UNCLE SAM'S BIGGEST BANK ACCOUNT 27 



ago. This damage can be largely attributed to reck- 

 less cuttings upon the principal watersheds, followed by 

 forest fires. Unless strong measures are taken this 

 country will find itself in the same situation as France, 

 which has been compelled to spend millions of dollars 

 to control streams which became unmanageable fol- 

 lowing reckless cuttings of forest land on mountain 

 slopes made after the French Revolution. 



The situation regarding water for power and for 

 navigation purposes is practically the same, for to be 

 useful a stream must have a comparatively even flow 

 during the entire year. This condition may best be 

 brought about by keeping the steep slopes upon the 

 headwaters of the stream under forest cover and by 

 providing reservoirs along the course of the stream 

 to catch and hold the flood waters during the time of 

 freshets, to be released during the period of low water. 

 Both systems are necessary; each alone may prove in- 

 sufficient, and extreme cases may be found where both 

 may be used with little apparent effect, although it is 

 believed from foreign experience that in most cases 

 such a plan will help wonderfully. 



Regarding water power, at present there are about 

 5,000,000 horsepower developed, while the amount capa- 

 ble of development is variously estimated at from 

 37,000,000 to 100,000,000 horsepower. With the dis- 

 coveries permitting long-distance transmission of elec- 

 tric current the value of a small mountain stream 

 becomes large. Not only will the water now running 

 idly to the sea help in transporting our products over 

 electrified railways but it will furnish the power to 

 run factories and to heat homes, and finally, as in the 

 Scandinavian countries, cheap power will restore fer- 

 tility to the soil by taking nitrogen directly from the air. 



