54 8 RELATION TO ENVIRONMENT. 



effect of floods from heavy rains there is evident to one who 

 drives for 50 to 100 miles through the mountains, where valley 

 roads become torrential streams, harvested crops of wheat and 

 oats and hay are swept into the rivers, while dwelling-houses 

 and even the surface soil are not exempt from the same fate. 

 On mountain slopes where the soil is thin, it is sometimes swept 

 clean to the bare rock after deforestation. The suddenness 

 with which the water now rushes down the mountain slopes 

 from numerous rivulets and branches, and unites in the rivers, 

 sometimes forms a huge wave of water 20 to 30 feet at its crest 

 which rolls on across the coastal plains to the ocean, often carry- 

 ing destruction to life and property along its course. To one 

 who has not been in the Blue Ridge Mountains a good picture 

 of the devastating work of floods following the partial deforesta- 

 tion of these mountains can be gained by consulting the Message 

 of President Roosevelt to Congress, recommending the estab- 

 lishment of a southern Appalachian Forest Preserve. The 

 aggregate damage from floods along the southern Appalachian 

 streams in the year 1901-02, reached the sum of $18,000,000. 



VI. Forest Regeneration and Protection. 



1034. Regeneration of forests. If the forest is to be per- 

 petuated there must be regeneration, or in time all the trees will 

 die and the forest thus become extinct. Natural regeneration 

 takes place in two ways: ist, through the seed; and 2d, by 

 the growth of sprouts from the stump when the tree is cut, or 

 from the roots. These sprouts are called coppice. Trees which 

 are shade-endurers are. apt to have the advantage in the natural 

 regeneration of the forest. The hemlock spruce, for example, 

 is a shade-endurer, and thus the seedlings and young trees in the 

 forest stand a good chance of coming to maturity^ The red- 

 wood (Sequoia sempervirens) is a light-demander and so natural 

 regeneration by seed is difficult except in open places. The 

 redwood, however, develops abundant coppice, and the great 

 amount of nutriment in the roots of the large trees supplies it 



