Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1908-07-22
ARIZONA NATIONAL FORESTS
 or IMMENSE VALUE

WASHINGTON, July Arizona has the reputation of being a dry, hot country, and much of it justifies this reputation. Those thoroughly acquain. ted with the territory know. however. that there are mountains in Arizona. and on these mountains precipitation in the form of both rain and snow is surprisingly high. For example, Mt. Graham rises from the desert in south. crn Arizona to an altitude of over 10000 feet and it's steep slopes are heavily timbered with Douglas fir, western yellow pine, and Engelman spruce.
 These timbered mountains are a bless. ing to the people of the territory in more ways than one. Streams in which the flow is regulated by the forests run down into the desert, where every drop of water is used for irrigation. The forests also supply the people of the region with material for building their houses, for fencing, and with timber.
 The timbered portion of Mt. Graham is in a national forest. That means that the timber can be used, but can not be abused. For example, the gov ernment has sold to the Mt. Granam Lumber Company, the timber on an area which is estimated to yield 950,. 900 board feet, and the company is now cutting and saving it and supplying the agricultural community in the val ley of the Gila river with lumber, and | h. .f atrf. txytt timbers.
 The company's mill is high up on the mountain side in n little opening in the dense timber. Here, one and a nalf miles above sea level, the logs are sawed into lumber and a Hume seven and one.half miles long carries the sawed lumber down through the rough canyon of Ash Creek to the base of the mountain where it can be hauled direct to the ranches where it is to bs used or loaded on cars and shipped tC the mines. A Hume in Arizona seem, out of place, but tnere IS plenty of wa ter on Mt. Graham with which to oper ate it, and there always will be, for tho forest officers allow only carefully SC lected trees to be cut, and there vii always be a good forest cover on tho mountain which will protect the stream flow and supply timber of the future. X striking illustration of the bene fits for forest management by Uncle Sam has just been reported from south ern Arizona. In this region fuel of an, kind is exceedingly scarce and difficul to get. It is supplied chiefly by Mex jeans, who go up into the mountain with burros, cut the fuel from junipe and oak trees, and then take it out II small loads on the burros.
 In the past, the ranchers living a the mouths of the canyons in the Ora goon mountains have prevented tn Mexicans from reaching the most ac cesssible timber, and perhaps justly Sd because promiscuous cutting would un auesti0nably have damaged the water shed and unsteadied the flow of wate in these canyons, on which the rancher were dependent for irrigation. Sine the establishment of the national foI lest, however, the cutting of wood ha been carefully supervised, and onl dead and mature trees, the removal o which would not injurc the watershed have been cut.
 Careful cutting of this kind has bee allowed in the areas which have here tofore been closed to use, and as ro suit, the price of wood has actual been reduced in the small towns aroun the national forests. For instance, | Pesrce, an important mining town
 miles from the forest, the price of woo previous to the creation of tne nation al forest was ss per cord. IL is nov only s6. and this decrease can be who ly attributed to the improved admin
 istration of the forest