become weak, wells become less certain the level of ground 

 water sinks all because the feeder of the springs, the forest, 

 has been removed, and only bare steep slopes remain which 

 absorb little water, but shed it rapidly into the streams. These 

 are flooded with devastating effects, and then in a short time go 

 dry, because the springs that fed them are dry. 



5. After every heavy rain myriads of gullies pour their tor- 

 rents of mud and sand into the smaller streams, these pour 

 their loads into the larger streams, and so thousands of tons of 

 the wreckage of our fields eventually find their way into our great 

 waterways the navigable streams of the State and they become 

 navigable no longer choked out of existence by the wasted 

 wealth of our lands. 



When we consider that before many decades our great water- 

 ways will be the pride of the State, and avenues by which our 

 products may reach the seaboard and thence be transported to 

 every quarter of the globe, how can we with patience see these 

 God-given thoroughfares blotted out of existence when, with 

 proper and timely attention, both they and the wealth of our lands 

 may be conserved to us and our posterity. 



6. Last, but perhaps not least, of the evils following the 

 waste of our lands is the aspect of utter barrenness and desola- 

 tion that is so prominent a feature of the "bad lands" an un- 

 sightliness repelling every intending settler in the region and 

 filling with discouragement and discontent any already domiciled 

 there, so that even they gather up their household goods and move 

 to less forbidding parts. This is no picture of fancy. Consider- 

 able areas in north Mississippi have had that history. Sections 

 once thickly populated we find now largely deserted, especially 

 by white farmers, and the lands are rapidly going the way 

 pointed out in the above paragraphs. 



Remedies Is there any remedy for this evil? Up till the 

 present time a large proportion of our people have seemed to 

 rgard this as unavoidable and consequent upon the wearing out 



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