35 DANGERS TROM FOREST DESTRUCTION. 



A writer recently cited the fact that many of the eastern rivers 

 flooded their banlis nearly every year, doing great damage to property, 

 while in the rainless part of the year the same streams are fordable 

 where they were once navigable for large steamers. The cause was 

 plainly apparent when investigation was made along these streams, 

 and especially in the mountainous regions at their sources. The for- 

 est covering had been removed, and there was nothing to hold the 

 rains in checK, consequently the floods, — and nothing to shelter the 

 surface from the evaporating winds and sun, consequently the scarcity 

 of water in the streams out of the rainy season. And the farm that 

 half a century ago produced a good crop nine years out of ten, now 

 is producing one good crop in three, owing to the lessened and irregu- 

 lar rainfall, caused by the destruction of the forest covering. 



The great destroyer of forests is fire, and it must be prevented. 

 Next to fire, sheep; where they are permitted to range in our moun- 

 tains, especially where it is precipitous, they do untold damage. They 

 not only eat or trample to death every living thing, but they stari 

 rocks rolling down the steep slopes, until every little shelf where soil 

 had begun to accumulate, and had given a home to a tree seed, is 

 broken and tumbled, until the whole steep surface is smooth with no 

 lodgments, nothing but a thick, smooth surface for the rains and melt 

 ing snows to gully and run over, leaving no water for summer use. 

 Ill a country where there is excessive rainfall, extending over the 

 greater portion of the year, as in Oregon, it matters less, but in South- 

 ern California, where our rain fall is slight, and the sunshine so pre- 

 dominant, it is useless to attempt to re-forest our mountains, if sheep 

 are permitted to be upon them. There is no possible excuse for fires 

 in our mountains; every fire that is permitted to get out and destroy 

 the mountain covering, is the result of criminal carelessness, and can 

 be prevented in a great measure by inflicting severe punishment for 

 every offense. But when the growth has been destroyed, however rep- 

 rehensible the act which caused it, there should be no time lost in re- 

 planting. 



It is as practical to re-forest our mountains as it is to re-stock with 

 fish our depleted streams, though much more expensive. The German 

 government has found it directly profitable, or at least self-supporting. 



The seed will be planted generously at first, and as the trees be- 

 gin to "crowd each other, a portion can be removed, with benefit to the 

 whole. 



While there is a struggle for supremacy in the growth of any one 



