UNCLE SAM’S BIGGEST BANK ACCOUNT 27 
ago. This damage can be largely attributed to reck- 
less cuttings upon the principal watersheds, followed by 
forest fires. Unless strong measures are taken this 
country will find itself in the same situation as France, 
which has been compelled to spend millions of dollars 
to control streams which became unmanageable fol- 
lowing reckless cuttings of forest land on mountain 
slopes made after the French Revolution. 
The situation regarding water for power and for 
navigation purposes is practically the same, for to be 
useful a stream must have a comparatively even flow 
during the entire year. This condition may best be 
brought about by keeping the steep slopes upon the 
headwaters of the stream under forest cover and by 
providing reservoirs along the course of the stream 
to catch and hold the flood waters during the time of 
freshets, to be released during the period of low water. 
Both systems are necessary; each alone may prove in- 
sufficient, and extreme cases may be found where both 
may be used with little apparent effect, although it is 
believed from foreign experience that in most cases 
such a plan will help wonderfully. 
Regarding water power, at present there are about 
5,000,000 horsepower developed, while the amount capa- 
ble of development is variously estimated at from, 
87,000,000 to 100,000,000 horsepower. With the dis- 
coveries permitting long-distance transmission of elec- 
tric current the value of a small mountain stream 
becomes large. Not only will the water now running 
idly to the sea help in transporting our products over 
electrified railways but it will furnish the power to 
run factories and to heat homes, and finally, as in the 
Scandinavian countries, cheap power will restore fer- 
tility to the soil by taking nitrogen directly from the air. 
