DROUGHTS AND FLOODS 



By JOHN H, FINNEY, Secretary of The Appalachian National Forest Association 



NO SEER, looking ahead a dec- 

 ade and prophesying concern- 

 ing the future of America with- 

 out its forests, could well have drawn 

 a more vivid imaginative picture of 

 conditions than the actual recital in the 

 daily press in the past few weeks of 

 forest fires throughout the country and 

 of droughts in Pennsylvania, Ohio 

 West Virginia, etc., setting forth the 

 tremendous money damage, the loss of 

 life ; the paralysis of business, the seri- 

 ous menace to the health of the people 

 caused by them ; where the supply of 

 water was so short that it became a 

 more profitable crop than produce ; 

 when baseball was being played in what 

 was the bed of the Ohio River ; where 

 dried-up streams had become vast open 

 sewers and were being sprinkled with 

 lime to prevent an epidemic of disease ; 



where prayers were being daily offered 

 for rain ! 



These conditions, due to a shortage 

 of water, appalling though they be, tell 

 but a part of the forest story ; the other 

 part is told by the disastrous flood con- 

 ditions which the South was experienc- 

 ing at the same time; a story that has 

 to do with too much water, but told to 

 the same accompaniment of loss in 

 money and human lives. 



Surely, if a forest preservation les- 

 son is needed to make us heed the con- 

 ditions which our present policy means 

 to future America, these occurrences 

 under our own eyes and touching the 

 material welfare of our own neighbors 

 and friends ought to be realistic enough 

 to drive the lesson deep into our hearts 

 and consciences. 



A FLOODED CITY 

 Scene on River Avenue, Pittsburg, During ah Inundation, Floods at One Season, Droughts at 

 Another, because the Forests Are Gone 



