328 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



There are other important interests dependent upon the existence of our forests. 

 Within their wooded areas are located the vast system of natural reservoirs which 

 furnish the water supply for our rivers and canals, and for the streams that turn the 

 mill wheels throughout our State. Our inland navigation and our manufacturing 

 interests are largely dependent on this water supply. 



These forest reservoirs are formed by the cellular structure of the vegetable mold 

 which everywhere covers the earth beneath the trees. For many years, perhaps a 

 century or more, the falling leaves and twigs have accumulated and decayed. These, 

 together with the mossy growths, the fallen limbs and tree trunks, form the humus 

 whose interstices hold vast quantities of water. This natural reservoir, widely 

 extended as the forests which shade and protect it, covers in our State over 9,000 

 square miles of mountainous or upland territory in the Adirondacks, Catskills and 

 other localities. 



In exercising its functions as a reservoir for storing rainfall the forest acts in 

 various ways. The leaves break the force of sudden heavy showers, and hold 

 temporarily a part of the water. The porous soil and beds of moss retain for a time 

 the rainfall, which by gravitation slowly percolates through the soil and reappears in 

 springs and tiny rivulets whose confluence farther on forms the brooks and streams 

 that create our rivers and furnish the water supply without which agriculture would be 

 impossible and our land uninhabitable. 



The capacity of the forest humus to store water is further increased by the dense 

 undergrowth, the mass of tangled roots, and the inequalities of surface formed by 

 fallen trees, all of which help to regulate the flow of these reservoirs. In summer the 

 cool, dense shade of the trees prevents evaporation in the upland swamps which form 

 the sources of many of the smaller streams. In spring the shade of the clustered tree 

 trunks and evergreens retards the melting of the snow which has accumulated during 

 the winter, and prevents thereby the sudden and destructive floods which would be 

 caused by the April sun and warm south winds. 



But if the grand old forests that clothe the mountain slopes and plateaus are cut 

 away or destroyed by fire what would be the result ? The soil on the hillside would 

 become sun dried and hard, while on the steeper slopes the thin covering of the earth 

 would be loosened and "washed away by the action of heavy showers, exposing the 

 bare, gray rock. The rainfall and melted snow, no longer retarded in their flow, 

 would run swiftly down the mountain slopes, creating disastrous freshets and floods. 

 The natural reservoirs once destroyed, no water could be stored, and with the summer 

 heat would come protracted drought and low water in the streams. Agriculture and 

 manufacturing would suffer. Navigation would be difficult, not only on account of 

 , low water but by reason of the vast quantities of silt and sand which would be washed 



