160 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



According to Mr. Zbrojek, an expe- The following conclusions are reached 



clition organized in 1894 by the minister in Mr. Lokhtine's report : "Forests are 



of agriculture of Russia, and led by a beneficial factor, acting favorably 



Lieutenant-general Tillo, found that the upon an abundance of water in a conn 



upper course of the. Dnieper, in a heav- try, in general, and in particular upon 



ily wooded region, holds thirty-four per maintaining an even stream-flow. It is 



cent of water per square verst ; the for this reason that the destruction of 



Molenka and Nemochtchnaia.the basins forests should be considered danger- 



of which are less heavily wooded, retain ous." 



twenty-eight to thirty-one per cent. These conclusions should be coin- 

 while the Liodivitch River, the basin of pared, moreover, with those at the close 

 which is entirely denuded, holds only of Mr. Lauda's report, reproduced else- 

 thirteen per cent. In the basin of the where by Mr. Rabot in the article cited 

 Oka, the same commission found that above. 



the percentage of water held rises to "The utility of the forest in gen- 

 thirty-nine per cent in the drainage eral, as well as its great value in pro- 

 basin of the Libotije River, which is tecting the soil against landslides, ap- 

 pretty well covered with forests, while pear the more vindicated, because, at 

 it is only twenty-nine per cent in that of the same time, it retains loosened soil, 

 the Traun, which is deforested. and its advantages from the point of 



In Russia, as in France, there are view of the diminution of waste matter 



numerous historic evidences of the carried by the streams, especially on the 



diminution of stream-flow 7 . Streams watersheds of the sources, are so im- 



have dried up in places where the re- portant that this reason alone should 



mains of boats and other instruments be a sufficient motive for undertaking 



of navigation are found and where the reforestation as actively as possible." 

 existence of navigation in former times 



is confirmed by old documents. II 



The lowering of the average stream 



level of the Scura at Pranzine from We have tried to give in the first 

 1888 to 1900 followed upon extensive part of this study as complete and faith- 

 clearings on its watershed. A lowering ful an analysis as possible of the prin- 

 has likewise been observed in the av- cipal reports presented at the congress 

 erage stream level of the Rielaja at at Milan. We now wish to try to show 

 Oufa from 1887 to 1900, following that beside the facts and observations 

 upon clearings made on its upper water- brought to the congress by Messrs, 

 shed; on the contrary, the level re- Ponti and Lokhtine, to cite only those 

 mained the same at Grouzdevka on the two, there are others on which we are 

 lower watershed of the Bielaja, where able to support a scientific conviction 

 the forests were preserved. The av- that the forest has a favorable action 

 erage stream level in summer of the upon floods, and the maintenance of 

 Volga was lowered at Rybinsk, at Kos- springs and stream-flow, 

 troma, and at Nijni-Novgorod, follow- 

 ing the deforestation of that part of the THE FOREST AND FLOODS 

 watershed. The diagrams that accom- 

 pany Mr. Lokhtine's report show this The principal factors that work to- 

 phenomena in a striking way. gether to produce floods are exception- 



These are the most salient facts and ally heavy rainfall, the geological form- 

 the most interesting observations ation of the soil, and the topography of 

 pointed out by Mr. Lokhtine. It is very the land through which the streams 

 much to be regretted that Mr. Rabot flow. A very heavy rain falling for 

 lias passed them over in silence and has several days on very steep slopes corn- 

 not reviewed them with his well-known posed of impermeable soil, such as those 

 would have been very profit- of the southern slopes of the Cevennes, 



ends to a certainty in dangerous floods, 



