notes and queries. 227 



Forest Preservation in the United States. 



A despatch in the Times of 12th May gives some account of 

 the work which has been done by Mr Roosevelt's Administration 

 in connection with the preservation of the timber resources of 

 the United States. In the first place, experts have been for some 

 time drawing attention to the effects produced by the reckless 

 destruction of the forests. Thousands of acres of arable land, 

 stretching from hill-sides and river banks, have been deprived of 

 the protecting trees which regulate the periodic floods of the 

 rivers. In consequence, the lands are being swamped by the 

 overflowing streams, the courses of the rivers being in turn 

 clogged with the rich soil stripped and washed from the land. 

 This effect of deforestation demands costly dredging of the 

 streams, and endangers the efficiency of works designed to 

 facilitate navigation. The storage of flood waters also becomes 

 a necessity, and reclamation schemes, in addition to being 

 directed to arid lands, have also to be applied to once useful 

 fertile areas over which the flood waters have ruinously spread 

 through ruthless tree felling. One instance among several is the 

 reduction of the amount of forest cover on the White Mountain 

 watershed. Thereby the water-power in the New England 

 streams has become insufficient to run the mills, and 95 per 

 cent, of the water-power factories have had to use steam at 

 certain periods of the year or else stop running. 



Mr Roosevelt's crusade for the preservation of the remaining 

 portions of the public domain not at the mercy of the squander- 

 ing methods of private owners, has taken a form that will be 

 enduring as far as it goes with the means at hand. In the West 

 an over-abundance of land and a meagre population once en- 

 couraged a lavish distribution of the public domain for agri- 

 culture, timber, water, fuel, and minerals. Now it is recognised 

 that these resources are not inexhaustible, and that their abuse 

 must be stopped. A brilliant lieutenant of the President's, Mr 

 Gilbert Pinchot, chief of the forestry service, has for some time 

 been conducting a vigorous campaign against the further mono- 

 poly of the public lands, the benefit of which has accrued to a 

 few individuals, who have ousted the bona fide home-steader. 

 Considerable forest reserves have now been established in the 

 West, and portions of the coal supplies and mineral fields have 

 been conserved. 



