390 



RECREATION. 



whole, it is an excellent discourse to en- 

 courage the vigilance of Southern Califor- 

 nia people in preserving the timber and 

 brush on their own mountains. 



Forests hold back the rainfall ; they hold 

 a soil and keep it porous, so that the water 

 soaks in, and its passage to the streams is 

 thereby impeded and restrained, so that its 

 delivery to the drainage channel is slow and 

 steady, maintaining the flow of the stream.- 



When the land is stripped of trees this 

 process ceases in whole or in part. The 

 water rushes rapidly to the channel, carry- 

 ing with it the soil that is no longer held 

 by the roots of trees. The rapid delivery 

 into the streams turns them into torrents, 

 destroys their meander, which aided the de- 

 liberate flow of the water ; and when the 

 torrent is past, there being but little water 

 in the soil for slow delivery, the stream de- 

 clines and its flow in some cases ceases en- 

 tirely. This is the result of too much in- 

 terference with the natural equilibrium. 

 Stripping vast watersheds of timber is the 

 prime cause of the floods in the Ohio and 

 the Mississippi ; and the Federal Govern- 

 ment has to spend millions annually in 

 levees and other artificial works to prevent 

 destruction of vast tracts of farming lands 

 in the valleys of those streams. 



So far the Interior Department has rig- 

 idly prevented access to and transit across 

 these forest reserves by electric roadbed, 

 which would use for power the water of 

 mountain streams without in the least de- 

 pleting it, and which would not expose the 

 forest to fire or other means of injury. 



Instead of sending public agents to Wash- 

 ington to demand vacation of the reserva- 

 tions, the counties concerned should send 

 them there to advise a change in the meth- 

 od of administering the reserves, by which 

 the damaging and unnecessary isolation of 

 towns and private property would cease. 

 Every reserve should finally be penetrated 

 by electric roads, which would increase the 

 safety of the forests, and by furnishing 

 quick communication cheapen the cost of 

 their administration. A little common 

 sense would remove all this opposition and 

 preserve the forests of California to per- 

 form their natural function as the con- 

 servators of moisture and fertilizers of 

 soil. — Wood and Iron. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR MICHIGAN FORESTS. 

 Seven suggestions regarding forest bot- 

 any for the new forests of Michigan were 

 recently given by Charles A. Davis, instruc- 

 tor in forestry in the University of Michi- 

 gan. He pointed out that much of the 

 land now available for forests is dry, and 

 poor in plant food ; that much of it has 

 been devastated by fires, by cattle, and by 

 excessive lumbering. In consideration of 



these facts, his suggestions were as fol- 

 lows : 



That all vegetation which will grow be 

 protected, in order that the soil may be 

 prevented from further deterioration by 

 wind, by washing, and by leaching. 



That tree species, especially such as grow 

 on lands of the classes available, be care- 

 fully protected from fire, and cattle. 



That the most valuable timber tree of 

 the State, the white pine, will grow on all 

 except the poorest lands. There is no truth 

 in the current popular belief that white 

 pine will not grow on lands from which 

 white pine forests have been recently cut. 



Oaks, poplars, red maple, and Norway 

 and jack pines grow naturally all over the 

 available areas, and may be made to serve 

 as nurse trees for more important species, 

 to improve the soil conditions, and as a 

 source of revenue. They may be used for 

 firewood, for posts, railroad ties, pulpwood, 

 cooperage stock, and other small lumber. 



The number of those species of trees 

 which grow naturally on the poorest and 

 dryest soils is about a dozen, rather more 

 than 20 per cent of all the species found in 

 the State, but it includes some of the im- 

 portant timber trees. 



Foreign species, and those not growing 

 naturally under the conditons which they 

 will be required to endure, should not be 

 planted in large numbers until their adapta- 

 bility has been thoroughly tested. 



There should be a thorough study of the 

 possibilities of the needs of future markets 

 and the selection of those available trees 

 which promise soonest to meet the most 

 general demand. 



Twenty-three students have taken up 

 work in the Department of Forestry at the 

 University of Michigan. The course is 

 technical in character and open only to 

 graduate students. Materials for the prac- 

 tical study of the scientific and commercial 

 sides of forestry is being gathered, and 

 will be grown in the university's new bo- 

 tanical gardens. The H. M. Loud Sons 

 Co. has extended the privileges of its lum- 

 ber camps about Oscoda, Mich., and per- 

 manent arrangements for field work are 

 being made. Charles A. Davis, instructor 

 in forestry, spent last summer working in 

 and about the State, studying especially the 

 local conditions. As a result, an oak tree, 

 new to Michigan, and not previously listed, 

 has been discovered. Two courses of in- 

 struction are being given this year. One 

 is a synoptical review of the science and the 

 other is a course treating of the laws con- 

 trolling the development of trees and for- 

 ests and their application in methods of im- 

 proving, treating and reproducing forest 

 crops. Other courses that have been 



