LESSENED STUEAMS WITH LESSENED FORESTS. 169 



It is nut uuusua] to liml iu many localities tlie beds of what were once importaut 

 mill streams, waterless, except when filled by sntlden freshets, and in Ohio certain 

 streams emptying into the lake, which were once declared navigable, will not now 

 float a canoe. Previous to 1S32 Capt. Delorac, of Hamilton, Ohio, annually sent a 

 fleet of flatboats down the Big Miami River at the spring rise; but with the de- 

 struction of the forests aloug that rii. er the rise became so uncertain that the enter- 

 prise was of necessity abandoned. 



A tUrmer in LTlster Coauty, N^. Y., gives tlie following testimony ou 

 the snbject before us. He had cut an acre or two of trees on an ele- 

 vated portion of his farm. In giving the result he says: 



My flrst loss was the drying up of a beautiful brook which had its source in my 

 grove, and which ran through a number of fields, furnishing water for cattle while 

 grazing. Five times tlie value of the wood I sold would have been refused for this 

 stream. In the vicinity of the place where the timber stood the ground became dry 

 during the summer. When rain fell it did not seem to be absorbed, the water ran 

 down the hillsides, making great gullies and doing much damage, while the fields 

 through which the brook flowed did not yield as good crops. I am now a strong- 

 believer in the value of woodlands on a farm. 



A gentleman iu Oiujudaga, C'ouuty states that the streams iu that 

 county have visibly failed since li is boyhood, though he is not yet 40 

 years of age. There was at Coukling's Falls, he says, a grist and saw 

 mill which in his youth had a plentiful supply of water. Then it grad- 

 ually diminished. At first a spasmodic flow was marked; heavy fresh- 

 ets in spring, then low water iu summer, until the water failed and it 

 was necessary to run the mills by steam. So at Pratt's Falls, a few 

 years ago the flow of water was abundant. The story was repeated 

 there, violent freshets iu spring, followed by the usual failure, until 

 now, in summer, hardly a pailful runs over the falls. In this latter 

 case there was formerly a swamx), some 5 or 6 miles above the falls, 

 which has been reclaimed and all the trees and shrubs cut off. All 

 these chiiuges have occurred within fifteen years. 



Ex-Goveruor Davis, of Maine, gives the following statement in re- 

 gard to the effect of forest removal on the flow of streams, in a case 

 with which he is well acquainted: 



The Keiidii.skeag River empties into the I'enobscot at Bangor. The stream rises some 

 .30 miles from its mouth, one branch iu the town of Dexter, and another in the town 

 of Corinna. I am told that fifty or sixty years ago there was a continuous flow of 

 water the yt-ar round in this stieani, and at the town of Keudnskeag, 12 miles north- 

 east of Bangor, were sitnat»Ml large Inmbcr mills on botii sides of the stream. The 

 water-flow was sufficient to carry them the year round. But during thepast half 

 century the land along the shores of the stream has been cleared throughout the 

 greater part of its cour.se. The result is that we have heavy s]»riug freshets, also 

 heavy feshets in the fall, sometimes doing much damage. I ret^ollect, a dozen years 

 ago or more, when living in the town of Corinth, through which said stream flows, 

 almo.st every bridge ou the stream was carrit-d away in the month of Maicli. Now, 

 after the spring freshet subsides, the water falls rapidly unlil it dwimlb-s to a very 

 small stream, not one-half the amount flowing during the summer mouths that did 

 fifty years ago. 



