Forestry and Government 171 



to reacquire the title to them. In some countries it 

 is attempted to regulate the manner in which the 

 private owners of such forests may manage them so 

 as to keep them from endangering the public wel- 

 fare by removing them or impairing their effective- 

 ness as a protection. Such violent encroachments 

 on the right of the people to do what they like with 

 their own property are not to be thought of in this 

 country, and there is nothing left but for the pub- 

 lic to take such tracts into their own hands. 



In the western half of the North American con- 

 tinent forests are almost exclusively confined to the 

 mountain ranges, while the surrounding plains and 

 plateaus are devoid of timber. As much of this 

 region is arid or semi-arid, precipitation being 

 largely confined to snowfall on the higher eleva- 

 tions, agriculture and every other form of civilized 

 life is dependent upon artificial irrigation. The 

 water for these works must be derived principally 

 from the snows accumulating on the higher moun- 

 tain slopes, and the forests covering the steep sides 

 are of the greatest importance in protecting the 

 irrigation works. Without them the floods at the 

 time of melting snows and after heavy showers in 

 summer would rush down with such impetuosity 

 that the dams, basins, and canals could not with- 

 stand their force. The erosion of the mountain 

 sides would be so great that the valleys together 

 with the irrigation works would be quickly filled up 

 with gravel, silt, and mud. The United States, 

 which still holds most of the land in this region, 



