FORESTRY COMMISSION. 105 



soutliern counties in tlie State, sliowed that the acreage sowed in the fall 

 of 1903 had a hard time. It was winter killed, and when the growing 

 season came in the spring and early summer, the growth was uneven. 

 There would be patches in fields near the fences and where sheltered by 

 windbreaks of very good wheat, while in other parts of the fleld the 

 stand was light and immature. Portions of fields were ready for the 

 reaper when other parts were green, and the product only fit for chicken 

 feed. Where there was a stunted growth of straw the grain shriveled, 

 rendering much of the small amount of wheat firoduced simply good 

 screenings. 



The protection alfo-rded by a strip of woods — the windbreak — reveals- 

 one cause of the failure. Where there were no trees the loss was total. 

 During the cold and backward spring, and the springs are colder and 

 later since the forests were cut away than they used to be, the winds 

 swept over the unprotected fields of wheat and clover, killing the plants, 

 and entailing losses to our farmers that run into millions of dollars. 



The arable land of the State needs the protection of forests to insure 

 its crops, to lessen the destructive danger from both floods and droughts. 

 Let us take for illustration two hillsides of identical slope and exposure, 

 one being forested and the other cleared. In passing, we may state that 

 it is barren hillsides and hilltops, which do not pay for cultivation, that 

 should be reforested. In the supposed case, the rain falls on the canopy 

 of trees in the one instance and drops softly front leaves and branches 

 and trickles slowly down the trunks. Who that has been faitiiliar with 

 falling rain in the forest does not realize this to be true? The soil be- 

 neath is soft and loose, and even in Avinter it does not freeze hard. It is 

 a composition of disintegrated drift, of decaying leaves, twigs, and 

 even logs, all tied together by a ntass of roots and rootlets. The rain 

 comes upon this forest soil so gently through the trees that the ground 

 is not compacted and hardened or gullied as it would be if it fell upon 

 the naked earth. 



The loose and spongy soil absorbs the water as fast as it falls, and 

 that which is not taken up by the roots for the nourishment of the trees 

 is carried a\\ay into underground reservoirs, front which it slowly per- 

 colates, and finally comes out upon the surface again as springs. So- 

 sloAvly does this filtering go on, the spongy soil holding, back the water, 

 that the springs are furnished a constant and almost steady supply. 

 Even drought Avill actually dry up but few of them. Snows also will 

 melt slowly in the forest, thereby preventing disastrous spring freshets. 



In the other case, that of the treeless slope, the rain falls directly on 

 the bare ground, and makes it hard and iittpervious. The water for the 

 most part runs off superficially, as from a roof. Not enough of it sinks 

 into the ground to make the constant springs, and so the brooks dry up 

 and become only a mentory. The sttrface voluitte of a hard rain on a 

 bare hillside is also coitducive to washing aitd gullying of a most de- 

 structive nature, carrying away the ntost fertile elentents of the soil,, 

 and the muddy watei s being poured immediately in the stream beds, the 

 natural drainage channels that traverse fertile valleys, cause freshets, 

 and the accumulated waters rush quickly by, making havoc with fields,, 

 fences, bridges and itiills — and in a short time the streaitis are nearly 

 dry again. 

 14 



