126 Rkpokt S. A.A. Advancemknt ok Sri j:\ce; 



has yet been aceoinplished in protecting the collecting ground of the 

 rivers in northern India, on which depends the immensely important 

 <]uestion of securing a permanent supply to fill the great canals. In 

 his opinion the most important function to be served bv forests in 

 India is the protection of the water-suppl}'.* 



The effect of deforestation on the natural water-supply has attracted 

 the attention of many scientific men in the American continent, and 

 the foremost statesmen I'ealise that it is a question of national import- 

 ance. Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada, in opening the 

 Canadian Forestry Convention at Ottawa in January, 1906, said that 

 he was impressed with the urgent necessity of focussing the best brains 

 of the Dominion on the forest <|uestion. He had seen in India, Asia 

 JNIinor, Greece and Italy extensive tracts of territory, once inhabited by 

 a strenuous, prosperous and numerous population, leduced to the misery 

 of barren desolation by the deforestation of the country. 



After many generations of ruthless tree cutting a sound forest 

 policy has been inaugurated in the United States of America. In 

 1891, Congress provided that the President "may from time to time 

 set apart and reserve any pai't of the public lands wholly or in part 

 covered with timber or undergrowth." President Harrison immediately 

 proclaimed more than 1,250,000 acres in Yellowstone Park as a timber 

 reserve. Since then other areas have been added and other Presidents 

 have interested themselves in the question. In 1902 there were over 

 46,000,000 acres of national forest reserve, and Congress passed a P.ill 

 for the purchase of an additional area in the southern Appalachian*^ of 

 not moie than 4,000,000 acres in extent. 



The perpetuation of the streams and the maintenance of their 

 regular fiow, so as to prevent fioods and preserve the supply for watei"- 

 power, ai'e among the prime objects of f(irest preservation in those 

 mountains. Nothing illustrates more fully the need of this than the 

 fact that on the neighbouring streams, lying wholly within the Pied- 

 jiiont plateau — where the forests have been cleared fi-om areas aggre- 

 gating from 60 to HO per cent, of the whole — tloods are fi-equent and 

 excessive. During seasons of pi-otractod drought some of the smaller 

 streams almost disappeai', and the use of the \\ater-p(jwer along their 

 course is either abandojied or largely supplonented by steam. Each 

 forest resei-ve iii the United States has been set aside for some specific 

 purpose, particularly with reference to the protection of the head waters 

 of .streams used for irrigation.! Those west of lat. 100° W. lia\e been 

 created on account of their enormous value in conserving the rainfall 

 and increasing the water-supply in those desperately ai'id regions. 



liii.ii-off from Forestfd and Xoii Fon^xtt'd Are<(^. — It appears that 

 Ncry few actual records comi>aring the How -oft* from forested and 

 non-forested areas have been kept. Maiiy recognised authorities on 

 forestry state that no such records exist ; l)ut after prolonged researcli 



* Forests of Itidin and their Mannffenient, by •'. "s- «;aiiil)Ie, C.I.E., F.U.S., 

 Royal Colonial Institute, January, 1903. 

 I Irrigatioti, by I"'. H. Newell, j). 38. 



