And State Papers 561 



whole and not sacrificed to the shortsighted greed 

 of a few. 



The forests are natural reservoirs. By restrain- 

 ing the streams in flood and replenishing them in 

 drought they make possible the use of waters other- 

 wise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, 

 and so protect the storage reservoirs from filling 

 up with silt. Forest conservation is therefore an 

 essential condition of water conservation. 



The forests alone can not, however, fully regulate 

 and conserve the waters of the arid region. Great 

 storage works are necessary to equalize the flow of 

 streams and to save the flood waters. Their con- 

 struction has been conclusively shown to be an un- 

 dertaking too vast for private effort. Nor can it 

 be best accomplished by the individual States acting 

 alone. Far-reaching interstate problems are in- 

 volved; and the resources of single States would 

 often be inadequate. It is properly a national func- 

 tion, at least in some of its features. It is as right 

 for the National Government to make the streams 

 and rivers of the arid region useful by engineering 

 works for water storage as to make useful the rivers 

 and harbors of the humid region by engineering 

 works of another kind. The storing of the floods 

 in reservoirs at the headwaters of our rivers is but 

 an enlargement of our present policy of river control, 

 under which levees are built on the lower reaches 

 of the same streams. 



The Government should construct and maintain 



