56 (I VIC BIOLOGY 



of soil, floods rising higher each year these are the main 

 elements in the problem. Records of flood plane of the Missis- 

 sippi at New Orleans are as follows : 



DATK FKET 



1882 . . . . 15.8 



1892 17. 



1903 20.3 



1912 22.0 



FIG. 27. Flood showing result of deforestation 



If the flood of 1912 had not broken the levees and poured 

 over 17,605 square miles above the city, the flood might have 

 risen to thirty feet at New Orleans. 



Vital civic cooperation must be developed in growing more 

 wood, in holding the water and soil where they belong and 

 can do the most good on every farm, and in prevention of 

 forest fires. 



These are not matters of private individual right and con- 

 trol: they are civic and touch the life of the whole people. 



