thousands, as has been done in recent years by a few far-seeing land owners - will be of benefit to the stream flow and to the resources of the State.

POPULAR OPPOSITION TO STORAGE RESERVOIRS.

In recent years, the apprehension of the general public lest the attractiveness and healthfulness of the State forest reserves as a pleasure ground would be seriously impaired by the flooding of vast tracts for reservoirs to be emptied in midsummer, has on various occasions aroused a strong sentiment against any extensive reservoir building.

Methods of reservoir building that have too freely prevailed in New York, in Maine and other states, whereby large forest areas have simply been flooded, thereby killing the trees and the underbrush, and leaving them to slowly rot amid scenes of hopeless desolation, have given abundant cause for these popular fears. and protests.

Also there are many object lessons within the limits of the Forest Preserve, of reservoirs nominally "cleared" before flowing, where the timber has been so cut as to leave tall stumps exposed and decaying as the stored water is drawn off and there exist other examples of reservoirs with stumps partly submerged that make pleasure boating dangerous, all offensive to lovers of nature and to those who would find pleasure in a vacation spent along the water-courses.

In recent years, the needs of the mills, and particularly the needs of the new electric power transmission plants, for more water power and for a less variable flow, have become more urgent, and more strongly than in former years the water power owners have joined forces in advocating reservoir construction and in expressions of willingness to join in the cost, but meanwhile the public has become awakened to the dangers and has become more jealous of its rights.

PROPER RESERVOIR BUILDING SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED.

Whether a storage reservoir site is made dismal or beautiful is in most instances a simple question of expense and supervision.

It appears certain that by a proper cutting of stumps and bushes, by the careful limitation of high water and low water levels according to the lay of the land, and by the action of the waves in undercutting the sod and digging out the roots on moderately steep slopes, thus in time forming sandy beaches, the margins of a partly emptied artificial storage reservoir having steep, sandy or rocky banks, as found almost everywhere in the Adirondack mountain region, can be made sanitary and attractive, particularly under State supervision, and it is certain that large storage reservoirs can be built at various places upon the headwaters of the Hudson, Raquette and other rivers, which will add to the attractiveness of the region to health seekers and pleasure seekers, and that such reservoirs may be made to contribute greatly to the industrial prosperity of the State and should be built.

RULES BY WHICH STORAGE RESERVOIRS MAY

ATTRACTIVE.

BE MADE

After personal inspection of several of the sites now in question and some study of the local conditions, and from my observations upon many reservoirs for domestic water supply and upon the shores of many natural lakes, I am led to believe that with the following requirements rigidly enforced, the public interests would be fully safeguarded, and that the larger reservoirs, although used for power, would on the whole, in comparison with present swamps and bushy or marshy margins; surely add to the pleasures of the forest.

1. Up to a contour at least 3 feet above high water, and out to not less than 25 feet from the water's edge, all trees and underbrush should be cut close to the surface of the ground and all projecting stumps should be removed, excepting only the covered roots, and all of this wood and refuse should be rigorously burned and none left to sink or drift as described at Indian lake. For average conditions of heavily forested land, this would probably cost $25 per acre. The cutting and burning of the trees on a thousand acres of Indian lake margins is said to have cost about $15 per acre, but that clearing was not so complete as it should have been.

2. The dams should be given such surplus height as to provide sufficient storage without ever completely emptying the reservoir or exposing large flat level areas that would be badly drained as the water receded, and no drain gate should be permitted to be built at a level so low as to permit this complete emptying or drawing below a predetermined level.

3. In order to fix this lowest limit of draft, no storage reservoir should be authorized to be constructed until a large scale contour map of its bed is presented, upon which the character and elevation of all parts of the basin are shown, so that the effect of draining to the proposed limit may be studied and ample drainage ditches may be prescribed where found necessary, in order to prevent pools or swampy areas being left on the benches or terraces. A scale of 100 feet to an inch with a 2-foot contour interval is suggested for ordinary situations.

4. Wave action by its erosion and overturning of the soil at high water and as the waters slowly recede, works powerfully upon the sandy or gravelly slopes of the wider portions that are exposed to the wind, and experience shows that this action soon results in creating many sandy or gravelly beaches similar to those found on natural ponds.

Along sheltered coves and on very flat slopes, or on unfavorable soil, this beach-making action may not occur, but a few grassy coves may add variety to the scene and add to the cover for birds and the minor animal life of the woods.

Many examples of storage reservoirs with fluctuating water levels can be found which are attractive and beautiful. Piseco lake is subject to several feet of rise and fall, but nevertheless has a beautiful shore. Spot pond, a reservoir of varying height in the center of the North Metropolitan park of the Boston district, forms the central feature .in a beautiful landscape.

PROPOSED REMOVAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL RESTRICTION.

In 1907, prominent water power interests along the Hudson and Raquette rivers joined with others in promoting the passage of an amendment to act VII, section 7, of the Constitution of the State of New York, by inserting a clause excepting from the

restrictions described above, such forest lands as the Legislature should decide were required for the storage of water for public purposes.

In a paper by John G. Agar, read March 14, 1907, at a convention called in opposition to this constitutional amendment at the Albany Chamber of Commerce and published by the Association for the Preservation of the Adirondacks, Tribune building, New York city, the popular side of the case against the construction of storage reservoirs in the forest, under private control, is stated with great force.

Incidental to his main argument, Mr. Agar states, page 9: "For the water power there should be a well defined plan of water storage and reservoir system to be constructed, maintained and operated, with the power derived therefrom to be sold or leased by the State and the proceeds thereof to be used for public purposes," and he strongly urged that the present safeguard against the acquisition by private parties, of vested rights in the water flow and water power, be not sacrificed.

CONCERNING WATER POWER DEVELOPMENT IN GENERAL.

No State in the Union is so bounteously endowed by nature with great opportunities for water power development as is the State of New York, especially if the developments possible upon the international boundary rivers, the Niagara and the St. Lawrence be counted in; yet the general course of water power development for industrial uses was, relatively to the opportunity, much slower in New York than in the New England States until the marvelous electrical developments of the past few years and until the full value of the exceptionally high heads at Niagara and Rochester was realized.

During the past five years, water power development everywhere has been more active than ever before.

There are no new sources open to discovery; the watersheds and rivers are now all on the map, and their falls and rapids are all open to any man's observation. Under the stimulus of long distance electrical transmission what was economically impossible a few years ago, is now practicable and profitable, and with the

impending increase in cost of coal, this utilization of all available water powers will continually become more complete.

Today few, if any, available power sites of noteworthy size or importance can be found on which the promoter has not already begun some work of development, or secured an option. Of course, the tendency is to seek a quick financial return, to cut out the best portion and waste the remainder, to seek a quick market by replacing steam power in established industries rather than to establish new industries, and if the State is ever to make a broad study of this question with a view to such development as shall to the utmost conserve these great sources of power in nature for the fullest benefit and convenience of man, or if it is to take action in reserving for public use those power sites yet remaining within its direct control, now is the time.

A DISADVANTAGE OF LONG DISTANCE ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION OF POWER COMPARED WITH LOCAL USE.

It is well for those who make laws designed to secure the best development of industrial conditions within the State to recognize that the development of a great water power for transmission by electricity to some distant city where it will merely serve to lessen the amount of steam coal burned in old established industries, adds less to the prosperity and population of the State than local use in new industries, and that long distance transmission builds few new factories and homes such as followed when the Merrimack river was dammed at Lawrence or the Mohawk power developed at Cohoes.

Large water power developments prior to the invention of electrical transmission were commonly unprofitable. The early stockholders of the water power companies that developed Cohoes, Holyoke, Lewiston and Lawrence, either lost all or waited long, because their large expenditure for lands, dams and canals came nearly all at once and rolled up interest charges while the power still largely ran to waste, waiting for the slow process of an industrial development sufficient to absorb any large proportion.

With electrical transmission all this was changed, the power became immediately available as a cheaper source than steam for