350 



ARHUKirrLTIKK 



Forests and Floods. 



There is a lesson in the dreadful floods 

 that have wrought so niueh destruction in 

 the I'nited States during the past few 

 months, and it should not be permitted to 

 go unheeded. These flomls have undoultedly 

 been growing more frequent and more ser- 

 ious from year to year, and the cause is 

 not far to seek, John P. Krown. secretary 

 of the International Society of Arboricul- 

 ture, has devoted forty years to the study 

 of forests ar.d floods. He predicts floods 

 of much greater destructiveness and of far 

 wider range than those that have recently 

 occured. He goes so far as to say that 

 within twenty-five years floods like those 

 that have occurred this season in Kansas, 

 Neliraska and Missouri will be general 

 throughout the continent, and furthermore, 

 that within half a century "the great agri- 

 cultural region of the United States will be 

 as sterile as the deserts of Arizona or the 

 plains of China." He bases this unpleasant 

 prediction on the fact that the American 

 forest are being destroyed at a most alarm- 

 ing rate, so that unless some reform is intro- 

 duced they will practically be gone, within 

 half a century. The destruction of the 

 forests in the mountains permits the rains 

 to rush off immediatelv. The result is on 



the one side arid lands, and on the other 

 disastrous floods. 



The United States is one of the few civi- 

 lized countries of the world where the im- 

 portant subject of forestry has been almost 

 entirely neglected. In the countries of 

 continental Europe, ' particularly in (Jer- 

 many and Switzerland, the strictest laws 

 are enforced relating to the preservation 

 of the forests. A man cannot cut trees on 

 his own land without first obtaining per- 

 mission. When trees are cut down, others 

 have to be planted to rei>lace them. Yet, 

 in those countries the subject of forestry 

 is not nearly so important as it is through- 

 out a large section of the United States, 

 where rain falls only during a limited period 

 of the year, 



Some of our jiublic-spirited men, includ- 

 ing the President, have been diligently 

 preaching the gospel of forest preservation, 

 but hitherto they have been little heeded 

 by the mass of the people. Perhaps, since 

 the occurance of these pregnant object 

 lessons, it may be possible to arouse a pub- 

 lic sentiment on the subject that will result 

 in an urgent demand for affective legisla- 

 tion to prevent a continuance of the present 

 ruthless policy. 



The Philippines. 



The Mexican Herald has this to say of 

 the Philippine situation, which seems to be 

 a correct opinion. 



A good observer in the Phlli[)pines writes 

 that the Caucasian is an exotic there. "He 

 will tolerate existence in the tropic sunder 

 special inducements, but only for a short 

 time. Every body is going home at the 

 earliest possible moment. Women and 

 children suffer much more than men, and it 

 is on their account in a majority of the 

 cases that the men profess to be so eager 

 to see "the states." Tropical diseases, 

 tropical pests, a summer all the year around, 

 long distances from home, few amusements, 

 poor transportation facilities are among the 



reasons which Americans assign for not 

 liking long residence in the tropics. This 

 merely repeats I)ritish experience in India. 

 No ruler there stays to help, or criticise, 

 or moderate his successor. No white man 

 who makes a fortune in India builds a great 

 house or buys an estate for his descen- 

 dants. The planter, the engineer, the fore- 

 man goes back to England before he is 

 sixty, leaving no child, or house or trace 

 behind. Others, drafted commercially to 

 carry on the work, come out to India to 

 bear the white man's burden; but the race 

 does not take root there. Neither will 

 Americans in the Philipjtines. This is not 

 the end which the islands will serve." 



