62 State Horticultural Society. 



ern portion of the state navigation has ceased in the Wisconsin and the 

 Fox has lost much of its force in driving its mills. Rivers that used 

 to float down the logs do not do their accustomed work and streams 

 used at the June freshet have been abandoned. Other portions of the 

 section that were swamps when the surface was covered with forest 

 have become dry and in the clearings grow the aspen, as is the case 

 on the uplands. Less extended areas also have their influence on the 

 water supply. The government has collected a great amount of testi- 

 mony on this subject which proves that many of our springs are de- 

 pendent on whether the subsoil has received its supply from the wood- 

 land near them. In New York one man told of a beautiful stream on 

 his farm which was supplied from a spring having its source in a 

 wooded hill of two acres. The wood was cut away and the spring 

 became dry, while the hill was dry and useless. 



France cut away her forests from her mountains and thousands 

 of farmers either had their farms washed aAvay or covered over by soil 

 and debris brought down by the torrents. It -is said that 200 miles 

 from the source of the evil, fertile farms were ruined. In the country 

 tributary to our large rivers many of the forests have been removed 

 and there is an .estimated loss from the washing of the floods of 200 

 square miles of our soil per annum. Truly the engineer needs the 

 forests to aid him in his work against these expensive, dangerous 

 floods. Watch the effect of a heav}^ rain storm or the quickly nrelt- 

 ing snow on an unprotected field, see how gradually innumerable 

 rivulets are formed by the water rushing to a lower level, each carry- 

 ing its particles of dirt to deposit lower down or carry into the streams 

 and by the streams into the rivers. Left unconstrained, these rivulets 

 wash with each rain vmtil gullies and gulches are formed. With the 

 loss of the forest cover the open fields are left and usually fire follows 

 the lumberman, destroying the underbrush which would have pro- 

 tected the ground. The spring rains come and are not absorbed ; they 

 rush oflf in the little rivulets to join the streams; the streams are 

 swelled and they rush on to join the rivers and the united volume is 

 too great for the banks and the river overflows the surrounding coun- 

 try. The sudden melting of the snow in the denuded mountains gives 

 the same result. 



Fernow in his "Battle of the Forest," says: "Go to the shores of 

 Lake Michigan or visit the coast of New England, New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania down to the Gulf and you can see the destructive action of 

 the shifting sands set loose by the improvident removal of the plant 

 cover. Go to the Adirondacks, the highlands of the IMississippi or the 



