106 



OUR FORESTS 



Working to prevent erosion after the removal 

 of the forest in the French Alps. 



the earth's surface. They prevent soil from being washed away, 

 and they hold moisture in the ground. The devastation of im- 

 mense areas in China and 

 considerable damage by 

 floods in parts of Switzer- 

 land, France, and in Penn- 

 sylvania has resulted where 

 the forest covering has 

 been removed. No one 

 who has tramped through 

 our Adirondack forest can 

 escape noticing the differ- 

 ences in the condition of 

 streams surrounded by 

 forest and those which 

 flow through areas from 



which trees have been cut. The latter streams often dry up 

 entirely in hot weather, while the forest-shaded stream has a 

 never failing supply of crystal water. 



The city of New York owes much of its importance to its posi- 

 tion at the mouth of a great river with a harbor large enough to 

 float the navies of the 

 world. This river is 

 supplied with water 

 largely from the Adi- 

 rondack and Catskill 

 forests. Should these 

 forests be destroyed, it 

 is not impossible that 

 the frequent freshets 

 which would follow 

 would so fill the Hud- 

 son River with silt and 

 debris that the ship 

 channels in the bay, 



already costing the government hundreds of thousands of dollars 

 a year to keep dredged, would become too shallow for ships. If 



Erosion at Sayre, Pennsylvania, by the Chemung 

 River. (Photograph by W. C. Barbour.) 



