^,^5 CONSERVATION 



the old, both in idea and practise, till Jhe viewpoint of the military en- 



actually driven to the new. gmeer to-day corresponds with the 



This has been proved a thousand viewpoint, m their days, of the_ au- 



'^XeVeT.r '" '' p.- 'and refusing to change his posi- 



The modern, scientific view of the tion^ ^^^tending with such men, facts 



connection between forests and streams ^^i^^^^^^^^tle^ otherwise they might 

 is represented by the f^^f ^^^ Rec- mountain-high, 



lamation Services and he Geological ^ P published by Mr. 



Survey ; the old-fashioned view is repre- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^.^^ ^.^^ 



sented by the army engmeers. ^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ 



Because, like the Chmaman, he be- ^^^^ Pinchot's illustration before the 

 lieves that the teachings of the fathers ^^^^^ judiciary Committee might be 

 must control the children to all genera- ^.^ ^^^^^f ^^en, by pouring water upon 

 tions, the military engineer of necessity ^^-^^^y^^^^ blotter, and then upon an in- 

 repudiates the doctrme of these modern ^^.^^^^ photograph, he showed the dif- 

 bureaus. ference between the action of a for- 

 But if military advice on these ques- ^^^^^ ^j^p^ ^^^ ^^^^ Qf ^ denuded one. 

 tions is followed by America, this Na- ^j^ ^^ ^^^ p^j^^^ ^f saturation, the 

 tion will go down before up-to-date ^Q^^gj. absorbed the water; the photo- 

 competitors like Germany or Japan as graph absorbed not a drop, 

 the old regime in Europe went down ^ -g^^^ ^^^^ waterways man says that 

 before Napoleon, or as wind-power ^^^^ ^j^^ iovest cover has been sat- 

 goes down before steam and electric ^j-ated the water runs ofiF. Who denies 

 power. it? When the mulch is full, it is full. 



Galileo taught that a heavy body falls ^g ^^i^h so as is a barrel, 

 no faster than a light one of the same g^^ does this admission disprove 



bulk. The savants of his day laughed ^he fact that, until the mulch is full, 



him to scorn. He proved his conten- much water is absorbed, and thus kept 



tion by dropping balls from the Tower j^^ck from an otherwise possible flood? 

 of Pisa, but the pedants were still un- Again, the full blotter and the full 



convinced. mulch can be supplemented. For the 



Columbus proved the terrestrial globe latter, we need the reservoir, 

 to be a sphere ; but the wiseacres of his Further, the waterways man con- 

 day tapped their foreheads and smiled, tends that the second growth, sprouts, 

 Descartes believed that the universe ^nd brushwood found on the deforested 

 is developing through evolution ; Co- slopes restrain the water as well as the 

 pernicus taught that the earth moves original forest would have done, 

 round the sun ; Kepler formulated the It is admitted that such a cover exer- 

 laws of planetary motion ; Dietrich cises a restraining influence ; it is not 

 Flade repudiated witchcraft: Roger admitted that this influence is equal to 

 Bacon taught that man may learn by that of the well-kept forest, 

 experimental methods ; John Barillon But suppose it were ; shall we hold, 

 interrogated nature by means of chem- therefore, that with a timber famine 

 ical appliances : Harvey taught the cir- in sight a ragged coppice, burned over 

 culation of the blood. and practically worthless as a wood- 

 Every one of these men flew squarely producing area, is as desirable as the 

 in the face of the dominant sentiment of splendid forests which adequate protec- 

 his time, supported by the accepted "au- tion ensure? 



thorities" in the field of truth. Our waterways friend apparently 



Yet in every instance the dominant concedes that the second growth re- 

 sentiment and the accepted authorities strains the waters; will he then deny 

 were wrong, and the advocate of the that the first growth restrains them m 

 new view was right. at least equal measure? 



