124 FOREST LANDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



Not only is soil removed in great quantities from mountain surfaces, 

 but the floods which gather on denuded mountain slopes inevitably 

 result in the destruction of the alluvial soils along the river courses. 



OTHER BENEFITS FROM FOREST PRESERVATION. 



The protection to navigable streams is the chief purpose of the pro- 

 posed legislation. Incidentally, there will be great benefits to the 

 whole country in other directions. Water power, Like navigation, 

 depends on the regular flow of the streams. The amount of water 

 power capable of development in the United States is sufficient to 

 operate every mill, drive every spindle, propel every train and boat, 

 and light every city, town, and village in the country. The continued 

 successful development of many of our industries in the future 

 depends in large part upon the present protection of our inland water- 

 ways. We are using three times as much timber every year as the 

 forest produces, not because we have an insufficient area of forest 

 land, but because our forests are not protected from fire nor properly 

 used. The eastern forests are notable for their hard- wood production, 

 half of the country's supply being obtained from this source. The 

 proposed bill w'ill give protection to the chief hard-wood forests of the 

 country. 



EXPERIENCE OF OTHER COUNTRIES PROVES THAT THE PROTECTION 

 OF THE FORESTS AT THE HEADWATERS OF IMPORTANT STREAMS IS 

 IMPERATIVE. 



The relation of the mountain forests to the navigability of inland 

 water is the same the world over. Every country that has maintained 

 an even and sufficient now of streams for the purposes of commerce 

 has had to maintain and in some cases establish upon the headwaters 

 of the streams forests to hold the soil in place and to prevent over- 

 whelming floods. 



Germany stands in the forefront of nations in inland waterway 

 development, and she has all of her high mountains protected by 

 forests. These forests have been under government management for 

 a hundred years and they are the most productive and profitable 

 in the world, yielding an average net return of $2.40 per acre. 



The stripping of the forests from the mountains of France was 

 unchecked until 1860, by which time 800,000 acres of farm land had 

 been ruined or seriously damaged and the waterways practically 

 destroyed. The population of 18 departments had been reduced to 

 poverty and forced to emigrate. A futile attempt was then made to 

 check the torrents by sodding. It was only by the acquisition by the 

 Government of the* bare lands, the building of stone walls for the 

 gathering of silt and the planting of trees on the soil held in check by 

 those walls that satisfactory results were accomplished. The cost 

 of this method has often been as much as $50 per acre. By 1900 

 $15,000,000 had been spent and the French Government has continued 

 the work by acquiring each year 25,000 to 30,000 acres of land. The 

 present programme calls for the expenditure of $50,000,000 on this 

 work. About one-fourth of the mountain streams have been brought 

 under control and the balance are beginning to shotv indications of 

 improvement. 



