Trees and Their Cooling Effect

season inuch more. The evaporation, we see by this table, was nearly thirtj'-six inches of 81.418 tliat fell. Could experiment be brought to the solution of the question, the prediction is ventured that it will prove that trees not only draw much more water from the soil than grass but that, drawing it from a greater depth of cooler earth, they scatter a greater coolness from their leaves, and thus produce the grateful shade and pine-scented breath of the forests we all delight in. Leaving this subject for the present, I quote again from the consul's report immediatel5' following the tables I have summarized. He says; "In addition to iny previous remarks descriptive of the soil characteristics, it sliould be borne in mind that every tleece of wool that is produced takes a percentage of potash and other fertile matter out of the soil, and that hitherto nothing has been done to replace these elements. As a consequence, valuable herbage gradually gives out and is replaced by an inferior output. For instance, pine scrub hus seized on thousnrifls of acres in the interior of n-hat H-as formerly magnificent pastoral land." The italics are mine. I don't believe Mr. Cameron has got the truecause. though it may be so in some thin soils in Australia. Pine scrub and that of yellow fir (Doua;las spruce) takes the land in eastern and western Oregon wh;re a fleece of wool or a pound of flesh never was extracted from the soil \ty domestic animals. The consular report from which I have just quoted contains much that may be useful to the industries of eastern Oregon, which is the western edge of vast natural pasture lands of the range states, and of which Oregon yet has nearly thirty millions of acres east of the Cascade range, which, as yet, are neitfier reserved nor sold. For the certain development of these lands to the highest possible use, both timber and water conservation are necessary under conditions which seem so nearl}- similar to those in New South Wales as to make the examples they set us in their methods of great value, as guides towards improving our own present methods. The report shows ttiat the natural condition of 24 each district lias been closelj' studied as to tlie kind of stock it will best support. Heavy or light horses, heavy or lijifht -- cattle, cattle for the dairy, or cattle-breedino; for beef the districts better adapted to sheep than any of the larg^er stock, --these eminently practical people haveconsulted the g-eaius of each locality and devoted the land to the purpose for which nature best fits it. It also shows that not only private enterprise, but public money is actively at work developinjjthe best nieans of (jetting water onto the arid areas of that land, once thought impossible dl use to civilization, as was the Great American desert of fifty years ago. In doing this the example set l)y private enterprise in California in sinking artesian wells, is not only encouraged by public recognition, but the government engages in the same business when private capital and enterprise are insufficient, doingsuch work as was suggested bj' the writer in a letter to Governor Moody and by him forwarded to Senator J. N. Dolph, and hy him submitted to the appropriate committee of the United States senate. The committee included in an appropriation bill a liberal item to test the artesian well system in Colorado and in Oregon, which was defeated. 1 think l)y nonconcurrence of the house of congress. The need of water on the vast bodj' of the public domain yet in the arid land states requires that means should be taken to appro.\imatelj' measure the amount of water which does not flow off by the river system, nor is yet accounted for by the ascertained evaporation. In this, common observation teaches that people of eastern Oregon are verj' greatly interested, because, on account of the character of the surface formation, the precipitation falling east of the summit ridge of the Cascade range seems in larger measure to pass -- into the ground where it falls and not on that range and interior mountains merely, but over the great plain of the Columbia basin. The disappearance of snow from the surface, under the influence of the (Chinook), wind from the Pacific ocean, leaving the ground dry in a few minutes, seems to the observer magical -- turning in a few hours of time the extensive arid lands of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana from a snow covered contlition distressful for the stock owner to contemplate, into immediately usable pasture lands, yet showing little effect on the great -- -- river of the west the Columbia the floods of which occur usually in June. Where does this precipitation lodge; and is it recoverable for uses in agriculture and horticulture? are <juestions of more pressing importance to the people of Oregon at present tliiin the openitii^ of the iinnecessaril}- hir<ie Cascade forest reserve, on the eastern portion of which, pasturai^e beinj^' permitted, the livestock interest can have the benefit until a permanent forest policy (should one be needed) can be adopted, which will minister to the j^^eneral welfare. I ha"e endeavored to show that the privilege of grazing; the east side of the Cascade range and foothills is of the annual value of ifl.OOO.Om. The entire value of the sheep and wool interest of the state is shown in the Ore^oiiiun of January I, 1SSI8. to be as follows:-- Sheep, 2,167,341 head at $2.25. Wool, 15,706,3.5fi pounds, at 10 cents Total for slieep and wool $ 4,876,2!I2 25 l,570,liSj 60 $ 6,446,927 85 Nearly, or quite, four-fifths of the. value is in the 1,867,.')42 sheep kept in the fourteen counties of Kastern Oreg'on, where, as I have said precipitation sinks below the surface in a manner our eastern friends, who pass resolutions to keep the use of our forest lands from us, cannot possibly understand. Could these gentlemen become imbued with the knowledge Dr. Fernow gained by his visit to Arizona last fall, and perceive 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 Kden -- in which to grow "everj' tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food," tliey would cease to injure us. To realize Mr. Fernow's conception there is much more necessity for the expenditure of public monej', to indicate to the people how to secure tVie 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 certain 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 required 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. -- > 26 -- Pirat. Neither in tlie valleys nor on the nionntains 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 growing; 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 tro plant known to me dispenses -- water from its roots all are drinkers; and when the question -- becomes so important as it is now becoming how to make homes of abundance on the yet unpurchased arid lands, it is V)etter to find out, if it be findable by science, whether we have not all been following "a general concensus of opinion" which science will not sustain, by l>elieving that shade will increase the flow of a mountain stream as we were taught by the charming Ayrshire plowman, when he made the stream say; "Last day I grat wil' spite and teen When Poet Burns cam by That to a bard 1 should l)e seen With half my channel drj."' The conception of the poet was that the trees I)y their shade would prevent evaporation of more moisture than there roots wouUl take up. The forestry committee reasons on that basis, but my observation compels me to conclude that the Shepherd King of Israel was truer to nature than Burns, and will be found trurer to science when he said of a good man; "He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that bringelh forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall -- not wither" * * * Psalms 1;S. APHE.XDl.K. In order to bring before the mind of interested readers the ratio of evaporation, table No. IV of bulletin .iO of the Utah experiment station is inserted as sliowint the reaulta obtained by two European scientists: TABLE NO. IV. Made by Hellriegel Made by WolJnj- Horse beans -- Peas Barles' Clover Spring wheat Buckwheat -Lupine Spring rye Oats Ratio of walsr eiaporaleil to weight of crop bariesled .Maize Millet Peas Sunflower-- Buckwheat Oats -. Barley Mustard Kape Accordino; to Hellriegel, 330 tons of water would be absorbed bj' the roots of clover, drawn up through the stems and evaporated from the breathing pores of the leaves for each ton of clover harvested. If the jield be estimated at three tons per acre, the quantity of water per acre is 990 tons, or a volume sufficient to cover the surface to a depth of 8-11 feet, or nearly nine inches. Hellreigel's results as to clover tends to explain wh5' alfalfa, one of the strongest growing of the clover family, is "always dry," not unusually receiving sufficient over the surface during the growing season in Utah to cover the ground six feet. Should alfalfa be found to drink water by the roots in the same proportion as above claimed for clover the seven tons per year given as the yield in the Snake River Canj'on leads to the astonishing result of Li, 311) tons of water per acre annually consumed, or about 27 inches, which is yet so far short of the six feet mentioned bj' Mr. Samuel Fortier, compiler of Bulletin .I'l, on the "water supply of Cache vallej', Utah." The difference suggests such an immense waste of water where that may be so truly called "the water of life " as to call for a wide range of experiment, both as to the requirement of plants and economical methods of furnishing- what is necessary. In connection with Mr. Dosh's brief description of orchards and farms of Snake river canyon, the cultivator ought to know as near as possible how much water he needs for each acre of apples, pears, peaches, prunes or other fruit crop; how much for his several field crops. These questions will not n 28 onl}' arij^L' in limited localities, as between those who are drawing from the same ditch, but will arise between districts as to what proportion of a river, like the Snake river, shall be dtrawn out on the north side, at the American falls for instance, and what amount will be required or can be used on the south aide. So, in such a situation as the Deschutes near Farewell Viend, the whole flow of the river mis'ht be taken on to the desert, but on the west side the Taniilowa and Benton, or Squaw creek, can be used over much of that area, while the whole of the stream could be taken out on the east side and carried across Crooked river to fertilise a fine body of dry plain on the north side of that stream. There certainly seems a wide field for intelligent enter- prise. J()HN MtNTO, Secretary State Board of Horticulture. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS irHl-1|lLll�i||ili;|i(li||||||||||||(|)|i)|||||,i|[;i 000 879 892 8 I #j