72 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May 1913. 



Formerly there was enough of forestry 

 to make a sort of natural reservoir that 

 should hold back the waters. We shall 

 have to reforest the country to a reason- 

 able extent . . . 



Hence the first preventive of flood is 

 Forcstation. 



'The wind no man can tame. Like 

 the earthquake, it is a hazard which 

 civilization must accept. But floods 

 are, in part, man-made. Once the 

 Miami Valley, the pathway of the lat- 

 est horror of the angry waters, was 

 tree-clad and root-bound against ex- 

 cess of moisture. Then man came, saw 

 gold in the standing timber, and fell- 

 ed it covetously and ignorantly.' So 

 asserts the Sault Ste. Marie ' Evening 

 News,' and asks: 'The greed that 

 felled those noble trees, the careless- 

 ness and ignorance that stripped 

 those narrow watercourses to the fatal 

 onrush of the raging torrent — shall 

 they not come under a resolution of 

 abatement?' 



We see examples of forest-destruc- 

 tion in many parts of the world, not- 

 ably in China, where, according to the 

 Sioux Falls 'Press,' to mention only 

 the most notable floods, in 1833 no 

 less than ten thousand persons were 

 drowned by the floods ; in 1888, three 

 thousand; in 1904, over a thousand; 

 while last year the floods made China 

 the scene of a particularly dreadful 

 disaster. 



If floods are frequently reported 

 from the Chinese Empire, they are 

 seldom reported from Europe, but 

 even there, in Paris itself, the people 

 'who have a most compelling reason 

 to strive to keep their Seine within 

 bounds, have not been able to previse 

 against all contingencies, as witness 

 the overflow of that stream three 

 years ago,' the Galveston 'News' 

 points out. But, as the Knoxville 

 'Sentinel' comments: 'After the last 

 Seine flood the French Government 

 took steps to afforest slopes which 

 have been injudiciously denuded. It 

 may be necessary for Ohio and In- 

 diana to do likewise.' Their own re- 

 cent disaster has caused French for- 



esters to take special interest in ours. 

 M. Daubray, Inspector of Forests, to- 

 gether with all the technical authorit- 

 ies in the French Ministry of Agricul- 

 ture, agree, so we learn from the New 

 York 'Tribune,' 'that the destruction 

 of forests near the sources of rivers 

 and high plateaus and hills is the 

 primary cause of the Ohio disaster;' 

 moreover, this opinion is shared by 

 our Ambassador in France, the Hon. 

 Myron T. Herrick, formerly Governor 

 of Ohio, who states that 'for many 

 years Governors of States where 

 floods are now raging have repeatedly 

 impressed upon Legislatures and the 

 public the urgent necessity of enact- 

 ing stringent laws based on the scien- 

 tific experience of France and Ger- 

 many for protecting forests from de- 

 vastation and wholesale destruction.' 

 The present catastrophe is attributed 

 by Ambassador Herrick to this waste 

 of forests, 'which, by timely legisla- 

 tion, could have been avoided. ' He 

 urges that no time should be lost *in 

 taking energetic measures to replant 

 tracts of land so improvidently de- 

 nuded of trees.' Finally, the Am- 

 bassador regrets that 'the wise provi- 

 sion of law embodied in all leases of 

 land in the rural districts of France, 

 requiring the lessee to plant a tree 

 whenever a tree dies or is removed, 

 does not apply in Ohio and Indiana.' 

 Such provision, it is added, ' is merely 

 one of many precautions to protect 

 French trees, and if enforced during 

 the last thirty years in Ohio and In- 

 diana would have prevented the pre- 

 sent disaster.' 



Turning from France to England, 

 we find similar expressions of opinion 

 in the editorials of London newspap- 

 ers, summed up in the * Daily Mail's' 

 charge that 'one cause of the floods is 

 undoubtedly to be found in the de- 

 struction of forests.' The 'Daily 

 Mail' emphasizes 'the extreme im- 

 portance of the campaign now being 

 carried on in the United States for the 

 protection of the remaining forests 

 and the reforestation of denuded 

 areas. ' 



