THE FORESTS OF OUR COUNTRY 209 



which destroyed so much good farm land every year that 

 a good authority says the damage amounted to more than 

 the total income of the state from all its industries. 



As to the influence on the moisture of the air, it is 

 well known to every farmer that a rail fence, if allowed 

 to be crowded by woods, is thereby prevented from drying, 

 and rots twice as quickly as it otherwise would. Again, 

 it is well known in all newly settled districts that a road 

 can never be kept in good condition unless the '' right of 

 way " is cleared of timber to let in wind and sun. 



Similarly, in our Lake Region hundreds of miles of 

 '' corduroy " road are dirt roads to-day and thousands of 

 small swamps have dried up, not through any drainage, 

 but merely because the woods were cut away. That 

 these small changes are accompanied by great changes 

 in the "'run-oft'" of our larger streams is well illustrated 

 by the fact that navigation has become difficult in a 

 number of our important rivers, and altogether impossible 

 in others, which within our own times were navigable. 



THE FORESTS OF OUR COUNTRY 



If we examine the accompanying map of our country, 

 where tlie areas originally wooded are colored and the 

 open prairies uncolored, we see that the Mississippi divides 

 the country approximately into an eastern timbered and 

 a western prairie portion. We see, too. that the line does 



