28 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
These being only the stages of 55 feet and over. August, 1875, the usually 
dry season, and February, 1884, being the highest water ever known at Cincin- 
nati. 
\Vhen it is considered that the width of the waterway or riverbed of the 
Ohio river has been increasing with every overflow of the water, by the caving 
in of farms all along its course, and that today the width between the banks 
1s one-fourth greater than it was in 1832 and 1847, and therefore capable of 
carrying a much greater volume of water than in the earlier times, it will be 
readily recognized that with the rapid denudation of the forest areas and 
erosion of the fertile soil capable of absorbing large quantities of water, the 
volume of water flowing away in one brief period is far greater than in times 
when the forest areas were so much larger. 
The writer, as a boy, well recalls the river roads where all the travel be- 
tween towns and farms along the Ohio passed. These roads were washed into 
the river and conveyed down the stream year after year with each recurrence 
of high water, the fences carried away, adjoining farms were swept into the 
whirling water, acres at a time were thus lost by the land owners along the 
banks. One house with which the writer was familiar was moved back from 
the river bank four successive times, each time being taken several hundred 
fcet to a supposedly safe location. It was finally removed half a mile back 
and the roadway changed to a similar distance. 
Meantime there was not, as is sometimes the case, any deposit upon the 
opposite side of the river, but the breadth of the waterway was increased each 
vear and is now 1,200 feet broader than it was seventy-one years ago, at time of 
the highest water of early days. 
But it is by no means the highest water only which is to be regretted on 
account of removal of the forest. During the long period of drought which 
follows, the springs having been dried up, the streams run low and the period 
of extreme low water in which navigation is suspended or made very difficult 
is greatly prolonged. 
Prior to 1862 there was no time within the knowledge of steamboatmen of 
the ‘gos and ’50s when the rivers of the West did not have a good boating 
stage, usually 12 or 15 feet depth, while in more recent years the water has 
been so low that teams were crossing the Ohio by fording, the water being but 
two feet depth, the steamboats and crafts of every kind being idle for months 
at a time. 
Many cities are dependent for water supply on the various streams and 
during the low water stages the contamination is far more serious, the impuri- 
ties being concentrated to such extent as to cause much sickness. Of course. 
with all sewerage of cities polluting the streams, this becomes a serious mat- 
ter when the water for a long time remains so low. During the floods of 1883 
and 1884 there was great suffering throughout the flooded districts, thousands 
being destitute who were relieved by charity. 
The temperature in February was what it usually is in May. Very un- 
usual rains extended over all the States drained by the Ohio. The waters fall- 
ing upon portions of fourteen States ran rapidly away and found an exit in the 
swelling floods of the Ohio. 
