than any other part of the forest 

 to retain and protect the water-supply, will not suffer at all in its water- 

 conserving capacity; and the increased danger from fire which usually fol- 

 lows lumbering will not be incurred. Consequently the water-supply would 

 not be unfavorably aft'ected by its adoption. 



In order to complete the protection that the forests of Township 40 

 afford to the upper watersheds of several important streams, it is essential 

 that something be done toward regulating these streams. A beginning 

 has been made in the construction of a small dam for maintaining the level 

 of Raquette Lake. It is recommended in the working plan that this dam 

 be replaced by a permanent structure better adapted both for driving logs 

 and for insuring a permanent water level in Raquette Lake. This level 

 should be marked upon the proposed dam and should govern the official 

 in charge in keeping the level of the lake at the right point. In the work- 

 ing plan the building of a new dam is fully discussed, and since the present 

 level has come to be generally recognized as being the level best adapted 

 to meet the varied interests at Raquette Lake, it has been accepted as prac- 

 tically established. 



In the construction of the dam devices can he arranged at small cost 

 by which accurate record and computation can be made of the daily flow, 

 thus affording facts of great value in discussing the effect of forests on 

 water conservation, and enabling those in charge to regulate the discharge 

 of water from the lake in such way as to insure the best conditions for driv- 

 ing logs and for navigation. Systematic records made on different streams 

 under varying conditions, and extending over a sufficient period to give 

 trustworthy results, aft'ord the most valuable source of information regard- 

 ing stream flow. Records of this sort are especially needed at those points 

 where the streams, though still in or near the forest, reach a large enough 

 size to become important as feeders of the great rivers, or as sources of 

 power. At such points the influence of the forest on the watershed can 

 best be studied, because fewer factors enter into the problem than lower 

 down the stream. Comparison of watersheds generally similar in topog- 



