SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
393 
Three to four pounds of sugar is an average yield for 
one tree in a season. Much of the sap, however, is not 
boiled down into sugar, but the boiling is stopped while 
it is in the form of syrup. If you have ever eaten buck- 
wheat cakes with real maple syrup you will always es- 
teem the Sugar Maple tree. 
The forests perform extremely valuable services for 
mankind entirely apart from the products they yield. 
First, they prevent erosion, or the washing away of 
soil by the water that falls as rain. After the trees have 
been cut away, very often, especially upon hillsides, the 
most productive soil is washed away, usually clear off of 
the original owner's farm, and deposited in the flood- 
plains or bottoms of creeks and rivers or in river deltas 
— in places where it cannot be utilized to any great ex- 
tent. Thus erosion causes a tremendous loss to farmers, 
and it is chiefly due to the thoughtlessness of the Amer- 
ican people in destroying the forests. 
Second, and chiefly related to this, is the fact that the 
floods upon our rivers, which every year take such heavy 
toll in property and in human life, are due to the cutting 
away of the forests. This allows the water from rain 
and melting snow to reach the streams at times faster 
than it can be carried off, and so we have a flood. The 
forest floor, with its undergrowth and humus, in those 
localities where the forests still exist about the head- 
waters of our rivers, acts like a huge layer of blotting 
paper which holds the water back and allows it to escape 
to the streams slowly, and so floods are avoided. 
Third, and related to the above, is the fact that the 
water supply of our cities would be more constant if 
the forests had not been cut away. In these cases the 
summer droughts make much greater the danger from 
water-borne diseases. 
It is only in recent years that the American people 
