DISCUSSION: FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 3387 
drifts and keeping the roadbed wet, dominates the public mind long Mr. North. 
after the watering-cart has proved inadequate to keep down the dust 
or prevent the raveling of the roadbed. 
Thinking that the illustration cited (with blotting paper) would 
have been more valuable if the paper had been surcharged—e. g., with 
shavings—it is not contended that erosive and disastrous floods have 
not originated on uncleared areas, and they are likely “to recur not- 
withstanding any development of forest culture. Reservoirs, if of 
sufficient capacity, seem to be valuable adjuncts, at least, to forests, in 
reducing the damage from all but exceptional floods. They would 
also be of great importance to more valuable National interests than 
either the growth of timber or the prevention of soil denudation. The 
most important of these interests is cheap transportation, with the 
production it develops. Following transportation closely, and governed 
by it, is manufacturing. 
About forty years ago our Lake commerce was limited to vessels 
of 7- or 8-ft. draft. Excepting for a short time in the late Seventies, 
Lake channels have been persistently deepened and improved, so that 
the tonnage of vessels has increased faster than that of freight trains 
on our railroads. In 1856, the year after the canal at the “Soo” was. 
opened, the tonnage through it was 101458. In 1907, 58217 214 tons 
of freight passed through it. 
Comparing the ton-mileage of our railroads with that through the 
“Soo,” neglecting, of course, the through and local traffic not passing 
the locks, we have: 
Ton-Mileage, etc., Reported for 1907. , 
Railroads as per ‘‘Poor.”? 2331375077807 0.782 cent. $1812 115 341 
“ Soo,”? as per “U.S. 
Statistical Abstract.’’. 48 221465547 0.080 cent. 38 457 345 
281 358 973 354 $1 850 572 686 
The saving on this 17.1% of the total ton-mileage reported, com- 
pared with a like service by rail carriage, was more than $336 000 000. 
The total appropriations by the General Government for river and 
harbor improvements, with surveys, etc., pertaining thereto, were, up 
to March 2d, 1907, $552 943 025. If the ton-mileage of the Lakes not 
passing through the “Soo” was equal to two-thirds of that above 
recorded, the saving to the country by the low Lake freights was 
greater in 1907 than the total sums appropriated. Some will im- 
mediately object to this comparison: that the freight carried on the 
Lakes is of a lower classification than the average carried by railroads; 
but the lowering of freight rates during the season of Lake navigation 
has been recognized and fully understood for about thirty years, as also 
the increase in the high-class traffic on railroads. 
