THE FRENCH ALPS BAD LANDS OF MISSISSIPPI. 159 



slied must in many cases be determinative in the excesses of water flow 

 in rivers. 



Tliis important fact should at least be recognized, that the surface 

 conditions of the soil of a watershed are the only controllable factors in 

 the problem. 



Amount of precipitation, topography, and character of the soil are 

 the practically unchangeable other conditions which determine the 

 occurrence of freshets and floods. With a forest floor in good condi- 

 tion, small precipitations are apt to be absorbed readily and entirely 

 prevented from running off superflcially; with excessive rainfalls, topo- 

 graphical and soil conditions have eventually more influence than the 

 forest floor; from steep declivities and an impermeable soil waters will 

 be shed sui)erflcially in spite of and over the forest floor as soon as the 

 latter is saturated at the surface. 



Yet even so a diflerence in. the run-ort" will be experienced by the 

 fact that the well protected forest soil prevents erosion, the formation 

 of detritus and the carrying of debris into the runs and brooks below. 



EXPERIENCE IN THE FKENCII ALPS. 



• 



By this protection of the soil the so-called torrential action of water 

 is prevented, which, as the history of some departments in southern 

 France has shown, is capable of devastating thousands of acres offer- 

 tile land by carrying the detritus into the valleys and depositing it 

 there. At the same time the reforestation Avorkof the French Govern- 

 ment has also progressed far enough to furnish proof that the recloth- 

 ing of the denuded hills is the practical remedy against these torrents. 



Not only were the mountain sides themselves devastated and made 

 useless by the destructive action of the water, but fertile farms for 200 

 miles from the source of the evil were ruined by the deposit of the 

 debris and the population pauperized and driven out. 



According to M. Demontzey, forest administrator of France, it was 

 estimated, in ISGO, that the area of denuded mountain lands needing 

 reforestation was 2,904,000 acres. The Government has taken hold of 

 the restoration of the most needing area, some7<S(),000 acres, on which 

 so far .some $10,000,000 have been expended, while private owners and 

 communities have increased this expenditure for the repair of past fol- 

 lies to over $30,000,001), which is estimated to be about one-half of what 

 is necessary. 



flow in our own country this erosive and destructive action of water 

 is at work even in the hill country is thus graphically described by Mr. 

 McGee, in speaking of the bad lands in the State of Mississippi : 



With the moral revolution of the early sixties came an iiulustrial ovoliitioii ; the 

 planter w;ih imjiovcrished, liis sonLS were slain, his slaves were liberatecl, and he was 

 fain either to va<ate the plantation oi- jircatly to restrict his operations. So the cul- 

 tivated acres were altandoncd by tiiuusands. Then tlie hills, no longer j)rotected by 

 the forest foliage, no longer bound by the forest roots, no longer guarded by the 



