78 OUR VANISHING FORESTS 



ernment has recognized this in its reclamation proj- 

 ects, namely, the building of the great dams for 

 permanent water supply and irrigation in the west, 

 and in its acquisition of areas along the important 

 watersheds as National Forests. To deal with 

 specific sources of trouble and actually replant the 

 forests needed as a protection, is only a step further. 

 The difficulty is that under our system of democracy 

 federal or even state action is a slow process. We 

 have seen so many attempts to exploit the govern- 

 ment for the benefit of private individuals that our 

 law-makers have become somewhat suspicious of 

 every project now suggested; yet with growing 

 necessity, Increased public Interest, and education as 

 to the possible remedy at hand, these objections will 

 be banished. 



But let us see how other nations regard this prob- 

 lem. The French and Swiss governments lay Im- 

 plicit faith in forest planting for protective pur- 

 poses. Where the great and important links of 

 railway cross the Alps and Pyrenees a veritable 

 plague of landslides v.^as once suffered, but in recent 

 years the damage has been almost negligible. How 

 do these governments go about it? A great land- 

 slide scar with its potential danger from loosening 

 rocks and soil cannot be cured by merely sowing 

 handfuls of tree seed, for after the damage has 



