242 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



dred years ago. This continued lowering of the water 

 line is laid mainly to the deforestation of the country. 

 If, this be true, the water line may be raised again by 

 reforestation of those denuded areas which are unsuit- 

 able for cultivation. Naturally the danger of a drought 

 which will injure the crop is increased in proportion 

 as the water line is lowered, thus rendering capillary 

 moisture inaccessible to the growth of plants. 



The farmer, therefore, who is able to afford it, should 

 institute experiments looking to his greater independ- 

 ence of the vicissitudes of the season. It is well known 

 that the amount and distribution of the rainfall is one 

 of the dominant features in the variation of crop yields. 

 Vast areas of our country are ruined agriculturally 

 every year by persistent drought. This is particularly 

 true of those States which border on the arid regions, 

 as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dako- 

 tas. There is scarcely a year that some very large 

 area of this region is not practically rendered worthless 

 by persistent drought. 



It may be that the evils of deforestation have been 

 somewhat accentuated, but I do believe that it is 

 the universal experience of all persons who have lived 

 in a wooded country that there is a greater uniformity 

 in the moisture of the soils of the forest than ever has 

 been noticed in the soils of the field. Whether or not 

 Dr. McGee was right in supposing that there is a re- 

 cession of the water line in the soil, makes little differ- 

 ence from a practical point of view. To restore pristine 

 conditions by reforestation would mean the overturn of 

 the work which our fathers did in clearing the fields of 

 their forests. Moreover, the benefit which reforesta- 

 tion could offer would be an extremely slow one, and a 

 great many years would have to elapse before it could 



