56o 



CONSERVATION 



ing bank is mainly discharged at the 

 next station. It follows, therefore, that 

 if the banks of the stream were revetted 

 from the Gulf to Pittsburg, the falls 

 of St. Anthony and the mouth of the 

 Yellowstone, the quantity of sediment 

 passing into the Gulf would not be 

 diminished a particle." 



As the quantity of sediment carried 

 into the Gulf each year is exceedingly 

 large, Colonel Chittenden admits the 

 great erosion from the mountain slopes. 

 We do not agree with him, however, in 

 the statement quoted. A river picks up 

 sediment where the velocity of the 

 water and the size of the grains of 

 sediment admits and a reduction of ve- 

 locity causes the deposition of sediment, 

 beginning with the heaviest particles. 

 The river cuts away a bank here and 

 deposits a bar there, and much of its 

 load is, as Colonel Chittenden states, in 

 the nature of local freight. The impor- 

 tant point, however, is that all this 

 freight is moving down stream, and it 

 would seem scarcely reasonable to sup- 

 pose that under this continual move- 

 ment down stream the only silt to find 

 its way into the Gulf is that which 

 comes from the extreme sources. 



In contradiction to the above state- 

 ments. Colonel Chittenden says : "It is 

 incontestably true that whatever re- 

 straining effect forests have upon run- 

 off is greater vipon the lowlands than 

 upon steep mountain sides." This is a 

 good illustration of the character of 

 statement with which this paper 

 abounds — positive statements given en- 

 tirely without proof and in contradic- 

 tion to all experience and to the best 

 authorities. It would seem to be rea- 

 sonably clear that since on steep slopes 

 there is more tendency for the water 

 to run off than on moderate slopes and 

 flat land, whatever restraining effect the 

 forest exerts would be greater on steep 

 slopes than elsewhere. Seeing that if 

 the land were absolutely level there 

 would be no tendency at all for the water 

 to run off, so that it would all either 

 percolate or be absorbed, or evaporate, 

 and seeing that flat lands upon which 

 forests will grow are generally suitable 



and must sooner or later be used for 

 cultivation, and seeing, also, that Colo- 

 nel Chittenden has asserted that newly 

 plowed land has probably a retentive 

 capacity greater than the forest ground, 

 the difficulty of reconciling some of 

 these statements will be seen. 



In the recent work of Huffel, Econ- 

 omie Forestiere, for example, a detailed 

 discussion of many of these points will 

 be found, and the fallacy of Colonel 

 Chittenden's last remark above quoted 

 is there abundantly shown. 



Colonel Chittenden refers to some 

 foreign publications, particularly to the 

 reports of the Tenth International Nav- 

 igation CongresS;, held at Milan in 1905. 

 With reference to these, he says : 

 "While all the writers heartily favored 

 forest cidture, the opinion was prac- 

 tically unanimous that forests exert no 

 appreciable influence on the extremes of 

 flow in rivers." The important part of 

 this quotation is the first clause, and not 

 the last. It is true, and it is a very sig- 

 nificant fact, that all the zvriters urged 

 the preservation of the forests on the 

 mountain sides, or precisely what is con- 

 templated by the White Mountain- 

 Southern Appalachian bill. As foreign 

 testimony may be of value in this con- 

 nection, as showing the dependence of 

 the interests of navigation upon the 

 preservation of the forests, it may be 

 worth while to give extracts from some 

 of these reports.* 



Mr. Lafosse, the French delegate, 

 says : 



If the destruction of forests is to be de- 

 plored, it is most of all on the mountain that 

 the cutting away of timber is to he feared. 

 It is not alone the supply of the springs and 

 the discharge of the streams tvhich are in 

 danger. It is the very existence of the rivers 

 themselves. The stream which can be utilized 

 disappears to give place to the devastating 

 torrent. 



The soil swept bare of its forests, ex- 

 hausted by the abuses of grazing, loses 

 quickly its vegetable stratum. Washed peri- 

 odically, and carried away l)y melting snow 

 and summer storms, it is soon disaggre- ' 

 gated. The waters run toward the low 

 points, rolling before them gravel and boul- 

 ders, and even tearing out loose sections of 

 rock. A thousand rivulets cut out beds, the 

 torrent is formed. Scours begin, the banks 



*The translations were made abroad, and the quotations are given just as printed. 



