only about one-fourth is forest-covered. It is quite natural that some people, interested properly in the protection and preservation of the Adirondack Park, are jealous of the slightest encroachment upon this area, and, not fully realizing the insignificance of the area of forested lands affected and unmindful of the comparatively large area of swampy and useless ground converted from unsightly places to beautiful lake surfaces, have questioned the desirability of the State or any one else constructing the reservoirs in the Adirondacks. A visit to the sites of the proposed reservoirs will show the various marshes sometimes covered with water and sometimes nearly dry, where vegetation cannot exist permanently, and where in many cases are found the tangled, rotting stumps and branches of trees, creating a far from pleasing view to the visitor.

A MISTAKEN FORESTRY POLICY

The Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, in preparing the new State Constitution, in its enthusiasm to protect the timber of the Adirondack region placed in the Constitution the following provision:

The lands of the State now owned or hereafter acquired constituting the Forest Reserve, as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed, or destroyed.

This clause was adopted by the Constitutional Convention against the urgent protest of the American Forestry Association and was carried at the polls with the rest of the Constitution.

better for careful thinning and clearing. Under the enlightened policy of Germany and other countries, the forest is a source of revenue, while its actual beauty is not injured. New York forests, under the Constitution, are doomed to useless and mischievous decay.

Before actual construction of some of the water-power projects can be undertaken, the Constitution must be amended to permit the necessary utilization of State lands. The commission has prepared a draft of the necessary legislation, and it will be submitted to the lawmakers and the people for consideration and approval. The passage of this amendment of the Constitution is not only necessary for the construction of storage reservoirs, but is equally desirable from the standpoint of forestry itself.

The

The duty imposed upon the commission by the legislature is the recommendation at the coming session of storage projects arranged in such order as the commission feels they should be developed. In considering these projects, there are five drainage areas that stand out pre-eminently in New York State on account of their general importance. These are the Hudson, the Genesee, the Raquette, the Black, and the Oswego; there are others of importance, such as the Delaware, the Susquehanna, the Oswegatchie, the Grass, the St. Regis, etc., all of which deserve careful study, but for one reason or another the development of reservoirs by the State may be postponed until the more pressing requirements of the above important drainage basins have been fulfilled. Raquette, the Genesee, and the Hudson have an immense amount of undeveloped It would serve no useful purpose at this power, some of which could be utilized at time, perhaps, to record the history of the the new State dams and all of the water reform movement that several years ago, power developed or undeveloped would swept over the State and resulted in hasty be greatly increased in value, as in general and ill-timed action which, until modified it may be stated that the limit of value of a by the vote of the people, effectually estops water power is the minimum flow of the the carrying out of any intelligent plan for stream. The power on the Black and the the control of the water supply. By that Oswego has been pretty thoroughly utilized amendment to its Constitution, New York as far as fall is concerned, but reservoirs on surrendered her proud position at the head of these streams would increase the efficiency of the great work of the conservation of forest the present developments to a very large exresources. The laws of New York actually tent, the returns being far greater than reforbid forestry on its public lands. The ex- quired to produce adequate interest on the perience of the nations whose forest policy is money invested in reservoirs. recognized as the most practical has shown that the best way to preserve the forest is to use it intelligently. Trees which have attained maturity should be cut to make way for the younger growth. Every forest is

POWER POSSIBILITIES OF THE HUDSON RIVER

As the most important for power purposes, as well as its largest stream, the Hudson River is one of the greatest natural as

The results of this investigation indicate

sets of the State. Its value as a commercial waterway is well understood, but the su- the entire feasibility of equalizing the flow

of the Hudson, and making available for the present and future needs of the industries of the State an enormous amount of power.

PROJECTED RESERVOIR SYSTEMS

There are three large reservoir systems on

preme importance of this river as a power stream has escaped general attention. It is a fact, nevertheless, that above the head of navigation at Troy, the Hudson River presents an aggregate of developed and undeveloped power sites which render it one of the greatest industrial rivers of the Eastern the Hudson River which have been very States. In a distance of only sixty-five miles there are on the main river between Troy and Corinth no less than twenty-eight existing power plants, with a total of 100,733 horse power in use, and a wheel capacity of 117,317 horse power. This represents 14 per cent. of the entire developed horse power in the State of New York. If, with this, we include the developed horse power of the Mohawk, Schroon, Sacandaga, and other tributaries of the Hudson, the total existing power development amounts to 246,117 horse power, or 30 per cent. of the total in the State.

Enormous as this power development now is, it can be greatly increased if means can be provided to equalize the flow of this stream. The Hudson to-day exhibits such tremendous fluctuations that it cannot be relied upon for continuous power and there are periods during the low flow of a dry year. where only 20 per cent. of the wheel capacities installed can be utilized..

carefully studied, topographical surveys having been made and general plans for the construction of dams and reservoirs completed. These are on the Sacandaga, which will have a capacity of 29 billion cubic feet; the Schroon River system with a capacity of 16 billion cubic feet, and the Indian Lake reservoir with a capacity of 15 billion cubic feet. The cost of these reservoirs complete, including the sums paid for the land, will be $4,500,000, $1,930,000, and $1,500,000, respectively. All of these reservoirs are feasible and will show good returns upon the money expended. They all involve areas of State land, though those upon the Sacandaga and the Schroon are small and include only little tracts that have been taken by the State at tax sales, whereas, the Indian Lake reservoir will require 4100 acres of State land.

It is not likely that more than one of these reservoirs would be built at a time, but the effect of each will be very apparent upon the A very careful study of the records of the regulation of the Hudson. The Sacandaga flow of the Hudson River has been made by alone would add 1900 cubic feet per second the commission. These records show a dif- to the minimum flow of the Hudson River ference of 164,000,000,000 cubic feet be- at Spiers Falls and would add an aggregate tween the years of greatest and least annual of 80,000 horse power over and above that discharge, from 1888 to 1897, inclusive. now developed by existing plants between During the same period, the greatest average the mouth of the Sacandaga and Troy, an annual discharge was at the rate of 11,090 amount in excess of the total water power cubic feet per second, while the least average now developed at Lowell, Lawrence, and annual run-off was at the rate of 5910 cubic Holyoke. The Sacandaga, rising in the feet per second. The figures for monthly mountains, has 1050 square miles of drainage gagings show even greater variation, rang- area above the proposed site for the dam at ing from 30,900 cubic feet per second for the Conklingville. The dam as proposed will greatest, to 1600 cubic feet per second for be 1200 feet long, about 95 feet high, the least average monthly run-off. The and 110 feet thick at the top. It will raise Hudson's highest daily discharge at Me- the water 65 feet, 36 feet of which will be chanicsville, which occurred in 1869, available for drawing down for industrial. was 70,000 cubic feet per second. The purposes. It is proposed to construct this lowest was in the season of 1908, when it dam of earth with a concrete core wall 20 fell to 700 cubic feet per second, a ratio of feet thick at the base and extending above the flow line. There will be a spillway 875 feet long over solid ledge at the east end of the dam, a length sufficient to carry the water from any conceivable flood. The intake and sluiceway are to be so constructed as to form the head works of future develop

I to 100.

Recognizing that the difference in flow was of the greatest consequence to industry and property, the commission directed a careful investigation with a view to submitting a remedy.

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS ON THE GENESEE

The Genesee River, flowing into Lake Ontario, and upon which the largest city is Rochester, has always been subject to extreme fluctuations of flow, rising from fifteen to twenty feet above the normal of the river surface, and causing enormous damage both to agricultural land and improvements along the river bank and in the city of Rochester. The highest floods reach the main streets and buildings of Rochester.

ments, whenever the time comes that the same amount of storage in eleven smaller State desires to utilize the 185 feet of fall reservoirs. in the river from Conklingville to Hadley for developing part or all of the 75,000 horse power that can be created at this point. The cost apart from the reservoir and dam of the power plant to create 75,000 horse power and including the long tunnels through the mountains to a power site would be $3,853,300, or $51 per horse power. This storage would also maintain a minimum flow from Corinth to Troy of 3600 cubic feet per second every day all the year round. This increase of low water flow during the dry months would add 41,000 horse power to these plants when they are most in need of it, for which added value, just recompense should be made by the power owners to the State.

There have for many years been general plans for the development of a reservoir at the headwaters of the Genesee and the commission has made surveys and plans for the construction of a dam near Portage, which will impound 18 billion cubic feet of water, 11,250,000,000 of which would be available for commercial purposes. The reservoir would be fifteen miles long and would average nearly a mile wide, with a total area of 132 square miles. The drainage basin above this reservoir would be 948 square miles. Such a dam and reservoir would control the highest floods we have known on this river and would be capable of creating a water power amounting to 75,ooo horse power, peak load, while at the same time furnishing water to maintain the flow in the Genesee River of such volume as would permit the existing power plants at Rochester to run throughout the entire year with water. At the present time these plants are compelled during the dry months to resort to the use of auxiliary steam power at an aggregate cost of approximately $130,

If, as is probable, the time is not ripe for the State to install a power plant and engage in the business of developing electricity, it is at least time to construct such a dam and reservoir under a financial plan providing for the payment of the cost of construction from the sale of water to the parties benefited. The reservoir, if used for storage purposes only, will deliver into the Hudson 1900 cubic feet per second all the year round, or if the stored water is used to reinforce the low water flow of the Hudson during the months when it is most needed it will add 123,000 horse power on the average to the plants on the Hudson during the driest month of the year. The fact that 39 acres of State land are included in the area proposed to be flooded by this reservoir prevents the construction of the Sacandaga project until the Constitutional amendment has been passed. The Schroon 000 annually. When we consider that, Lake and Indian Lake reservoirs, while somewhat smaller than the Sacandaga, would have proportional effects upon the flow of the Hudson and if the three reservoir systems are constructed, the regulation of the Hudson River will be nearly ideal.

The studies for Schroon Lake show two possible developments, one by a large dam at Tumblehead Falls 70 feet high, to create a reservoir measuring 191⁄2 miles long. The artificial lake thus created would have an area of 241⁄2 square miles and would control the entire watershed area of Schroon River above the dam, amounting to 514 square miles. The other project involves the construction of a number of smaller dams at Schroon Lake, Brant Lake, Paradox Lake, and elsewhere, obtaining about the

added to the benefits to the already existing powers on the Genesee and the 75,000 horse power that can be developed at the dam, is the important consideration of the protection of the region from present floods, and the fact also that the Genesee River below the sewers of Rochester would be much improved from a sanitary standpoint, we may see that this project has many reasons for immediate development.

Letchworth Park, a gift to the State, is located at the falls of the Genesee, and if these falls were ever developed by others than the State, the beauty of the falls and river might be seriously impaired, but under the plans of the State, by which a reasonable amount of water is to be always allowed to flow over the falls, the beauty and perma

nence of these waterfalls are perpetually secured. The best site for the dam on the Genesee will take a small strip of land belonging to the park but will in no way interfere with its usefulness or beauty, whereas, if demanded, a second site can be chosen which, while not as satisfactory as the other, is at least feasible.

ADIRONDACK STREAMS AND LAKES

much to the regulation of the Raquette River may be constructed by raising their water surface.

Black River with a drainage area of 1930 square miles is next to the Hudson the greatest power producer of the New York streams. During the last season a reconnaissance of the basin of the Black was made and it has been found that storage reservoirs can be built on this river which will add 80,000 horse power to the low water output of the river and its tributaries. The river is more fully developed than any other in the State, the powers being concentrated between Carthage and Lake Ontario, where the river falls 475 feet, of which 396 feet are at least partially developed.

The Raquette River, flowing into the St. Lawrence, presents unusually attractive features for storage. With a total fall of 1660 feet there are many rapids and vertical falls with possible water-power sites, eleven of which have already been developed, producing an aggregate of 33,000 horse power. The fluctuations of the stream are large. A reconnaissance also of the Oswegatchic, The upland watershed includes. many Grass, and St. Regis has been made, but thousand acres of swampy lands and a large while these rivers have considerable fuarea of natural lakes, the best known of ture in the way of water-power developwhich are perhaps Tupper Lake, Little ment, their present inaccessibility is likely Tupper Lake, Long Lake, and Raquette to delay such improvement, though the Lake, all of which can be made to con- Oswegatchie has at the present time a tribute to a storage system which would in- reservoir known as Cranberry Lake, with crease rather than impair their present at- an area of about thirteen square miles, owned tractiveness as summer resorts. A large by the State of New York. earth dam about 4000 feet long at the foot of Tupper Lake would raise the level of the water over several of the existing ponds, and would flood 5500 acres of swampy land lying adjacent to these ponds, giving an effective storage of 10.3 billion cubic feet and a surface area of 24.7 square miles. This reservoir would submerge 4380 acres of State land and must therefore also wait for the passage of the Constitutional amendment. With the irregular flow of the Raquette, which at Colton Falls is as low as 300 cubic feet per second and rises in times of flood to 18,000 cubic feet per second, the total available net power which it is possible to develop over the existing falls and relying upon the ordinary minimum flow of the river is only 40,000 horse power. The construction of the Tupper Lake dam would increase this power to 150,000 horse power; the Tupper Lake reservoir, therefore, means an increase of 110,000 horse power which can be realized continuously during the ordinary dry year. The cost of the reservoir would be $2,200,000, which means less than $1.25 per horse power per year of maintenance and operation on the basis of the power which it is estimated could be added by this means to that now developed on the river. Other lakes in this basin have been studied and reservoirs which will add

The water powers of New York State are among its most important assets, there being now developed in this State over 800,ooo horse power, and it is possible to develop a million and a half horse power, exclusive of Niagara and the St. Lawrence River. The St. Lawrence alone, falling 100 feet in passing this State, is capable of furnishing probably 400,000 horse power with full development, and on the Raquette there can be developed 190,000 horse power, and yet these resources in New York State, as in all the States of the American Union, have been practically neglected as far as conservation is concerned. Fortunately the present studies of the State Water Supply Commission are on a firm foundation of actual surveys, and the careful and systematic methods of studying the the various problems and making recommendations have appealed to the people of the State. At the coming session of the legislature there is every hope that an act will be passed authorizing the State Commission to proceed with the plans it has laid out. Much of the work must wait until the Constitutional amendment has gone into effect. This amendment must pass two legislatures and be approved by the people. With a more enlightened law upon the forestry of State lands and with the great work of water conservation under way,

New York may safely say that she is in the forefront of the States in the conservation of her natural resources. The idea of State supervision and control is not untried, as

several foreign countries have long since passed regulating acts concerning their rivers, and our neighbor, the Province of Ontario, has been most successful in like attempts.

THE WATERWAYS

CAMPAIGN

BY WILLIAM FLEWELLYN SAUNDERS

THE HE National Rivers and Harbors Con- but the river must be improved so as to regress which met last month in Wash- store it to navigation as far up as Fort Benington had an attendance of three thousand ton, where the boats used to carry freight. delegates, and was addressed by President In my judgment the Congress will at this sesTaft. The convention declared for a bond sion put at least these projects on a continuissue for the waterways, phrasing the request ing contract basis, and will also provide for positively but prudently, saying that the beginning the work on several other imporbonds must be issued if current revenues tant inland projects. The harbors and the would not do the work. The waterway lakes will receive more wise attention and men do not believe that the current revenues judicious appropriation than they ever have will suffice to build the waterways that the got. The days of the pork barrel" and merchants say are absolutely needed for the the influencing of votes by trivial appropriatraffic, and that the engineers have already tions are gone, and the money appropriated declared feasible, the projects which are on will be spent on these meritorious projects. the books. The greatest and the best known of these projects is the proposed Lakes and Gulf Deep Waterway from Chicago to New Orleans, which President Roosevelt called the trunk line of the waterways, and on which he tried to get work begun. Sixty million dollars has already been spent by Chicago in building this waterway. Illinois has voted $20,000,000 more. Congress is asked to spend $10,000,000 a year in completing this water highway down to St. Louis and thence to the Gulf. The total cost of the project from Lockport, where the waterway now stops, to Cairo, will be $48,000,000. The deep waterway from Cairo to New Orleans will cost $45,000,000 more. This part of the work, however, Congress must do, it is admitted, as a conservation measure.

The Ohio River improvement is the next in point of importance. Nine feet of water is wanted here from Pittsburg to Cairo. The whole work will cost a little more than $60,000,000. President Taft seems to prefer this project, differing with President Roosevelt on the point.

The upper Mississippi River, from St. Louis to St. Paul, demands $20,000,000 for a 6-foot channel all the year round, and the Missouri River is in such good condition that $5,000,000 would make it well navigable, at least, from Kansas City to St. Louis. This improvement, of course, should not stop here,

The most effective and far-reaching speech ever made in Congress was that of Senator Carter, of Montana, in 1901, when he talked for eight hours, carrying on a filibuster against a Rivers and Harbors bill, and killed it. The speech was effective because it accomplished the purpose; it was far-reaching because it had consequences not dreamed of by Senator Carter, and marked an epoch in the history of transportation in the United States, leading also indirectly to the development of the conservation sentiment now so strong.

Senator Carter was not owned by the railroads; he thought the $50,000,000 carried by the bill could be better spent than in developing waterways, and many strong men in Congress agreed with him. This Rivers and Harbors bill was full of appropriations put in for the purpose of getting votes, and deserved the name of "the pork barrel," which was applied to it. Yet it contained so many appropriations that were really needed to maintain and encourage navigation, and especially inland navigation, that its defeat inflicted serious injury on the waterways interests of the country. The Mississippi and the Ohio rivers almost went out of business. The Missouri River did. Government work along all the rivers rotted, and expensive dredging and revetment fleets of the Government lay tied up to the levees decaying.

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