792 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



branch every year. As the forest in- 

 dustries decrease in extent every year, 

 the market for horses decreases and 

 new markets have to be sought out. 

 With the rapid increase in the cities 

 and elsewhere of the use of automobiles 

 where formerly horses were used, the 

 markets for horses are becoming re- 

 stricted. The farmer, therefore, should 

 do all in his power to perpetuate that 

 lumbering industry, in the logging end 

 of which, at least, horses cannot be 

 displaced by autos. Horses require 

 feed oats, corn, bran, hay. Immense 

 quantities of these farm products are 

 purchased every year to feed the log- 

 ging teams of Minnesota. Further- 

 more, the camps in the woods, of which 

 there are 1,500 in Minnesota this year, 

 require immense quantities of beans, 

 beef, pork, potatoes, cabbage, onions, 

 and almost every variety of farm prod- 

 ucts, to feed the great army of woods- 

 workmen. Therefore, a decrease in the 

 logging industry directly affects the 

 farmers of Minnesota to a really large 

 extent. The latter, therefore, should 

 wish to see this industry prolonged, 

 and perpetuated, wherever forest can 

 grow most profitably, and they should 

 co-operate in this work of fire preven- 

 tion. 



HOW RECEDING FORESTS HAVE AFFECTED 

 MOISTURE IN THE GROUND. 



Formerly timber on the hillsides and 

 bottom lands protected the heavy snow 

 from too rapid melting, permitting the 

 water therefrom to soak into the soil, 

 and so gradually to reach the river. 

 Raging spring floods were then not so 

 common; power projects could depend 

 upon an equable amount of water all 

 summer, until the fall rains renewed 

 the ground supply, and reservoirs were 

 not filled up with mud. Now, however, 

 the snow in the spring, unprotected by 

 forests on these particular watersheds, 

 goes so rapidly that only a very small 

 part of it, with the rains, has time to 

 soak into the ground. Most of the 

 melting snow and the rain water there- 

 fore runs off swiftly over the surface, 

 all of it being poured into a stream 

 practically at once. This causes a tor- 

 rent. Immediately when the snow is 

 gone, the flood subsides through lack 



of supply and the stream shrinks to 

 normal stage. The latter is maintained 

 for a time by seepage from what little 

 moisture the ground has retained. This 

 exhausted, the stream becomes a creek, 

 and log drives are "hung up," causing 

 the shutting down of sawmills and lack 

 of employment for many men. Flour 

 mills, run by water power, must keep 

 their head-gates closed days at a time, 

 in order that they may get "head" 

 enough to run for one day. Normal 

 rainfall does not reach the streams, 

 being absorbed and retained by the dry 

 earth. With heavy rains or cloudbursts, 

 the surface runoff not being retarded 

 by forest cover, great floods again 

 occur, with like ensuing conditions, 

 often leaving a trail of death and de- 

 vastation behind them. The flood of 

 Johnstown, Pa., and more recently that 

 of Austin, Pa., and Black River Falls, 

 Wis., are cases in point These and 

 similar calamities have repeatedly oc- 

 curred in the United States and in this 

 State, where no active consideration 

 has been given to retaining forests to 

 regulate water run-off. 



WHY EVERYONE STTOUT.D CO-OPERATE IN 

 PRESERVING THE FORESTS. 



The forests of Minnesota are of di- 

 rect value to every citizen ; their loss 

 would be in equal proportion a direct 

 loss to every citizen. Consistenly, 

 therefore, there is no person in Minne- 

 sota who should not be eager to co- 

 operate with the service in its initial 

 undertaking toward perpetuating those 

 forests, namely, in protecting them 

 from ruin by fire. Nor should the peo- 

 ple stop there. They should further 

 co-operate with the service in retaining, 

 upbuilding and scientifically developing 

 the forests so that they may be a 

 permanent source of income to the peo- 

 ple. They should co-operate thus be- 

 cause of the great and undeniable 

 economic value of the forests to the 

 people as a whole. True, this may be 

 said of almost any great industry, such 

 as farming. But farming is on the in- 

 crease. Scientific methods of farming 

 have been and are being rapidly evolved 

 and generally adopted. So widespread 

 is the interest in this upward move- 

 ment, so much private and public money 



