6i6 



CONSERVATION 



let loose from melting' snow and falling 

 rain. Soaking deep, the sluggish and 

 reluctant waters flow from their cool 

 retreats down into the brooks, these into 

 the larger streams, whose replenisherl 

 banks guide them from their natural 

 reservoirs into the plain. How different 

 the canons and gullies of the treeless 

 and arid regions, scenes of alternating 

 forms of desolation ! \\dien it does 

 rain, which is not often, a thousand 

 streams pour like water off a tin roof, 

 to expand below into an inudation in 

 an hour, to sweep swift destruction 

 through the valley, to subside at once 

 into a blister upon the plains, to parch 

 there like the forsaken victim of illicit 

 love. 



All at once and all o'er with a mighty uproar, 

 And this way the water comes down at 

 Ladore. 



A striking comparison of the types 

 of water-supply was given by J. B. Lip- 

 pincott, supervising engineer of the 

 United States Reclamation Service, at 

 the Forestry Congress in Washington 

 recently. He says that Queen Creek, 

 Arizona, discharges through a barren, 

 treeless drainage basin of 143 square 

 miles, in violent freshets and floods, 

 subsiding almost as rapidly as they 

 arise. During most of the year the 

 channel is dry. In contrast is Cedar 

 Creek, Washington, with the samt- 

 drainage area. It is heavily timbered, 

 and in addition the ground is covered 

 with a heavy growth of ferns and moss. 

 The total annual rainfall in Washington 

 Creek for 1896 was eight times that of 

 the Arizona Creek, yet the maximum 

 flood discharge per second is onlv 3,600 

 cubic feet for the former, while that of 

 the latter w'as 9,000 cubic feet per sec- 

 ond. The mean discharge froiu the 

 Arizona Creek was fifteen cubic feet 

 per second, that of the other 1.089 cubic 

 feet per second. 



The Forest Service has undertaken, 

 as one phase of its task, the solution of 

 the problem of floods in rivers. For 

 instance, I saw the Kansas River floods 

 of 1903, which destroyed £4,000,000 

 worth of property and 100 lives. One 



of the most fertile valleys on the conti- 

 nent, 120 miles long, was partially des- 

 troyed. Here the rich soil was cut 

 away, there it was covered with san;! 

 six and eight feet deep over the fields; 

 holes were cut out and lakes left be- 

 hind. C)ut of the 250,000 acres of 

 wonderfully fertile soil, 10,000 acres 

 were completely destroyed, 10,000 more 

 lost fifty per cent of their value, and 

 the uncertainty left behind depreciated 

 the value of the wdiole valley. 



The Forest Service has devised sys- 

 tems of tree-planting for the river 

 banks, the sand-covered and deeply 

 eroded lands. The object of the first 

 is to prevent washing of the banks, to 

 protect the whole area from the full 

 force of the floods, and, in time of over- 

 flow, to check the tendency to cut new 

 channels. The last two systems are for 

 ultimately reclaiming the now destroyed 

 lan's and making them prodtictive. The 

 useless sand lands will grow cottonwood 

 and reclaim the land for crops. A most 

 interesting discover}' was made after 

 this flood ; where the protected growth 

 of cottonwood, which had not been cut 

 away, checked the rush of flood waters, 

 the land beyond was generally covered, 

 not with sand but silt, and was often 

 more fertile than before. With exten- 

 sive planting of trees another flood 

 would bring back, instead of further 

 desolation, a return of fertility to niuch 

 of the land now barren. 



Says Mr. F. H. Newell, director 

 United States Reclaniation Service. "In 

 six years the Government has reclaime 1 

 250,000 acres, upon which are now liv- 

 ing 20,000 people, representing 4,000 

 families. It is a reasonable estimate 

 that, in another decade. 2.000,000 more 

 acres may be reclaimed, upon which 

 250,000 more human beings may main- 

 tain themselves in reasonable comfort. 



"The water for this work comes 

 chiefly from streams rising in moun- 

 tains. Tn niaintain the supply of this 

 water, it is essential that forests be 

 maintaiiied upon these mountains. To 

 this end national forests are indispens- 

 able."' 



Addressino- the National Rivers and 

 Harl)ors Congress at Washington, D.C., 



