Mr. North. 
Mr. Todd. 
340 DISCUSSION : FORESTS, RESERVOIRS, AND STREAM FLOW 
Government instead of by the action of free competition. It seems to 
be planned that even our waterways—if improved—shall not com- 
pete freely. 
Our best National resources are the production and consumption of 
our people.* It is doubtful if our entire natural wealth would have 
sold for £5000 when Elizabeth and Raleigh commenced exploiting this 
country. Until natural resources enter into destructive consumption, 
few of them have anything but a speculative value. Some of these 
resources are destroyed by their use. The power of falling water, 
though destroyed by that act, renews itself indefinitely, and any non- 
use of that power is an -irremediable loss to the world’s wealth. There 
is no impairment of value to any watercourse by its use, and, when 
there is money enough available for its improvement, neglect of its 
possible aid to production seems to be an economic crime. 
A. Minter Topp, M. Am. Soc. OC. E. (by letter).—The writer has 
read this paper with great interest. He has also read many of the 
treatises referred to by the author, and other literature on the subject. 
Having been intimately connected with the work of improvement and 
flood control of the Lower Mississippi River for the past fifteen years, 
the subject is of vital interest to him. Every suggestion as to cause 
and effect, as bearing particularly on great floods, has been closely 
studied, and also every proposed remedial measure. 
Coincident with the whole country’s great awakening to the value 
of the inland waterways, and the growing sentiment that they must 
be regulated and improved to the fullest extent, there has been a 
tendency to lay too great stress on certain conditions which are very 
remote from the locality in need of improvement, a change or moditica- 
tion of which conditions is held to be necessary in order to obtain 
immediate results leading to river improvement, often to the detriment 
of local methods and treatment sorely needed with the least possible 
loss-of time. Particularly, there seems to be a great popular belief, 
-even among some residents of the Lower Mississippi Valley, that de- 
forestation is largely responsible for most of the recent great floods. 
Colonel Chittenden has demonstrated clearly, from indisputable data 
and records, that there has not been, throughout the Mississippi Valley, 
any perceptible increase in the number and volume of floods that could 
be attributable to any cause, much less to deforestation. It is true 
that floods produce greater disaster and suffering than in years past, 
but this is due solely to the fact that the population in the overflow 
areas has increased, and many great industrial improvements have 
been built up directly in the face of the fact that the ground occupied 
was subject to serious overflow. The writer has seen this exemplified 
in numerous cases, even along the Lower Mississippi. In nearly every 
town or city, from Cairo to New Orleans, can be. found extensive and 
important railroad yards, depots, shops, factories, warehouses, com- 
