FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 315 
Forestry, irrigation and prevention of soil wash are all related 
to the conservation of the vegetable resources of the country. They 
are kindred purposes and should naturally fall under the same admin- 
istrative control. Navigation is a function of transportation, which 
is a very different subject. Water-power is becoming more and more 
closely related to it, and these two subjects naturally go together. 1t 
must not be expected that the character of works for river regula- 
tion can be materially changed by means of reservoirs, forests or soil- 
wash prevention. Levees and bank protection, locks and dams, dikes 
and dredging will continue to be standard methods of river improvement 
in the future as in the past. The accumulated experience of centuries 
in all civilized countries cannot be set aside in a moment. In par- 
ticular, flood protection is not likely ever to find any complete sub- 
stitute for levees. They have been used extensively the world over 
throughout recorded history. People who think only of the Missis- 
sippi and the Po, when levees are mentioned, little understand to what 
an extent “diking” is resorted to wherever rich bottom lands have to 
be guarded against floods or tides, Some of the finest agricultural 
lands in the world are behind levees where almost perfect security 
is felt. No class of river control is in more extensive use, none is 
better understood, and from none has the world, throughout its his- 
tory, derived greater security and benefit. 
Municipalities, like Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and IXansas City, must 
look in the main to their own efforts for protection against floods. 
In particular, they must reject absolutely the delusive promises of 
forestry. These cities are trespassers upon grounds dedicated by 
Nature to a condition of overflow. They have occupied these grounds 
and placed themselves in the way of the floods deliberately and with 
their eyes open. They have gone farther than this, and in many 
instances have encroached upon the channeis, and have thus made the 
floods worse than they used to be. It is not for them now to look 
for outside deliverance, but they themselves should grapple courage- 
ously with the problem. In most cases these problems admit, if not 
of complete solution, at least of a very large measure of relief. The 
maxim that Providence helps them who help themselves may also 
apply to the Government. Co-operation in connection with its regular 
work, either in channel improvement or in the building of reservoirs, 
would doubtless be given. The disposition which must be met and 
