80 OUR VANISHING FORESTS 



penditure of enormous sums, but it is the only real 

 cure. 



Europe regards forest planting and forest protec- 

 tion from another angle too, that of encouraging 

 water-power and hydro-electric development. Her 

 governments have progressed much further than we 

 along the lines of successful cooperation with 

 private enterprises. France and Germany often en- 

 courage water-power development, and at the same 

 time control it by taking a sort of partnership in 

 the enterprise. It has frequently been established 

 that, where thorough forest protection and exten- 

 sion is practised, a maximum steady flow of the de- 

 sired water-power is obtained almost entirely with- 

 out the very large and expensive storage reservoirs 

 which are customary and necessary with us. The 

 trees themselves regulate the flow from the melting 

 mountain snows and conserve it to such an extent 

 that it continues throughout the year. 



Flood prevention, therefore, is only part of the 

 problem. The value of trees as water conservers 

 merges equally into a question which comes far 

 nearer to most of us town and city folk — our own 

 city water supplies. Only a few years ago New 

 York City completed its vast underground river to 

 a point sixty miles away in the Catskill Mountains, 

 yet, although still well supplied, she is mindful of 



