FOREST LANDS FOB THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 25 



Doctor VAN HISE. Of course many years for trees, and they have 

 very much less favorable conditions than the first time because of the 

 fact that they would have bare rock and a very scanty soil instead of 

 abundant soil. 



The CHAIRMAN. How long does it take to bring back the cover that 

 will prevent erosion and retard a run-off. 



Doctor VAN HISE. Usually, if there are no fires and if the streams 

 are not too powerful, it will have begun to get a tangle of under- 

 brush within five years. 



The CHAIRMAN. I would like to say right there that I have seen a 

 great many slopes where the erosion has been very bad that were com- 

 pletely reforested, so far as the creation of a cover to prevent further 

 erosion was concerned, in much less than five .years. Then there is 

 an inevitable cycle, is there not, beginning with the forest and end- 

 ing with the forest, with a little period of farming in between ? 



Doctor VAN HISE. There is where I should not accept the state- 

 ment. There Is- an inevitable cycle if we take lands for agricultural 

 purposes that never should have been taken for such purposes. 



The CHAIRMAN. But we are assuming conditions to be as they are. 



Doctor VAN HISE. But if lands are not taken for agricultural pur- 

 purposes which should not have been, there is not an inevitable cycle ; 

 there can be continual preservation of the disintegrated surface and 

 continual forest cover. 



The CHAIRMAN. Of course the point I have in mind is simply this: 

 It has been brought out that the trouble we are now suffering, has 

 come from the clearing of the land for farming purposes and not 

 from the lumbering operations. 



Doctor VAN HISE. Partly from each, but more largely from farm- 

 ing. 



The CHAIRMAN. More largely from farming. 

 Doctor VAN HISE. That is entirely true. 



The CHAIRMAN. More largely from farming than from lumbering. 

 That being true, it has occurred to some of us that the situation was 

 one which carried its own remedy; that even if the lower slopes were 

 cleared off, as they have been, when they become useless for farming 

 purposes there is nothing the owner can do but abandon them, and 

 when they are abandoned they are again covered, and we can not see 

 what else the Government could do if it owned the land than to let 

 nature take its course, just as it does now; for to go and artificially 

 replant such areas would, of course, be prohibitive as to cost. 



Doctor VAN HISE. If I might interrupt you right there 



The CHAIRMAN. It is no interruption. 



Doctor VAN HISE. So far as these lands have been deforested, and 

 so far as they have been applied to agricultural purposes when they 

 should not have been, there is nothing to do but to get them back to 

 forests as rapidly as we can by the best means we can, but there are 

 very extensive areas in the southern mountains in which that process 

 is now going on, and which will continue, and it will continue to go 

 on and continue to dump this great quantity of material in the 

 streams and in the harbors if you do not stop the deforestation, which 

 should not be permitted. We can stop that present damage if we 

 will. Great damage, has been done. These areas have been defor- 

 ested. There has been serious wash. These areas which never 



