CH. VI 



INFLUENCE OF FORESTS 99 



ventive measures ere it be too late. Mr. Roosevelt 

 himself, in a speech delivered at Memphis in 1907, said : 

 " The National Forest policy, inaugurated primarily to 

 avert or mitigate the timber famine which is now being 

 felt, has been effective also in securing partial control 

 of floods by retarding the run-off and checking the 

 erosion of the higher slopes within the national forests. 

 Still the loss of the soil-wash is enormous. It is com- 

 puted that one-fifth of a cubic mile in volume, or one 

 billion tons in weight, of the richest soil matter of the 

 United States is annually gathered in storm rivulets, 

 washed into the rivers, and borne into the sea. The 

 loss to the former is, in effect, a tax greater than all 

 other land taxes combined, and one yielding absolutely 

 no return." 



In India, as far back as 1846, Dr. Gibson, at that 

 time acting as Conservator of Forests in Bombay, drew 

 the attention of the Government to the damage done by 

 reckless fellings, and the subject is obtaining much 

 attention up to the present day, as is attested not only 

 by a special pamphlet on forests and water-supply by 

 Sir S. Eardley-Wilmot, late Inspector General of Forests 

 to the Government of India, but also by frequently re- 

 curring articles in the Indian Forester and in the 

 Pioneer. The effect of the denudation of the hills of 

 Hoshiarpur on the country below has already been 

 described, as also the beneficial result of protecting the 

 slopes of the Siwaliks, in saving a large expenditure on 

 protective works on the upper reaches of the Ganges 

 Canal. Complaints of diminution of supply of water on 

 the Cauvery river connected with the denudation of 

 upper slopes have been frequent, and similar cases of 

 landslips in the upper basins of Burman rivers, due to 

 the same cause, are also quoted. The disastrous flood in 

 Hyderabad, which cost so many lives, is ascribed to the 

 bad forest policy of that state ; while the Naini Tal land- 

 slip of 1880, which also resulted in serious loss of life, was 

 due to the denudation of friable shaly slopes, and their 

 exposure to torrential rains during the S.W. monsoon. 



