274 FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION May 



these same forces his obedient and ters had been largely augmented by 



vastly serviceable slaves. rains and by the rapidly melting snow 



From the standpoint of those who from the mountain sides, and the struc- 



know, floods are superfluous. There ture of the dam was not stron g 



is no more need of the periodical in- enough to stand the added strain. The 



undation of great areas of fertile land, mountain slopes surrounding the 



the sweeping away of mills, factories. ^ au fer Lake dam site have been prac- 



railway tracks and' residences, and the t ! call >'. den uded of forest growth, and 



destruction of lives by river overflows there 1S nothing to prevent the melting 

 than there was need for water pour- the exces rainfall from 



ing, at every rain, through the roof of P ourm g directly and rapidly into the 



the patient native interrogated by the nver and 5 tributary streams. 

 "Arkansas Traveler." The up-to- At Great Falls the Boston and Mon- 



date man mends his roof before the tana smelter, one of the largest in the 



rain comes. When, as a nation, we world, was seriously damaged, while 



get up to date, we will mend our river the flood loss along the entire upper 



systems before the floods come. reaches of the Missouri, from the 



No informed man claims that for- Breaking of the dam, runs far into the 

 ests alone will completely prevent all 

 floods. The forest, however, is a 



potent factor in flood prevention. p eat B r j. Word comes from the 

 Reservoir systems, well understood by quettes for City of Mexico to the 

 engineers, are other factors. Here, as Mexico's <j(tect that an American 

 in the case of the roof and the pesti- company has undertaken 

 lence above referred to, the remedy is the manufacture of briquettes from 

 incomparably less expensive than the peat. The increasing difficulty of sup- 

 disease. Which shall we have? plying the capital city of the Repub- 

 lic with wood from neighboring for- 



Disastrous Two thousand persons e . sts f vh ence its fuel has come since 

 Flood in were drowned at Han- Cortez, has led to this 



China kow, China, on the night project of utilizing deposits of peat 



of April i2th. by a sudden freshet whlch have long been known to exist 

 which swept down on the city and 



flowed over the dikes which protect Eighty years ago Humboldt des- 



it. The inhabitants asleep in their cribed magnificent forests within reach 



homes had but little chance of escape. of the City of Mexico. To-day the 



Hankow is a city of 800,000 inhabi- region supports only a second growth 



tants, situated at the junction of the f little value. The change has been 



Han with the Yang-tse-Kiang, about brought about by wood cutters and 



450 miles west of Shanghai. " charcoal burners who have stripped 



The towns of Craig, Cascade, and the land and left Jt to reforest itself 



Great Falls, Montana, were menaced JJ rt could > or to relapse into waste, 



by a flood that swept down the Mis- rhlls neglected, the land could not 



souri River on April 15, and great ? ro ) v timber to meet the demands up- 



dainage, as well as considerable loss on ' lt > and the woodcutters have little 



of life, occurred along the course of or nothing near to cut. 

 the upper Missouri. The flood was Fortunately large bogs of peat are 



caused bk the breaking of the Great within reach. It has never been much 



Hauser Lake dam, and this, occurring used for fuel because the Mexicans 



in the night, gave little opportunity for never took pains to learn how to burn 



those exposed to the flood's fury to it. The company which has under- 



remove their household goods, their taken to manufacture the bog fuel into 



live stock, or, indeed, to save more briquettes has made large investments 



than their lives. The impounded wa- in land and machinery. 



