The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1899-02-03

ten inches deep, and the undergrowth,
small and large timber, was SO thick that
you could not get through it with a
horse, where now you can drive through
it with horses and wagon, and in places,
almost to the summit. Weare speaking
more particularly of the east side of the
reserve, for it is in a much dryer climate
than the west. In travelling down these
mountains east about ten or fifteen miles
the high rilges begin to get thinner of
tim Der and coon you come to traces of
bunch grass and open ridges, but the
hill sides and hollows were yet densely
timbered. The snow fell very deep in
winter upon this thick mulching of silt,
moss, sticks and leave before mentioned.
and also among the thick underground
and trees which would cause the snow
to go off very slow, in fact, it would last,
some years, until almost the first of
August and tie ground then was very
melting snow like sponge, and thus
seeps slowly into the creeks and Keeps
them flush all the season.
A great change is now being wrought
IN many of these things. Our timber,
the pride and boast of the United States,
and the peer of the world, is being
wasted, and destroyed much faster than
ever before. Who can compute the
value of the timber wantonlysdestroyed
in the last eight or ten years; or what it
would be worth when our commerce has
attained its full development in the
orient, which market will be almost
boundless.
We hear some one crying, customary,
for by the rule of progress we, nor our
children, will ever see a market for this
timber.
We answer, that we already live in a
time when all things are worked by the
double rule of progress and now who
can tell what year may bring forth, es
pecially, if We judge the future by the
past.
Let US again turn from fancies to facts.
Large tracts of this indispensable and es-
sential seed bed before spoken of, is now
destroyed by fires and the tramping of
herds, and is bare and dusty, upon
which the SHOWS fall in winter. With
much of the timber, the undergrowth
and mulching gone, the first winds and
warm sun of the spring melts this snow
very rapidly causing the rivers and
creeks to over flow their banks and wash
ing away many acres of valuable land as
we'll as precipItating and running off the
hOla Fre
days.
In the hot summer time the herds are
kept the most of the time on the creeks
and other watering places and from
these places the freshets take all their
filth and deposits down the mountain
streams, and fouls all the water and air
in the settlements below. Our rivers
and creeks are affording more impure
water; the air is drier and less healthy /;
our seasons have less rain in spring and
summer, and our crops are shorter.
1t will be very nice for this peerless
belt of timber to be parceled out to us
and leased to us for the pittance of one
cent head per year. If we can thus
succeed. we can safely promise that in
less than eight years we can make OF 1t
the best stock ranges on the Pacific
coast, and by that time we can herd on
every foot OF this now grand timber re-
serve, and will have truly "killed the
goose that laid the golden egg"
One proposition more claims few
thoughts here, and that is this, that
herding stock on the timber reserve is a
benefit to it. Does this need repeating
Will any man say who was in this belt
of timber thirty years ago, that it is now
better, thicker, thrIftier and more youna
timber; the water plentier; the seasons
damper the climate healthier and all to-
gether the country was better? We have
been more or less familiarwith this tim
ber belt for the last thirty-five years anc
know whereof we speak. II. RICE.
Men Wanted
To cut cord wood. Inquire at Th'
| Dalles Ium mberinp Co. PAT