have less water? We may not have any 

 less falling from the sky, but there would 

 be a lot less of the kind of water we 

 wanted, when we wanted it. 



Indeed, some folks say that the cutting 

 down of the trees in certain parts of the 

 country has cut down the water supply 

 at the same time. They say that the 

 earlier homes in the northeastern parts 

 of this country were built near convenient 

 springs. In the course of time, with for- 

 ests cleared away to make room for fields, 

 these springs dried up. Then shallow 

 wells were dug, and these, too, failed, 

 and had to be drilled or dug deeper. 



OUR water supply is of two parts: 

 that constantly in use on the sur- 

 face, in the shape of rain, fog, 

 snow, and dew ; and that which is 

 stored in the ground. Usually there is 

 not enough of either kind alone for all of 

 man's needs- to grow his crops and to do 

 other work for him. Each part helps the 

 other out, and the part which has been 

 adding up in the ground in years of 

 much rain helps out the surface supply 

 in years of little rain. Of course, the 

 forests form an important part of these 

 reservoirs. 



Measurements taken in wells in ten 

 states show that in about half of the wells 

 measured the water level had dropped. 

 This is due, it is thought, to more de- 

 mands on the water to grow our grains, 

 to furnish drink for man and animals, 

 and to serve many needs which did not 

 exist when the wells were first dug. But 

 only a third of the water loss can be 

 accounted for in these new demands. 

 The greater part of the loss of the rest 

 has been due to the cutting away of 

 the forests where they could and should 

 have been left. 



The trees were not there to check the 

 storms and snows and to hold them until 

 their waters sank into the ground. The 

 spongy leaf litter in the woods was 

 burned away, gullies were formed and 

 drained out the water that ought to have 

 remained under the ground. One of the 

 remedies for this is to keep the forests 

 growing on the hillsides, at the heads of 

 the streams. 



THEN will we always have ' swimmin' 

 holes'? " asked the older girl. 

 " Then you will always have 

 'swimmin' holes,' " I replied. "And 

 if the trees are kept growing, and 

 the streams are kept running, even 

 the two littlest boys who haven't yet 

 learned how to swim, will be able to 

 come back when they are grown-ups, 

 and find the old swimming hole again. 

 Unless"— and I think of one swimming 

 hole I used to know — " unless some big 

 city has reached out and covered over 

 the old swimming hole, and turned it 

 into a sewer." 



THE swimming hole used by my 

 own children is better than any I 

 ever knew. My first was in a 

 little country " run." With a deal 

 of labor I dammed it to make a waist- 

 deep pool. Here I learned to swim. 

 What a thrill in the discovery that one 

 can actually keep up without even a toe 

 on the bottom! Life holds few such 

 triumphant moments. 



Then there was a larger creek where 

 we went in above a big dam, in great 

 fear of being swirled down the mill-race. 



Darting dragon-flies, or " devil's darn- 

 ing needles," gave another risk, " cause 

 they sew your shoulder-blades together — 

 sure indeed they do! Oncet they was a 

 feller 'at had his'n sewed together that- 

 away, an' he never did get right. 'Course 

 the doctor unsewed him, but he was 

 always kind o' stiff-necked and humped- 

 up-like, afterwards." 



No one really believed this, but it was 

 part of our game of make-beUeve, and 

 added zest to life. 



And these fancies prevail to-day. Who 

 started the sign of two up-held fingers to 

 mean " goin' swimmin'?" I'll bet that 

 Pharaoh used it on the banks of the Nile ! 



Sometimes, when we see again the 

 swimming holes of youth they seem to be 

 shrunken away, because that's a way 

 with youthful joys. But very often, we 

 find that, because the trees have been 

 cut down, the streams are smaller, and 

 the pool that cost many a struggle when 

 we were first swimming it,^ can now be 

 straddled with one step. 



