43 



sure way of estimating the one or the other; but the fact that 

 the forests of the State are becoming thinner much more rapidly 

 than the lumbermen are thinning them, gives a fairly sure gage 

 of destruction by fire. 



It is the part of the land which can not or ought not be plowed 

 which claims attention from the standpoint of forestry. It can 

 be utilized and made profitable for timber growing, and for soil 

 protection, and for the regulation of stream flow, or it can be 

 abondoned. If it is cared for, it will be prepetually profitable. 

 If abandoned, and left a prey to fire and to erosion, the time will 

 come when it will be as barren a desert as the summit of 

 Spruce jMountain now is or the Roaring Plains on the 

 summit of the Alleghany. Not only will the land itself 

 be rendered unless, but the very soil will finally be the 

 ruination of good lands and of river navigation lower 

 down. The sand and soil from the steep, treeless slopes will 

 fill the channels of streams and cause worse floods, and more of 

 them, than have yet occurred. The danger of this is not a thing 

 rhat will come only at the end of generations or centuries. It not 

 only will come, but it has come, and is coming. The increase in 

 floods in West Virginia streams runs from 28 to 83 per cent, so 

 far as measurements have been made, and low water conditions 

 are far worse than they used to be. Rainfall is about the same 

 as in the past, but the rivers are carrying more water. Where the 

 flow was formerly somewhat regular, it now acts by fits and 

 starts. The water comes by rushes and is quickly gone. 



That is the direct result of forest thinning and soil injury. The 

 havoc wrought by fires constitutes a menace which can scarcely 

 be overestimated. The danger is greater than anyone seems to 

 imagine. The worst is yet to come. Forest and soil thinning 

 m.ust proceed to a rather advanced point before the effect on 

 streams become clearly apparent. After that point is reached, 

 results accumulate very rapidly. The danger point in forest des- 

 truction is often reached and passed before the danger is dis- 

 covered, unless the history of other deforested regions is consult- 

 ed, and cause and effect are studied there. 



Deforestation and soil destruction have reached and passed the 

 danger point in the drainage basin of every river in West Vir- 

 ginia, but the worst conditions exist about the sources of the Mon- 

 ongahela, Potomac, and Kanawha. Take the Potomac. It is the 



