DEFORESTATION AND FLOODS IN NORTHERN CHINA ^ 



D. Y. Lin, M. F. 



Professor of Forestry at the University of Nanking 



While in Tientsin during the months of November and December of 

 1917 I had the opportunity of going through the flooded sections of 

 the city, and it was a terrible sight indeed ! The boatmen who took 

 us around through the flooded streets would indulge in pointing out 

 to us the highest marks made by the flood water on the different walls, 

 and also tell us that millions of natives were rendered homeless, that 

 thousands had already perished, and that cofifins were seen floating in 

 the flooded area. The country which was under crop ready for the 

 harvest is now a great inland sea with boats plying between points or 

 islands formed by rising ground. The damage that has been done to 

 crops and houses, the loss caused by stoppage of trade, interruption of 

 railway traffic on the Peking-Hankow and the Tientsin-Pukow rail- 

 ways — this has been estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. It 

 is further estimated that in the city of Tientsin alone there are more 

 than 120,000 flood sufferers ; but, thank goodness, most of these sufferers 

 are being properly taken care of by different organizations, and for 

 their shelter thousands of mud huts have been put up. 



According to the latest report of the general relief committee, which 

 gives detailed information of each of the hsien that has suffered from 

 the floods, we learn that there are altgether 103 hsien or 17,646 villages 

 affected by the floods, and that in these hsien there are as many as 

 5,611,759 sufferers who are either homeless or starving. 



When we come to think of prosperous and peaceful Switzerland as 

 having a population of only 3,425,000 and an area of 15,975 square 

 miles as compared with 5,611,759 sufferers and 15,000 square miles 

 of flooded districts here, we at once comprehend the severity and the 

 extent of devastation by the floods ; and it is no wonder that they have 

 been called phenomenal floods or something that Chihli province has 

 not experienced for the last 170 years. 



* This article, written for the English reading public, contains the substance of 

 a pamphlet written in Chinese by the same author during his recent investigation 

 trip north. The article was reviewed by Prof. J. W. Toumey in the May issue 



of the JOURNAI,. 



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