THE IRRIGA TION AGE. 17 



ward into the earth. And from thence they have percolated through 

 some underground channel or stratum until they have found a vent 

 through the artesian well that has brought them once again to the 

 surface. They may have fallen with last winter's rainfall: they may 

 be coming from some one of "Nature's storage reservoirs" under- 

 ground, which has been gradually filling for a thousand years; it may 

 be that each winter's rainfall is replenishing the underground supply 

 as fast as it is being drawn off, and it may be that it is not. 



But of one thing we may be sure: If we allow our mountain 

 slopes to be deforested and permit the destruction of the under- 

 growth and foliage which did check, in their downward flow, the 

 waters that are coming to us now, our underground reservoirs will 

 cease to be replenished and refilled. The \vaters which should find 

 their way down into the earth to come up again in our wells and out 

 through our tunnels will rush down the steep and bare mountain 

 slope in torrents to the sea. And not only our underground supplies 

 but our surface supplies as well will be gone, and aridity will over- 

 come our fertile fields just as it has where the forests have been 

 destroyed. 



This need not happen and will not happen if the people will wake 

 up to the possibility and the danger. All we need to do to prevent it 

 is to preserve these storage reservoirs of Nature and see to the main- 

 tenance of conditions that will perpetually replenish our underground 

 reservoirs. How are we to do this? By a campaign of education. 

 It is absolutely essential that the whole community all through 

 Southern California should be aroused to the vital and far-reaching 

 importance of this great subject. The people must be awakened 

 from their apathy. The dead wall of indifference on the part of the 

 people generally must be broken through. 



We must unite all who realize the magnitude and immediate 

 importance of the subject to preach a crusade to awaken a right 

 public sentiment about it, not only in Southern California, not only in 

 the West, but all through the East as well. It is a national, not a 

 local, problem, and as a national problem we must treat it. 



The preservation of our forests means not only the preservation 

 of water supplies for irrigation in the "West; it means the preser- 

 vation of water supplies throughout the whole country for power, 

 for navigation, and for all the manifold needs for which the waters of 

 the eastern streams and rivers are used. 



The American Forestry Association is a national organization. 

 It is already strong and influential. It has worked wonders already 

 in its labors for forest preservation. Let us make it still stronger 

 and more- influential by extending its membership and resources. By 

 doing so you are putting in the field an army of peaceful and ceaseless 

 workers to protect your homes from destruction by Drought an 

 enemy as much to be feared as any foreign invader. 



