Debris from Wreck of Sawmill and Log Boom on Linville River, by Floods, in Western North Carolina, 

 in Region cf Proposed National Forest Reserve 



also gone. A few weeks of sunshine 

 follow the flood and the papers report, 

 "Unprecedented conditions of drought. 

 Crops and stock perishing. Forest fires 

 burning up a million a day. Mills and 

 factories idle for want of water. Steam- 

 boats and barges stranded on the 

 shoals. The small streams dry." And, 

 "Boys playing ball in the middle of the 

 Ohio River." 1 



These conditions, the evident results 

 from the rapid destruction of our for- 

 ests, were foreseen and foretold by 

 thoughtful people long ago. Such wise 

 and patriotic citizens as Dr. John A. 

 Warder, Robert Douglas, Wm. Cullen 

 Bryant, and his brother, Arthur Bryant ; 

 Rev. Frederick Starr, and many others 

 warned the country of impending dan- 

 ger, and efforts, were made, immedi- 

 ately after the close of the war in 1865, 

 to awaken an interest in favor of in- 

 telligent reform in forest management 

 and to secure legislation, state and na- 



tional, for encouragement of forest pro- 

 tection and extension. 



But warnings were unheeded ; stock- 

 men and lumbermen preferred the free 

 range of the plains and forests to any 

 Government restrictions or supervision. 

 They saw money in the grass and trees, 

 and their object was to get it out as 

 quickly and cheaply as possible ; and 

 so, between the general apathy of the 

 community and the opposition of those 

 immediately interested, little has been 

 done to stay the rapid course of waste 

 and coming want. The great white- 

 pine and hardwood forests of the North 

 have little left but culls and inferior 

 grades. 



At the present progress of cutting 

 and burning, the timber supply of the 

 Southern Appalachian Mountains, now 

 almost our sole dependence for hard- 

 wood lumber, will be practically ex- 

 hausted in from twelve to fifteen years, 

 and the streamflow of the Mississippi, 



"Head-lines from a single copy of a New York tri-weekly paper of September, 1908. 



663 



