644 Forestry Quarterly. 



POLITICS AND LEGISLATION. 



An article by Kruk on this subject is in- 



Correction teresting in showing by figures the influence 



of of forest cover on waterflow, and in con- 



Torrents tributing to the evergrowing problem of 



in waste land reclamation. 



Galicia. The Austrian government has begun in a 



small way to regulate the flow of Galician 



streams, but has not yet done much to correct the forest conditions 



which are claimed to be the cause of the irregularity of the river 



flow. 



The writer claims that the forest per cent, of the watershed of 

 the Dnjester and of the Vistula has in the last three decades been 

 reduced from 37% and 25.8% to 25% and 18% respectively. At 

 the same time destructive floods have appeared more frequently. 

 While in the first 80 years of last century only four such floods 

 were experienced (in 1813, 1843, 1867 and 1875), in the last 30 

 years 10 such floods have occurred (1882, 1884, 1889, 1895, 1899, 

 1901, 1903, 1906, 1907 and 1908), not counting minor annual 

 floods occasioning small damage. He estimates the damage in the 

 last 30 years as exceeding one hundred million dollars. Details 

 are given of the 1884 flood, which inundated over 560,000 acres 

 affecting some 400,000 people. Official data record 



3,541 industrial concerns, damaged .Kr. 462,240 



7,000 acres entirely washed away, . . 1,224,716 

 12,500 acres covered with gravel and 



debris, i,359>78o 



Damage to riparian works, 24,492,340 



Damage to roads, 439,386 



Damage to railroads, 1,994,522 



Kr. 29,972,984 



or around $5,500,000, a loss occasioned within a few days. This, 

 for a generally poor country, enormous loss has been several times 

 repeated within these 30 years. While in well-forested water- 

 sheds the experience is that 30 to 35% of the precipitation reaches 

 the rivers, on naked slopes some 25% more is shed over the sur- 

 face. 



