FOREST LANDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 29 



The CHAIRMAN. That is, the unprotected slopes of mountains allow 

 the snow to be piled in the canyons? 



Doctor VAN HISE. And the trees produce the same effect exactly 

 as the canyons. 



Mr. WEEKS. As a matter of fact the White Mountain region is not 

 entirely wooded ; there are open spaces and then wooded spaces. 



Doctor VAN HISE. Rocky spaces. 



Mr. WEEKS. If you are familiar with that section you know that 

 very often the snow is entirely melted away in the open spaces when it 

 may be a foot or two deep in the wooded spaces. Therefore if the 

 timber or wood had been cut off in those wooded places it would have 

 all gone off at the same time and produced much more water at one 

 time than is produced under present conditions ? 



Doctor VAN HISE. Exactly. May I make one statement? I have 

 tried to answer these questions specifically and concretely without 

 giving their qualifications and modifications. So, in fairness to my- 

 self, I think I ought to be permitted to make one qualifying statement. 

 I was asked the question if I were allowed to select an area, and if I 

 could only have one, which would I select? I said under those cir- 

 cumstances the lower part of the steeper slopes would probably be 

 the most important. However, I would not desire the committee to 

 conclude therefore that I do not believe it is necessary to conserve 

 these steep upslopes to the flat tops, because they are the' great sponge 

 which holds this water and allows it to come down through springs 

 and equalize the flow. That is to say, if you should remove this top 

 area, supposing this is one of the regions, there would be destructive 

 wash and floods here which would carry the material down. It seems 

 to me that the only safe procedure, the only possible procedure in the 

 Southern Appalachians, with reference to the good of the Nation, is 

 for the Nation and the States and individuals by some system of co- 

 operation to conserve practically all the slopes which are steeper than 

 those which should be used for agricultural purposes. 



Mr. WEEKS. In the final analysis, in this last statement you have 

 made, you would be governed by the specific conditions surrounding 

 ach case? 



Doctor VAN HISE. I would be so governed precisely, if you ask me 

 what I should do provided I had the money and could go down there 

 and do it. In making a careful survey of all the States my idea 

 would be to pick out the steep slopes in which there had been some 

 .iorest removed, perhaps. I would get the headwaters of the streams, 

 <md take here a bunch and there a bunch of, say, 25,000 or 50,000 acres, 

 where the injury is the greatest and the destruction is the greatest, 

 and use those as areas, not only to stop the wash and to stop the flow, 

 but to serve as educational areas for individuals and States both. 



Mr. POLLARD. This proposition, then, resolves itself ultimately in 

 the purchase by the Government, or the bringing under the control of 

 the Government practically all of that area that is, the upper re- 

 gions, as well as the lower regions if the success of the project is 

 complete; is that not true? 



Doctor VAN HISE. Yes. " Complete " is a perfect word, you know. 

 That is true, before all this destruction is stopped ; yes. 



Mr. POLLARD. Then, of course, the report sent to the committee 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture, in which he says that 5,000,000 acres 

 would suffice, is merely a beginning, and before we got through we 



