32 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



■ sponge" consists qoI only of the tree tops which form a close roof to keep 

 out sun and wind, nor only of the layers of vino, brush, ferns, moss, dead 



leave- and humus on the ground (Fig. 24), hut especially of the ground 

 itself, winch To a depth of many feet i- a tangled interlacing of tree root- 

 and of channel- where formerly tree roots have been. Through such a 

 forest -ponge the water from winter snows and spring rain- cannot pene- 

 trate rapidly but mu-t gradually find it- way to springs and brook.-, pro- 

 ducing a more or less equalized water supply to the surrounding region 

 (Figs. 25 and 26). On the other hand, if the head- of watercourses 

 are deprived of their forests, they allow the water to rush down the 

 slope-, washing out the fertile constituents of the -oil and producing 

 floods in the lowlands, — a prodigality of water followed by lack in 

 summer. 



These fact- are well illustrated in many places in the Appalachian region. 

 Denuded -lopes cleared for agriculture have yielded a profitable return for a 

 few years; then decrea-ingly valuable because of the rapid eroding of the 

 sloping fields, they served for pasturage a few years longer, then became 

 wholly infertile (Fig. 27). This result in itself seems unfortunate enough, 

 but consider the after-work of the rains that -wept down these hillside farms 

 (Fig. 28). It is said that in 1 ( .)()7 the Hoods from the onrush of one stream 

 of this region (the Catawba River) caused a loss of a million and a half 

 dollars' worth of farm buildings and stock. 



Examine report- concerning the region of the Ohio Valley which, like 

 the Appalachian region, possessed some of the finest hroad-Ieavcd w oodlands 

 of the country. Here farmer- fought the forest for generation-, regarding 

 it wholly in the light of an enemy because the soil i- fertile for agriculture. 

 They cut the chestnuts, the walnut and hickory, the sycamore, elm and pop- 

 lar, built log houses of the mo.-t perfect tree- and burned the others. When 

 demand- for tanbark came they cut the oaks, -old the stripped bark and 

 burned the log- in festival "log-rollings." At la-t they have produced a 

 district well-nigh without woodland-, but at what cost! There are " mysteri- 

 ously heaven— cut" blizzards and spring freshets; streams run almost dry 

 in summer, and hot, drying wind- scorch the crop-; fruit-growing is con- 

 tinually more difficult. The price of timber has risen in unprecedented 

 manner, while the tanbark supply is decreasing at such a rate, not only in 

 the Ohio region but also throughout the country, that the total product in 

 1907 was [56,941 cord- less than that of 1906. 



Fortunately the damage to the nation'- forests i- not irreparable. • Now 

 that the country is known throughout its extent and careful estimates of its 

 timber land have been made, now that the imperative necessity of fore-ted 

 upland- to control water supply i- understood, there ha- come about a 



