MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



13 



FOREST PERPETUATION 



AND WATER SUPPLIES 



In an article in the Manufacturers' Record 

 on Forest Perpetuation in its Relation to 

 Southern Water Powers. John H. Finney, 

 associate member of the American Institute 

 of Electrical Engineers, says: 



"A prominent Southern engineer, W. S. Lee, 

 estimates that deforestation already done has 

 cut down the capacity of our streams not less 

 than 40 per cent. This is entirely due to the 

 longer and more damaging flood periods, 

 which have necessitated excessive costs for 

 dams sufficiently heavy to withstand them, be- 

 sides giving longer drought periods, decreasing 

 enormously at such times the minimum flow of 

 the river on which, without artificial reservoir 

 capacity, the power development must be 

 based. 



"When one considers the splendid contribu- 

 tion to the industrial South that has been made 

 by its power plants and the economic value 

 which they mean to our mills and manufactur- 

 ing interests, which value grows more import- 

 ant and far-reaching each year, as coal be- 

 comes scarcer and dearer, one can get some 

 idea of the importance of forests to these 

 industries, and, through them, to the entire 

 South. 



''Apart from the menace to our water pow- 

 ers, there exists, through the same causes, a 

 very real danger to the water supply of our 

 cities and towns, from the standpoint of both 

 quantity and quality; our streams are not 

 naturally silt-bearing, but their condition and 

 appearance now, contrasted with their condi- 

 tion a short ten years ago, presents a marked 

 change. Ten years ago they were clear, and 

 remarkably free from sand and debris; now 

 they are full of sand, silt, detritus, and wash- 

 ings, which have filled up the channels, and 

 which increase enormously the expense and 

 difficulty of purification, so that many cities 

 now face not only a shortage of water during 

 the rapidly lengthening drought periods, but 

 unknown dangers in what they do get. As an 

 example, the city engineer of Augusta, Ga., 

 states that their power canal has received more 

 silt and sand in the past eighteen months than 

 in all the thirty years previously. 



"If this is the case with 20 per cent of the 

 forests gone, what will be the plight of Au- 

 gusta and other cities similarly situated' when 

 the remaining 80 per cent of forests are cut? 



"This sand and debris, after filling the upper 

 portions of our streams, finally washes to the 

 slower waters of the navigable portions, and 

 is swiftly filling them up, making navigation 

 dangerous, if not impossible, and making 

 dredging operations necessary on a large, and 

 ever-growing larger, scale each year. 



"It can be safely stated that the amount 

 which will in the near future have to be paid 

 in one year for dredging, jetties, harbor work, 

 etc., in our southern states,' would pay the 

 total cost of a national forest area that would 

 remedy the trouble for all time. Surely, at 

 this time, when our transportation facilities 

 are manifestly inadequate; when our entire 

 country is calling for and insisting on the 

 relief that canals and improved waterways 

 only can afford; when large appropriations for 

 these purposes must be made; it is well to call 

 attention to the only effective remedy for cur- 

 ing the disease by going direct to the seat of 

 the trouble. 



"This is not a sectional matter, but is of 

 national importance, the necessity for action 

 on which has been seen and urged by clear 

 headed men in all sections of our country. 

 The baneful effects are too apparent to be 

 longer ignored. The increased flood damage 

 each year at important points, such as Cin- 

 cinnati, Pittsburg and other northern cities, is 

 as directly traceable to deforestation as are 

 our flood damages here, and self-interest on 

 the part of ourselves and our statesmen, if no 

 stronger or more patriotic motive exists, 

 should demand that the remedy be applied. 



"This remedy is forest preservation, or, as 

 better expressed, forest perpetuation, under 

 the care and guidance of the National Govern- 

 ment." 



Mr. Finney estimates the amount of power 

 that could be developed on the streams having 

 their source in th,e Southern Appalachian reg- 

 ion, at between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 horse- 

 power. Three million horse-power, if devel- 

 oped, would mean an investment in hydro- 

 electric plants of upwards of $300,000,000, earn- 

 ing annually $60,000,000. at a conservative esti- 

 mate, and saving the South on its coal bill 

 alone over $15,000,000. , 



MUST CONSERVE OUR NATURAL RE- 

 SOURCES. 



To conserve our natural resources is more 

 than a question of dollars and cents. It con- 

 cerns business, but it concerns also our na- 

 tional progress and national existence. It ap- 

 peals to the love of country, of the broad- 

 minded citizen as well as to the cold judg- 

 ment of the economist. 



Neglect of our plain duty will in the coming 

 centuries leave the United States without 

 those essential resources upon which alone 

 continued national prosperity can be estab- 

 lished. Before us rise the warning examples 

 of such regions as Palestine and northern 

 Africa the examples of countries once rich 

 and prosperous, but now without national 

 greatness or economic wealth, because of that 

 same disregard for natural resources which 

 has been habitual in the United States. 



This present call to patriotic foresight and 

 action lacks the appeal to the imagination 

 which inspired our fathers in the days of con- 

 spicuous danger to our nation. There is miss- 

 ing such overshadowng evidence of an im- 

 pending catastrophe as stir the spirit of 

 heroic self-sacrifice when the country is 

 threatened by an armed foe. That the danger 

 is as yet hidden makes it most formidable. It 

 is one of the paradoxes of human nature that 

 men who will sacrifice their lives for their 

 country will pass over as unworthy of notice 

 smaller sacrifices of thought and action which 

 will in the end have more far-reaching results. 

 Our attitude toward our country's future 

 has been not unlike that of the parents of 

 children who toil in the factory or mine. They 

 would gladly sacrifice their lives to save the 

 children from some imminent and startling 

 danger; but the greatest danger they cannot 

 see at all. They do not realize that day by 

 day the body is being weakened and the mind 

 starved. The result is that the future is mort- 

 gaged and the man dwarfed. 



As compared with the centuries of history 

 of the old world the United States is still a 

 child. Its natural resources are its vital force. 

 Only through their careful development and 

 use' can we hope for national vigor and prog- 

 ress in the centuries to come. 



And yet, through our easy-going policy, we 

 are well nigh stripping this child nation of the 

 basis of its future prosperity. For the prog- 

 ress of our civilization five materials are abso- 

 lutely essential wood, water, coal, iron and 

 agricultural products. 



The timber has been improvidently cut until 

 now we have a supply for less than 30 years. 

 It is said that anthracite coal is likely to last 

 us for but 50 years and bituminous coal for 

 but 100. The supply of iron ore is being rap- 

 idly depleted, and many fields have already 

 been exhausted. Once the coal and iron are 

 gone, they are gone forever. 



Agriculture has been seriously crippled by 

 soil erosion. A billion tons of the farmers' 

 richest soil are annually carried into the rivers 

 and the sea. The amount of the soil borne by 

 the Mississippi alone is nearly twice as great 

 every year as all the earth which will be ex- 

 cavated in digging the Panama canal, and the 

 money loss to the farmer is probably close to 

 a billion dollars. Largely through this soil 

 wash the streams have been filled until they 

 are less navigable now than they were 50 

 years ago and this in spite of the millions 



which the government spends upon fhem 

 every year. 



This meager statement of unescapable and 

 melancholy facts shows that we are approach- 

 ing a national crisis. We have inexcusably 

 wasted our resources to the point of threat- 

 ened poverty and we must delay action no 

 longer. It is the part of patriotism to shake 

 off the careless optimism which has led us to 

 look forward into the future for less than a 

 generation. It is time to give thought to the 

 foundations of our country's greatness and 

 to the happiness and prosperity of our chil- 

 dren. It is time that careless prodigality 

 should give way to a high new type of patri- 

 otic endeavor. 



This is the purpose of the conference on 

 natural resources at the White House. And 

 it is altogether probable that it will open a 

 campaign for foresight and prudence in the 

 conservation of our natural resources, the ben- 

 efit of which will become increasingly plain 

 as the decades go by. 



For the crisis of the revolution patriots 

 arose in numbers and strength to crush an 

 outside enemy. Once and for all it was dem- 

 onstrated to the world that with reasonable 

 preparedness on our part the destiny of the 

 country cannot be interrupted from without. 

 In the civil war the danger came from within. 

 In those years of conflict was shown that in- 

 ternal dissension cannot check our progress. 



Another attempt of that sort 'has become 

 impossible forever. In those days of strife our 

 citizens found their duty and did it. Today 

 we are confronted with a less evident, but no 

 less vital duty, to assure the happiness and 

 prosperity of our descendants by the conser- 

 vation of the resources on which their well- 

 being will depend. Gifford Pinchot, chief of 

 the United States Forest Service. 



FORESTRY PAYS BIG PROFIT. 



The Marlette Leader recently called the at- 

 tention of its readers to a new form of industry 

 for the farmer. A mile north of that village is 

 a spot that had always given its owner more 

 or less trouble as it was too low to insure a 

 crop. There was not much chance to drain it 

 and the owner was at a loss just what to do 

 with it to keep it earning something and at the 

 same time appearing right. At last he hit 

 upon the plan of planting it to trees. Eight 

 years ago he gathered some seed from a soft 

 maple tree that stands in front of the house 

 and planted them upon the low ground. The 

 seeds were put in rows four feet apart, and 

 quite a piece of land was planted. The work 

 was conducted along the same lines as planting 

 corn and for the first three years it was neces- 

 sary to cultivate the ground to keep out the 

 noxious weeds. After three years old the trees 

 were sufficiently large to choke out the weeds 

 and grass and no other work was necessary. 

 Another lot was planted six years ago, and a 

 few more rows put in two years later, until 

 now there is about six acres in the lot. 



As a matter of satisfaction to the owner of 

 the grove it is well worth all it has cost, but 

 there is another side to the venture that is 

 worth consideration. A conservative estimate 

 is that there are about 2,000 young trees to the 

 acre and the farmer is selling them at 30 and 

 25 cents each, with calls for about all he wants 

 to dig. At this rate he has a crop eight years 

 old that is worth from $400 to $500 per acre, an 

 item that is much more than he could have 

 raised on this particular land with almost any- 

 thing else that he could have planted. 



Right here is -a valuable pointer. If trees 

 can be grown in such a short time and on land 

 that is nearly worthless for other crops, why 

 would it not be a wise act for every farmer to 

 set out his wood lot for future generations? 

 We are building buildings, accumulating 

 money and doing other hard work for those 

 who come after us and it would not be any 

 more unreasonable to supply our children's 

 children with timber for their needs. An acre 

 a year for a few years would be the 'best pos- 

 : sible crop that could be planted. 



