FOREST LANDS FOE THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 75 



The records of some American rivers have been given. It is, of course, in 

 Europe that one would expect to find more definite data, because of the longer 

 periods through which records have been kept. The histories of several of these 

 streams have been examined without finding any confirmation whatever of the 

 forestry theory. The floods on the river Seine, for example, show greater 

 heights in the sixteenth century than in the nineteenth. The most exhaustive 

 investigation of the records of European rivers, however, is that of the Danube, 

 the great river of central Europe, recently made by Ernst Lauda, chief of the 

 hydrographic bureau of the Austrian Government. The years 1897 and 1899 

 brought destructive floods to the valley of the Danube, that of 1899 being 

 particularly severe. M. Lauda prepared an exhaustive report upon this flood, 

 published in 1900, accompanied by elaborate maps and tables and a searching 

 analysis of the climatic and other conditions. In his "concluding remarks," 

 M. Lauda traces the history of the Danube floods for eight hundred years, 

 including in all 125 floods. His conclusions are that floods were formerly just 

 as frequent and as high as they are in recent times, and that the progressive 

 deforestation of the country has had no effect in increasing them. In fact, the 

 records of the flood of 1899, which was a summer flood, produced almost 

 entirely by rain, showed that it was severest on those very parts of the water- 

 shed that were most heavily forested. 



At the Tenth International Congress of Navigation, held at Milan in 1905, 

 one of the four questions appointed for discussion was the very one here under 

 consideration. Papers were presented by representatives from France, Ger- 

 many, Italy, Austria, and Russia. While all the writers heartily favored forest 

 culture, the opinion was practically unanimous that forests exert no appreciable 

 influence upon the extremes of flow in rivers. It appears, therefore, that 

 European experience does not support the currently accepted theory. 



So much for the evidence supplied by the records in this country and abroad. 

 The constantly reiterated statement that floods are increasing in fre- 

 quency and intensity, as compared with former times, has nothing to support 

 it. There are, it is true, periods when floods are more frequent than at others, 

 and hasty conclusions are always drawn at such times; but, taking the records 

 year after year for considerable periods, no change worth considering is dis- 

 coverable. The explanation of these periods of high water, like the one now 

 prevailing, must, of course, be sought in precipitation. That is where floods 

 come from, and it is very strange that those who are looking so eagerly for a 

 cause of these floods .lump at an indirect cause and leave the direct one entirely 

 untouched. In the records of precipitation, wherever they exist, will be found 

 a full and complete explanation of every one of the floods that have seemed 

 unusually frequent and severe in recent years. A few examples will be cited : 



The great Kaw River flood of 1903, which wrought such havoc in Kansas 

 City, was caused by a wholly exceptional rainfall over nearly all the water- 

 shed of that stream. In the first three weeks of May, 1903, more than the 

 normal amount (4.5 inches) for the entire month fell. This was followed in 

 the next five days by 3.4 inches, and upon this was piled 4.7 inches in the suc- 

 ceeding five days, by which time the flood had crested. 



In the flood of 1906 in western Washington, which did enormous damage and 

 stopped railway traffic'for upward of two weeks, the crest of the flood occurred 

 about the 15th of the month. The month of October had been very wet, and the 

 ground and forest storage was exhausted. In the first half of November, 25 

 per cent more rain fell than in the normal for the entire month, and of this 

 about one-half came on the 13th, 14th, and 15th. 



In the flood season of 1905, on the watershed of the upper Mississippi, there 

 fell in the month .of April above Pokegama Falls 2.55 inches; in M-uy, 4.95 

 inches ; in June, 8.03 inches, and in July, 6.88 inches ; a total of 22.41 inches. 

 The normal for the entire year is 26.5 inches. 



proof of their rapid production of fuel which means twigs and leaves in great 

 abundance. (Col. Thomas P. Roberts, Pittsburg, Pa.) 



The forest area in Vermont is probably 10 per cent greater than forty years 

 ago. Of course the quality of the forest is inferior, but that has no effect on 

 the watershed. (Arthur M. Vaughan, state forester.) 



Farms in the Connecticut Valley are among the richest in the State (New 

 Hampshire) and have been less abandoned than elsewhere. There has been, 

 however, a goodly acreage, very probably amounting to 25 per cent, which was 

 cleared land in 1850, and which at the present time has reverted to forest, 

 much of it excellent white-pine forest. (Philip W. Ayres, forester.) 



