plan of the greater part of the United States is made up 
of blocks of land one mile square laid one against the 
other like the squares of a checker-board. The ground 
plan of most other countries is somewhat similar to that 
of the United States. These blocks or squares are some- 
times laid to form great levels, but as a general rule in 
terraces rising from a great gutter on the one hand to 
cone or dome in the center, and slanting away again to a 
great gutter on the other hand. The blocks are not made 
with any regularity of plan as to their upper surface, but 
roll and dip or are level and again even slopes as chance 
may dictate. At least it seems a chance, until you note 
how accurately the blocks fit one against the other, contin- 
uing each slope, wall, gutter or cone to a nicety, and then 
you realize that the mechanism is wonderful indeed. So 
closely are they joined that water running from the higher 
to the lower squares passes over the seams as readily as if 
the whole were a solid block. Herein is the weak place in 
nature's plan, as far as it relates to man, and is the place 
where the rebuilding should begin. 
Water never falls on a single square (or section) m 
sufficient quantities to cause floods dangerous to life or 
property. Each and every square has capactity to absorb 
its own rainfall; very few squares have insufficient rain- 
fall to produce a good crop if the rainfall could be applied 
at the proper time. Floods are caused by water running 
from block to block, until, having gathered from many 
thousand squares and concentrated in one gutter, it over- 
taxes the capacity of the gutter and spreads afar over the 
land, causing death and destruction. Drouths are caused 
by the rainfall running- too rapidly from the upper squares 
before it can be absorbed to any great extent, and carried 
by gravity to distant and lower squares, where it gathers 
in too great quantities on the low lands^ and causes 
swamps or is returned to the ocean, whence it takes the 
•winds-— often contrary for weeks and even months— too 
long to return it to the lands again. If the water that 
falls on each square was retained there until it filtered 
through the soil or evaporated, the disaster of flood and 
drouth would both be averted. 
On each of the four sides of each and every one of the 
many squares that go to make up the whole of the general 
ground plan is a roadway sixty feet wide, more or less, 
with the seam between the squares as its center. These 
roadways lead up hill and down, across the country from 
ocean to ocean east and west and from limit to limit north 
to south. They are the key to the situation. 
Grade them to as near a level as possible, making water- 
proof embankments across all dry ravines and hollows, 
and the water that falls on each square will run to the 
lowest point and stay there. The ravines will be the 
reservoirs, and the road grade the dams. These grades 
should be high enough to render overflow in any single 
wet spell impossible. Each reservoir should have a. valve 
and drain under the grade to let off the water by degrees 
where overflow is threatened. But with only one mile to 
gather in most of the reservoirs, would have a capacity 
far in excess of the water supply. Thus what water fell 
in any part of the country would remain there with the 
exception of what fell directly into running streams. 
The running streams should be left unobstructed. The 
flood tide should be cut off in detail before it reaches the 
running stream. In Forestry and Irrigation, July, 1903, 
Guy Elliott Mitchell has this to say : 
"Every manufacturer in the United States has had a 
twofold economic interest in the great floods which have 
been sweeping down the Missouri and the Mississippi. 
The most generally recognized interest lies in the fact 
that much property has been destroyed, many farms de- 
vastated, and the purchasing capacity of a large number of 
producers crippled, handicapped, and 111 many cases 
obliterated. Another feature of the flood problem which 
is not so often thought of is the question of the solution, 
of this national problem through the construction of 
Government storage reservoirs. It has been demonstrated 
beyond question that a comprehensive system of reservoirs 
to store and regulate flood waters which can. be depended 
upon every spring at the heads of the Missouri, the 
Arkansas, the Platte, and their tributaries,' would so re- 
duce the flow of the Missouri River before it reaches St. 
Louis as to keep not only it, but the Mississippi withm 
safe bounds. 
"Of course, the flood sufferer who sees a great yellow 
surge going by St. Louis six or seven feet higher than the 
danger line, may well express some skepticism as to the 
possibility of the Government or any other agency con- 
structing reservoirs sufficiently gigantic to impound all 
the excess of water. . 
"But the reservoirs themselves would be only a part ot 
the storage system. Of course the construction of such 
reservoir would mean that the waters safe in them would 
be used for irrigation, and official surveys indicate that 
something over 30,000,000 acres is the amount of land 
which can be irrigated from the water supply running 
eastward from the Rocky Mountains. Had such a sys- 
tem been in operation, the June floods would have been 
diverted, first into the great storage reservoirs necessary 
to irrigate this land; second, into the hundreds if not 
thousands of miles of canals, ditches, and laterals neces- 
sary for its irrigation; and third, under the land itself. 
The stored waters would not be used until the dry months 
of July and August, when the Missouri and its tributaries 
are but shallow meandering streams; but during May and 
June the watering of this great area of land, soaking it to 
a depth of a couple of feet, would be done directly from 
the streams themselves, or rather from the great canal 
system which would be necessary to carry the water in- 
land from the rivers. This immense body of cultivated 
land would therefore act as a sort of sponge, and the 
effect would be to reduce the flow of the Missouri as 
though a vast obstruction had been thrown across its bed, 
and its water flooded over all the land. 
"The Mississippi is able to take care of its own floods 
or of the floods of any of its tributaries ; but when all the 
rivers which flow into it go on the rampage, death and 
destruction must be the outcome. The equalization of the 
flow of the Missouri River would in a great measure 
mean the control of the Mississippi, and a greatly de- 
creased annual expenditure for flood protection under the 
River and Harbor bill. 
"The carrying out of such a Government policy would 
not only palliate the floods, but furnish homes for hun- 
dreds of thousands of prosperous farmers, and result in 
vast good to the entire nation. We would have a dense 
farming population occupying small individual areas of 
land, and contributing to the prosperity and growth of 
hundreds of towns and cities where now the country is 
in many places only very sparsely settled." 
Now, it is not a question of building reservoirs gigantic 
enough to hold the floods in check at all. A gigantic 
reservoir is a menace to the country below ; so is a reser- 
voir constructed by damming a running stream. Such a 
reservoir must in time become full to the brim, and then, 
when heavy rains set in, disaster is sure to follow as in 
the case at Johnstown, Pa. To provide small reservoirs 
is the proper way; and nature has constructed them in 
thousands and hundreds of thousands. The only thing 
necessary is the dams, and the grades required to make 
good roads will furnish dams also. 
The question of funds for so great a work now arises. 
With all agreeable and willing, this part of the business 
would be as trifling a matter as the work of actual con- 
struction itself. But what about those barnacles? Yet 
this is not a question of purifying politics, but of irriga- 
tion and flood prevention, and we will proceed as if 
leeches were unknown. When the War of the Rebellion 
broke out, it found the Government without funds or 
munitions of war with which to conduct it; yet funds 
were raised, arms manufactured, and the war conducted 
to a successful issue. In this war with the elements, may 
we not proceed in the same way, even though there are 
not thousands of our fellow-men to be shot down, nor yet 
other millions of dollars' worth of property to be burned 
up and destroyed. War, even in peace times, is an expen- 
sive way of proving our greatness. In an estimate of a 
recent naval parade lasting a week the cost was placed at 
$240,000. In a cartoon accompanying the estimate, Uncle 
Sam was represented as remonstrating at the expense, 
which the Chief Executive excused on the ground that it 
amused the children so. But perhaps the children might 
be. amused some other way. $240,000 would grade at least 
one hundred miles of average road and build all the 
necessary bridges at the crossing of running streams ; sup- 
plemented by other grades at each section line, these 
grades would be well nigh eternal. With no floods to tear 
them out, a well constructed bridge would last a hundred 
years. The cost of a single discharge from a 13-inch gun 
in target practice, counting expense of ammunition and 
damage to ship, would grade an average mile of road ; 
while the cost of building and equipping a first-class bat- 
tleship judiciously expended in damming the dry runs 
around the source of the Kaw and its tributaries would 
have averted the Kansas City flood, while the saving in 
flood damage during that one event would have amounted 
to twice the original investment. The cost of sending a 
shipload of live soldiers to the Philippines would grade 
several miles, while the cost of returning the dead ones 
would grade other miles, and the profit on the investment 
would be a hundredfold.- W'e raise money for all these 
purposes ; why not in a better cause ? 
It is indeed a sad thing to mortgage the future of un- 
born generations for purposes of destruction, or even for 
temporary improvements, with incidental boodle; but 
when the improvement is such that many generations to 
come will be benefited, there is no reason why bonds 
should not be issued to cover the cost. 
If this Government of forty years ago could equip and 
keep three or four hundred thousand men in the field for 
four years, surely the Government of to-day can enlist 
and keep a million afield indefinitely doing irrigation and 
road work. The outbreak of war and the increase of ex- 
penditure incidental thereto have always been followed 
by general revival of business and increased prosperity. 
The expenditure necessary to vast internal improvement 
would have a like effect and be a great deal more stable, 
as the enormous expenditures are adding to the taxable 
property rather than destroying it. There is work for 
all to do, and there is money to pay for it. Capital is 
always ready to invest in Government bonds, and labor is 
half the time seeking employment. It is not a matter of 
going into debt, but of borrowing money to enlarge our 
business, and in a very substantial way at that. 
Someone shouts, "Grafters !" Well, of course the.re will 
be grafters. But we might as well argue against the sail- 
ing of ships because barnacles collect upon them, as to 
stop needed improvements because of the weight of 
grafters that are sure to attach themselves to the work. 
The cost of the Civil War was something over six billions 
of dollars. Six billion dollars would grade every mile of 
roadway between the Alleghany and the Rock Mountains, 
Canada and Mexico to a level with the general incline of 
the country. Such grades would absolutely control the 
flow of water in the Mississippi River and all its tribu- 
taries. There would be no large dangerous bodies of 
water; but it would be held in such small details as to 
be reliable and safe, and the control would be perfect, 
it would secure the rich bottom lands along the streams 
immunity from overflow and double their value. It would 
secure water for irrigation wherever needed. It would 
provide perfect roadways. It would make the Mississippi 
basin, now the richest country of like scope on the face of 
the earth, doubly productive and doubly reliable. 
Following the expenditures of the Civil War came a 
period of business activity that lasted for more than ten 
years. During that period there was more invention, more 
general improvement and a more rapid increase in general 
wealth than was ever known in the history of the world 
before. Slave became free, poor men independent, and 
rich men millionaires. "Grafters" multiplied more than 
an hundredfold and waxed fat to an extent hitherto 
unknown. This activity would have been none the less if 
the same amount of money had been expended in im- 
provement ; while, on the other hand, there would have 
been no devastated country to rebuild, no 300,000 pen- 
sioners to support, and we would have increased the pro- 
ducing capacity of the country by five. 
Wooded Areas of European Countries. 
The percentage of the wooded areas of European coun- 
tries, as compared with their total areas, is as follows: 
Finland, 51.2; Sweden, 49.3; Russia, 40.4; Austria, 32.6; 
Luxemburg, 29.1; Hungary, 27.7; Germany, 26.1; Servia, 
24.9; Turkey, 23.4; Norway, 22; Roumania and Switzer- 
land, 21.4 each; Bulgaria, 20.8. The other European coun- 
tries have less than 20 per cent, of woodland. England 
has the smallest wooded area, 3.6 per cent.— Richard 
Guenther, Consul-General, Frankfort, Germany, 
Ways of Camping Out. 
Butler, Mo., Aug. 29. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 
your issue of August 27, "One of the Joneses", describes 
in a very pleasing manner his method of enjoying a vaca- 
tion without the expenditure, of very much time or 
money. 
I read the article with pleasure, and wish I could per- 
sonally thank my friend from Haverhill for his contribu- 
tion to our paper, His mention of steamed clams and 
fried eels makes my mouth water. 
Unfortunately, T am another of your subscribers who 
are chained to business, and thought possibly my method 
of securing a vacation might be of interest to your readers. 
Those who are familiar with the conditions existing in 
a county seat town in the Middle West, are well aware 
that there are some days in each week when the farmers 
do not come to town in very large numbers, and if one 
is so disposed, he can usually arrange to slip away for a 
part or all of the day for a tramp through the woods 
and fields, filling his lungs with fresh air and getting the 
kinks out of his muscles. 
My hunting partner is somewhat younger than I am 
and quite as enthusiastic. We arrange where we will go 
and what we will go after, depending on the season. 
We have a camp outfit that is original with us, and 
while it might not suit all, is handy and easily carried in 
our pockets. We use common tin plates with two holes 
punched in the rim, through which a bent wire is placed 
resting on the bottom for a handle, thus making a skillet 
of each plate. We usually take three or four each, as 
when nested together they can be carried in the back of 
our hunting coats without being in the way. Our coffee- 
pot is flat, about two inches thick, in which we can pack 
our eggs to keep them from breaking, and this slips very 
nicely into a side pocket. Potatoes, bacon, sandwiches, in 
fact, almost anything can be carried around in the other 
pockets without being cumbersome. 
If in the winter, and we are after rabbits, we carry a .22" 
caliber rifle ; so you see we are not very heavily loaded. We 
strike off across the fields, tramping along like two boys, 
for three or four miles or more, picking up a cotton-tail 
now and then, missing some, but having fun just the 
same. About noon we look for a sheltered place in which 
to camp, build our fire, and cook our dinner, which I 
can assure you is eaten with a relish. After dinner we 
will probably have a friendly scrap at a target. We loaf 
away an hour or two in this manner, then pack up our 
outfit and continue our circle toward home, having 
tramped eight or ten miles, but feeling no more fatigued 
than if we had walked down town and back. 
My hunting partner is no fisherman, but my wife is the 
real thing when it comes to fishing; and to tell the truth, 
she usually has me badly beaten when the strings are 
counted. When I go home to dinner, she will say, "Papa, 
what do you say if we go fishing this afternoon?" Well, 
you know just what papa says. We drive to a pond only 
a short distance from home, where there are bass, crappie, 
cats, and sun-perch. Of course we have a basket well 
filled with lunch, and a small box of ice to keep things 
cool. When supper time comes, I build a fire, clean some 
fish, get out the cooking outfit, and we have our supper 
cooked to a turn and relished as only a camp meal can be 
by two hungry persons. We get home by dark after a 
very enjoyable afternoon — a part of our vacation — and 
anxious to go again. 
As I am on the shady side of sixty, it makes me feel 
young to get out in the open, and, like my friend from 
Haverhill, I feel better for these short trips, taken, if 
possible, every week in the year by 
Another One of the Joneses. 
Brooklyn. — Editor Forest and Stream: I was much 
interested in an article in last week's Forest and Stream 
entitled "Camping Out," with the_ date line Haverhill, 
Mass. The story was told entertainingly, and the facts 
were as stated. This I know, having often gone over the 
ground twenty years or more ago. I was born on the 
Merrimac, eight miles above Haverhill, and those eight 
miles were the hardest part of the journey — rapid water 
and not enough of it. Lawrence has a great dam across 
the river to drive numerous factories along its banks, and 
generally in July and August not much water passed over 
the falls. The Government, with Captain Eads in charge 
of the work, drilled out the rapids in the river and built 
jetties at its mouth to keep Plum Island from making 
a bar sinister. The scenery is certainly worth a visit. The 
Indian name Merrimac means "joyous water." 
If you consider this worth publishing, and it appears 
in Forest and Stream, the means employed for putting it 
in type will no doubt be the Linotype. The person in 
charge of The Tribune Linotypes declares that Mergen- 
thaler took the larger part of his mechanical ideas from 
the older Burr (later called the Empire) typesetters. And 
so with our first Brooklyn bridge : the Roeblings got their 
design from the old chain bridge over the Merrimac men- 
tioned by "One of the Joneses," even to the plan of 
securing the supporting cables or chains to anchorages, 
which is a difficult feat in suspension bridge building. 
J. T. M. 
The animals of the "weasel" family, so called, are 
mostly very active and vivacious, and in some cases have 
developed set forms of play. The Cape ratel, a badger- 
like, honey-eating member of the family, but with much 
of the activity of the polecat, has an amusing habit when 
kept in menageries of running round and round in circles, 
and of varying this performance bv turning somersaults, 
like a street arab running by the side of a coach. Stoats 
are extremely playful. Often a solitary stoat will come 
into a ride in a wood and there dance, run after its tail, 
and twirl round in a pas seul of solitary exuberance. 
Both stoats and weasels are also said to gyrate in this 
manner in order to fascinate small birds. A description 
of such a scene was given recently in W s Hudson's 
reminiscences of Hampshire scenes. But otters are per- 
haps the most playful of all the tribe. Intensely active 
and full of high spirits, they play both in the water and 
on land. In North America their favorite winter amuse- 
ment is tobogganing. They find a place where a frozen 
waterfall makes a smooth ice slope, or a hard snowbank 
gives a chance of a glissade, and slide down this, running 
back again by a side track to enjoy the same delightful 
sensation, — London Spectator, 
