FORESTS 73 



navigation, power, irrigation and common water 

 supplies and whole regions have been exposed to 

 floods and disastrous soil erosion. Probably 

 there has never occurred a more reckless de- 

 struction of property that of right should belong 

 to all the people. These devastations are checked 

 on the government lands, but similar devastation 

 in other parts of the country is equally in need of 

 attention. The Commission has heard strong 

 demands from farmers for the establishment of 

 forest reservations in the White Mountains and 

 the southern Appalachian region, to save the 

 timber and to control the sources of streams, and 

 no statements in opposition to the proposal. 

 Measures should be enacted creating such 

 reservations. The forests as well as the 

 streams should be saved from monopolistic 

 control. 



The conservation of forests and brush on 

 watershed areas is important to the farmer along 

 the full length of streams regardless of the dis- 

 tance between the farm and these areas. The 

 loss of soil in denuded areas increases the menace 

 of flood, not alone because of the more rapid 

 run-off, but by the filling of channels and the 



