of 



to the sea.; Evaporation winds probably 

 carry away the greater portion of the remainder. 

 Afforestation has created springs and streams, 

 not by increasing rainfall, although the forests 

 may do this, but by saving the water that falls, 

 by checking evaporation. On some exposed 

 watersheds the winds carry off as much as 

 ninety per cent of the annual precipitation. It 

 seems plain that wider, better forests would 

 mean deeper, steadier streams. Forests not only 

 check evaporation, but they store water and 

 guard it from the greed of gravity. The forest 

 gets the water into the ground where a brake is 

 put upon the pull of gravity. Forest floors are 

 covered with fluffy little rugs and pierced with 

 countless tree-roots. So all-absorbing is the 

 porous, rug-covered forest floor that most of 

 the water that falls in the forest goes into the 

 ground; a small percentage may run off on the 

 surface, but the greater part settles into the 

 earth and seeps slowly by subterranean drain- 

 age, till at last it bubbles out in a spring some 

 distance away and below the place where the 

 raindrops came to earth. The underground 



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