The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-12-17
Forestry Department Offers Articles of Interest

Thus, If the wood has been cut in the
Spring, the open cells show next to the
bark; if in early Summer, the smaller
cells appear next to the bark, but ii
cut at the end Of the growing season
or In the Fall or Winter, while growth
is dormant, the full development or the
solid cells show next to the bark. An
expert may be able to determine this
difference by the naked eye, Judging
by the color. The open Spring cells
cause the wood to look much lighter
than do the later closed cells. 1t is
this difference in color which makes
the annual ring discernible.
Tests as to how much longer Win
ter-cut wood will endure than Sum
mer-cut wood have not yet been CON-
pleted, but 1t may be safely assumed
that under certain conditions it will
last a year longer at least. On this as
average railroad. Approximately $500
ties are used to the mile. If ties are
changed every seven years there would
be required annually $500 divided By
seven, or 400 ties. If they served
eight years than the number would be
$500 divided BY eight, OF $50 ties, a
difference of SO ties per mile per year
At SO cents apiece this would mean
SIS per mile of track per year, ex-
elusive of the labor to replace them
Think how much this would meal for
the 100000 miles of main track in the
United States.
This saving applies to poles as well
as to hewn ties. but not to sawed ties
or poles, since the latter are cut from
the heartwood, which is not affected
by seasonal changes.
Water on Grazing Lands.
Farmers Bulletin 592, recently pub
lished by the Department of Agricul-
ture, gives some very interesting in
formation as to the means by which
practically worthless range may be
improved by the development of stock
watering places.
Range cattle require from eight to
ten gallons of water a day and sheep
need from one-half to two gallons per
day. This is a vital necessity. No
matter how good the forage may be,
II there Is not a sufficient and perma-
nent supply Of water neal at hand the
stock will not thrive.
Upon the National forests the Gov
eminent has developed watering places
in several ways. The flow from ordi-
nary springs and seeps has been in
creased by digging them out and
curbing the sides with cement and
then carrying the water through pipes
to some convenient trough. Swampy
spots have been utilized By cutting an
open channel from some spring in
their midst and drawing the water to
the trough.
Dirt food water reservoirs have
been constructed to store the water
and thus supplement the natural sup
ply, Burrows have been run diagon-
ally across slopes to collect the rain
fall or melting snow waters and carry
them to the storage reservoir. In cases
where the natural supply is SO feet
below the surface wells have been
drilled.
In this work on the range to i'm
prove the water facilities a total of
SIS projects have been developed on
the National forests, S29 of which
were developed by users of the range
themselves. 172 through cooperation
between the Forest Servoce and the
users and IT'S by the Service alone. Of
these SIS improvement projects 37S
are springs and seeps and 2S6 are res
ervoirs, while the balance are wells.
trails and the like. In Oregon and
Washington 101 of these water i'm
pr0vements have been reported up to
January, 1914.
Copies of Farmers Bulletin 592 may
be had upon request of the local Con.
gresham or BY purchase Is cents)
from the Superintendent of Public
Documents, Washington, d. C.
No Reductions In Range.
As a whole the range in the Nation
al forests Of Oregon and Washington
is now in such splendid shape that no
fears need be felt that reductions in
the grazing privilege will be necessary
for years to come. Only very inten-
sive agricultural conditions and a
heavy demand from settlers will JUS
tify 1t.
When the forests were created it
was found that the range was heavily
overstocked and overgrazed. This ne
cessitated heavy reductions in the
number of stock. Reductions were
made for two reasons: "a To stop
1ornorn fn Aha ,-o % oal roy