FOREST CONSERVATION 



411 



lation of humus and leaf-mold resist the 

 compacting effect of the raindrops, and 

 hence the soil is kept loose, allowing the 

 water to readily percolate. This covering of 

 loose litter, twigs, etc., absorbs and holds 

 back the precipitation, preventing its disap- 

 pearing rapidly by surface drainage, goes 

 largely into the ground, and as a subsoil or 

 underground drainage, reappears in the form 

 of springs, which being gradually fed by per- 

 colation from above, themselves feed rivulets 

 or streams of perennial character. The snows 

 of winter melt more gradually in forest- 

 covered areas, giving more time for the 

 water resulting therefrom to soak into the 

 ground and pass off through the springs. 

 The streams fed from such sources have a 

 continuous supply to be vised for irrigation 

 or such other purposes as man may require. 



On the other hand, when the forest lands 

 have been denuded, the rainfall passes rap- 

 idly away, and its resulting effect is not long 

 felt or seen excepting by the filling of the 

 channels of the stream by slit, sand, and 

 gravel washed from above, and the result of 

 the waters having spread over the adjacent 

 low lands, destroying crops, improvements, 

 live stock and sometimes even the lives of 

 the inhabitants. It is not unusual in some 

 sections for the fertile valley lands to be 

 destroyed by gravel, stones, and debris car- 

 ried and deposited by the waters. 



Water power exerted througn electrical en- 

 ergy, and in operation in so many industries, 

 is impossible without constant and uniform 

 water suppl3% and this cannot be had except 

 along streams whose head waters have an 

 adequate protection of forest covering; 

 otherwise, the erosion of the soil soon fills 

 the reservoirs, and waters running unob- 

 structed on the surface converge in great 

 torrents, carrying logs and debris of all kinds, 

 surging irresistibly through the river valleys, 

 taking with it dams, gates, power plants, and 

 destroying what it cannot carry away. 



Originally the rivers and even the rather 

 small water courses of our country were to a 

 greater or less extent navigable. Their chan- 

 nels were deep, their waters mostly clear and 

 free from sediment and silt. At the present 

 time, owing to the deforestation of the lands 

 along their banks, and especially of their 

 head waters, the breaking up of the sod and 

 the loosening of the soil consequent upon set- 

 tlement and cultivation of crops, these chan- 

 nels, formerly deep, have been in some in- 

 stances entirely filled, and everywhere ren- 

 dered more shallow, until water transporta- 

 tion has ceased and river navigation has be- 

 come almost obsolete on rivers which were 

 once teeming with commerce. 



Our Government is at great annual ex- 

 pense in the construction of levees, dikes, 

 jetties, and other devices to prevent the de- 

 structive overflows, and in dredging and 

 deepening the channels in order that suffi- 

 cient depth of water may be obtained and 

 preserved to encourage the re-establishment 

 and preservation of our waterway navigation, 



so that means of transportation, competitive 

 with and supplemental to that furnished by 

 our railroads may be had ; a substantial pro- 

 portion of the money and energy thus ex- 

 pended, if used in the preservation of our 

 forests, would materially better conditions in 

 this regard. 



The western half of the United States con- 

 tains enough fertile land, now barren and un- 

 profitable, only because of insufficient mois- 

 ture, to support under adequate irrigation a 

 population of probably fifty million people; 

 further than this, as it has been truly said, 

 such population in the West would support a 

 like additional population in the manufactur- 

 ing districts of the East, and the two would 

 support another large population engaged in 

 the transportation and distribution of the 

 commodities of commerce between them. 



The possibility of such irrigation depends 

 largely on the preservation of the forest cover 

 of the mountains, which catches and holds 

 the melting snows, and thus forms the great 

 storage reservoirs of nature. 



We have been for many years, and are 

 now, using all our resources of diplomacy, 

 and even almost threatening at times to rein- 

 force it, if necessary, by our naval and mili- 

 tary strength, to maintain an "open door" in 

 the Far East for the benefit of our com- 

 merce, while at the same time we have only 

 dimly realized the possibilities of building up 

 an empire in our midst, whose yearly require- 

 ments of the commodities of commerce 

 would equal the requirements of an equal 

 number inhabitants of the Far East for a 

 generation, and the annual purchasing power 

 of whose productive activities would amount 

 to more than all the goods we could hope to 

 sell through the "open door" in possibly more 

 than a quarter of a century. 



We have it upon the authority of the Holy 

 Writ, that a thousand years before Christ 

 the eastern shore of the Mediterranean was 

 the seat of large cities having an extensive 

 maritime commerce. The mountain region 

 bordering east and west, extending for many 

 miles inland, was covered with a dense for- 

 est, comprising the cedar of Lebanon, the fir 

 and the sandal wood, covering an area of three 

 thousand five hundred square miles. The in- 

 habitants of Sidon were largely engaged in 

 cutting, hewing, and shipping timbers from 

 the forests of Lebanon, and the seat of Sidon 

 was a great lumber market, and its citizens 

 skilled ax-men. 



The cities of Tyre and Sidon were largely 

 constructed of wood ; their ships built of 

 cedar, the masts of fir, and oars of oak. Solo- 

 mon procured all of the timbers used in the 

 construction of the Temple, as well as in 

 other buildings, from the forests of Lebanon 

 by a contract therefor with Hiram, King of 

 Tyre, in whose dominion they lay, and he 

 supplied eighty thousand laborers to assist in 

 cutting and hewing the trees. The timber 

 was loaded into ships and conveyed to Joppa, 

 thence by land to Jerusalem. The region 

 about Jerusalem was fertile, and Solomon 



