40) 
gone. These observations, if correct, indicate that denudation of these 
mountain slopes by forest fires may be expected to influence, perhaps 
seriously, the flow of their dependent streams. 
TRRIGATION IN WASCO COUNTY. 
Among the people of the country the only demand that has arisen for 
a protection of the water supply seems to be confined to a portion of 
Wasco County, consisting of the section between the Deschutes liver 
on the east, the Warm Springs Indian Reservation on the south, and the 
Columbia. River on the north. Here is a strip of territory varying from 
10 to 15 miles in width, bounded on the east by the Deschutes River 
and on the west by the forest area of the Cascade Mountains. This 
strip of territory is a plateau devoid of trees and divided by east and 
west canyons into separate blocks. The largest of these blocks is the 
one lying immediately south of the canyon of White River, abutting 
upon the Deschutes River on the east in a canyon wall nearly 2,000 feet in 
height. This block is known as the Waupinitia Plain, or Juniper Flat. - 
The principal industry of the whole strip is wheat raising. The rain- 
fall is so limited that the wheat crop is frequently a failure, and from 
the peculiar situation of the plain, drained on three sides and receiving 
no streams from the fourth, many of the ranches during the summer 
drought are wholly without water. When the wells “ go dry,” water 
for housebold purposes and sometimes even for stock must be hauled 
by wagon, the ranchers in some cases being compelled to go 8 miles for 
it, making a round trip of 16 miles. Toremedy the difficulty, irrigation 
ditches are now being constructed to carry water to the ranches, to be 
used chiefly for watering stock, for domestic purposes, and for irrigat- 
ing a garden patch and a small orchard for each rancher. 
Mr. Samuel B. Driver, a rancher living near Wamic, on one of the 
blocks of the plateau north of the Waupinitia Plain, stated that the 
adjacent streams—Rock Creek, Gate Creek, and Three Mile Creek— 
have shown a gradual decline in the last ten years in the amount of their 
summer flow. This decline he attributes to the trampling of the ground 
by sheep in the mountains at the head waters of these streams. He 
believes that within thirty years there will be no water in the stream 
beds in the fall of the year. To these statements should be offset the 
contrary evidence of other residents. The sheepmen in general and 
some of the ranchers maintained that the decline of water was wholly 
accounted for by the tapping of these streams with irrigating ditches. 
As a sheep packer tersely expressed it in the idiom of. the region, 
“Why, the creeks can’t pack enough water to fill the ditches.” 
Careful inquiry for actual records of summer water levels were made, 
but none were found. Some valuable information in this direction, 
however, was secured from Mr. W. M. McCorkle, of Tygh Valley, who 
for eighteen years has maintained a gristmill on Badger Creek, another 
of the streams on the head waters of which sheep are grazed in summer. 
Only one irrigation ditch, carrying 12 inches of water, has been taken 
