Conservation of Natural Resources in California. 



THE VITAL TRUTH. 



Stewart Edward White, the noted writer of camping and outdoor stories, 

 lives in Santa Barbara. Even his honeymoon was spent in the open, 

 in a horseback trip through the high Sierras round about Mount Whitney. 

 He has written a fine article for the American Magazine for January, 

 1908, under the caption THE FIGHT FOR THE FORESTS, from which 

 the following is extracted, by permission. 



"When a man makes his camp in the wilderness he hunts first of all 

 two requisites. If they exist in abundance, he is happy and comfort- 

 able ; if they lack, he must take his rest, and move on to more favored 

 localities. These two requisites are wood and water. 



How the forests of our high mountains hold the snowfall, preventing its sudden 

 melting, to the destruction of the country below by flood. 



And, curiously enough, these two necessities of man's abiding depend 

 absolutely one on the other. Without rainfall the forests will not grow. 

 Without the forests the rainfall is destructive, rather than beneficent. 

 In a naked country whether artificially or naturally so the water 

 comes in great torrential floods followed by droughts. A covering of 

 forest, on the other hand, retains the rainfall as would a sponge, dis- 

 tributing it slowly through regulated streams, holding it back against 

 the needs of the dry season. Wherever the forests have been cut away, 



