American Forest Congress 333 



of impressing upon the mind of every man present the 

 picture that is in my own mind as I stand here. 



I crossed the Mississippi river on my way to the 

 west a Httle over two years ago on a ferry boat on 

 which was loaded a train of overland passenger cars, 

 and as we crossed that great river opposite the city of 

 New Orleans, during one of the greatest floods in 

 years, the flood was almost up to the tops of the levees 

 on both sides of the river. It was a serious question 

 whether the city of New Orleans was not in danger ; 

 and as we landed on the west side of the river we 

 looked down over the bank and saw the plantations 

 way down below the level of the water, and exposed to 

 overflow and destruction any moment that artificial 

 barrier gave way. Before we had gone twentyfour 

 hours further west the levee did break and one of those 

 great crevasses was formed, and practically destroyed 

 the crop for that season over a large area; though 

 other localities and the city of New Orleans were saved 

 by the diminished pressure of the flood on the adjacent 

 levees. 



As I stood on the boat and looked out over that great 

 river, then at its highest flood stage, I realized the fact 

 that from over more than one-third of the entire area 

 of this nation, the water that falls upon it must escape 

 to the ocean through that one gateway; and that as 

 the years go by, year after year, we are destroying the 

 grass and plowing up the prairies and stripping the 

 trees and the brush and forests from the mountains so 

 that the engineers can see that every flood plane gets 

 a little bit higher than the last. 



I could not help thinking to myself whether it might 

 not be possible some day or other to awaken the people 

 of the Mississippi valley to a realization of the fact 

 that forestry is a problem extending from New Orleans 



