IMPORTANCE OF FOREST COVER ON HILLY COUNTRY. 29 



(the slopes feeding- the gorge) is larger than the others, and, secondly, 

 that the slopes and bottom of the gorge are densely tiin})ered and 

 possess a heavy covering of loamy debris beneath. 



Let lis suppose that Avhat is true for tlie small area just described 

 were true in the case of the whole plateau region. The effects as to 

 checking Hoods, collecting soil, preventing erosion, promoting the 

 entrance of water into the earth, and maintaining a longer and more 

 constant How of springs and streams would be multiplied many 

 thousandfold. That would be a fact of vast significance for this 

 region in its relation to the activities of human life within it, and still 

 more to those of the rich plain on its coastward side. 



This enforces the fact that from the point of view of water supply 

 the Edwards Plateau is to be regarded as sustaining the same sort 

 of relation, if not in the same degree, to the Rio Grande Plain that 

 the Sierras do to the San Joaquin Valle}^ the Wasatch Mountains to 

 the irrigable lands about the Great Salt Lake basin, and the Kocky 

 Mountains to the high plains in Colorado. 



THE PROBL-EM OF MAINTAINING A FOREST COVER ON THE HILLY 

 COUNTRY OF THE EDWARDS PLATEAU. 



The problem of dealing with such a region as the Edwards Plateau 

 scarceh^ falls within the scope of individual enterprise, although if 

 cooperation between private owners and the State could be brought 

 about, it would result in mutual gain. The rice planter on the coast 

 wants the most constant flow possible in the Colorado, Guadalupe, San 

 Antonio, and other rivers. Ranchmen on the inner border of the coast 

 plain want the largest possible flow of artesian water. The hill ranch- 

 men want their soils preserved and built up and the level of soil mois- 

 ture kept near enough to the surface to be available for crops. All 

 desire to see destructive floods prevented; all want this water held 

 back to be given out so as to be utilized. All these classes of citizens 

 would be gainers if the rough country were kept f uUv timbered and 

 the dry plains covered with heav}^ grass. At the last it will rest with 

 cattlemen of the plains and with ranchmen of the hills Avhether their 

 pastures are worn out b}^ overgrazing and their hills denuded b}^ unwise 

 cutting. In the long run, these men will And that they can both pas- 

 ture the plains and market the timber without destroying the protec- 

 tive A^aliie of a grass cover on the one hand or of a timber cover on 

 the other. Meanwhile the rough breaks of the margin of the plains, 

 which are not especially valuable for pastures, and certainh^ of no 

 value for farming, offer a task the performance of which, in the writer's 

 opinion, may be undertaken onh^ b}^ the State itself. Considering all 

 the interests dependent upon the water supply of this region, there 

 would seem to be little ground for opposing the policy of maintaining 

 (and where necessary establishing) a forest cover upon these arid 



