26 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 

 THE IMPORTANT PHASES OF THE PROBLEM 



The main urban centers of the east coast from Boston to Baltimore 

 consume more than 2 billion gallons of water daily. Large cities are 

 bringing their water supplies from distances of 60, 92, 200, 250, 450 

 miles at costs, actual or proposed, ranging upward to $350,000,000 

 for a single project. 



Extreme droughts such as that of 1930-31 show the acuteness 

 of the domestic water supply problem even in the humid East. In 

 southern California if not elsewhere the availability of water definitely 



PRIVATE 



POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY 



PUBLIC 



POTENTIAL PRODUCTIVITY 



20 



4-0 60 



PER CENT 



80 



100 



FIGURE 15. Private ownership dominates the possibility of timber production in the United States, 

 with four fifths of the commercial forest land and nine tenths or more of the potential timber growing 

 capacity. 



limits the size of the population. All cities must have abundant, 

 continuous supplies of good water. 



Nineteen Western States now have reservoir and distributing 

 systems for irrigation, valued at more than $1,000,000,000, to supply 

 about 19)2 million acres of irrigated land which with its buildings and 

 machinery is valued at over $4,000,000,000. Far-western agriculture 

 is largely that of irrigated lands. The amount and the time at which 

 water is available are limiting factors, since there is much more land 

 than water. 



Water is one of the great sources of power in the United States 

 and, unlike coal and oil, it is not exhaustible. In 1931, 26 States 

 had developed more than 100,000 horsepower each from their streams, 

 ranging downward from 2,321,000 in California to 135,000 in Virginia. 



