360 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



gullies, carrying away the fertile humus and soil 

 as well as sand and rocks, filling up and over- 

 flowing their lower channels, and covering the 

 lowland fields with raw detritus. Drought and 

 barrenness would follow. 



In their natural condition, or under wise man- 

 agement, keeping out destructive sheep, prevent- 

 ing fires, selecting the trees that should be cut for 

 lumber, and preserving the young ones and the 

 shrubs and sod of herbaceous vegetation, these for- 

 ests would be a never failing fountain of wealth 

 and beauty. The cool shades of the forest give 

 rise to moist beds and currents of air, and the sod 

 of grasses and the various flowering plants and 

 shrubs thus fostered, together with the network 

 and sponge of tree roots, absorb and hold back 

 the rain and the waters from melting snow, 

 compelling them to ooze and percolate and flow 

 gently through the soil in streams that never 

 dry. All the pine needles and rootlets and 

 blades of grass, and the fallen, decaying trunks 

 of trees, are dams, storing the bounty of the 

 clouds and dispensing it in perennial life-giving 

 streams, instead of allowing it to gather suddenly 

 and rush headlong in short-lived devastating 

 floods. Everybody on the dry side of the con- 

 tinent is beginning to find this out, and, in view 

 of the waste going on, is growing more and 

 more anxious for government protection. The 

 outcries we hear against forest reservations come 



