Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-05-13
Forests and Hydraulics.


rRead BY Geo W. Powell, Chairman Of the Forest
Committee at the American INSTITUTED
Mechanical engineers may tell us that 1t
Is Incoming nicely-balanced question to
determine whether steam power or water
mower is the most economical for driving
operative machinery. II, however, we ask
them how the case would stand ii the
streams were as free from excessive
droughts and freshets as they were before
the decreasing of the hills, their verdict
would be emphatic in favor Of water
power.
The greet damage already done TO our
otherwise boundless hydraulic power is as
certainly attributable to injudiciOus treat
ment Of our forest interest as its ruin is TO
result from failure TO adopt scientific wood
land economies similar to those practiced
in the old world; as certain to do so as
gravitation is to draw an unsupported body
to the earth. If the commonest kind OF
common sense would not, as it does, teach
this. numberless "stubborn facts" stand
to testify 10 1t.
When we point to the disappearance OF
springs, and Large streams as well as small
ones where the water collecting and keep
ing arrangement provided by nature has
been broken up, some Of the numerous
order Of Doubling Thomas" ask us to
prove that this was the cause OF the effect
The makeup of Thomas is such that he
il hard TO be convinced, because he con-
stitutionally prefers not TO, see the point;
but we can present facts which can hardly
fail to he like gravel in the teeth, even for
him. We point him to the New England
mountain spring which President Marsh
was in both conditions. First, lost by cut
ting of the trees Second, restored by
simply letting the bushes grow on rocky
knoll Of only single halt acre in extent
Just above IT, In the same line OF
argument we also present the fol-
lowing from Mons. Clare Etudes,
ETC., pages 50 and 81: Every Partisan
may convince himself without venturing
beyond the Bots de Boulogne or the forest
of Mendau. Let him, after few rainy
days, pass along the Cheyreuse road,
which il bordered on the right by wood,
on the left by cultivated fields. The fall
Of water and the continuance of rain have
been the same on both sides; but the ditch
on the side of the forest will remain filled
with water proceeding from the infiltration
through the wooded soiL long after the
other, contiguous to the open ground, has
become dry. The ditch on the left will
have discharged in few hours a quantity
Of water, which the ditch on the right re-
.qnires several days to receive and carry
down the valley'' Boussingalttc tells us of a
large spring in the island of Ascension
which dried up after the wood around it
was cut, and at once reappeared after re-
toresting its immediate vicinity, Mars
.chand gives similar testimony relative TO
the fountain of Varieux which formerly
supplied the Castle Of Pruntrut.
He also cites the case OF the
iron works of Unterwyl, which formerly
had an abundance Of motive power from
the fall OF the Sorne, and which was noted
for being almost unaffected by either
drought or heavy rain when the wood
around its headwaters was standing, but
which became as noted for the reverse
qualities after decreasing. The introduce
ton of steam was found necessary TO pre-
vent stopping the works altogether. Mars
chand also tells Of the factory at st. Ur-
same, on river which for time immemo-
rial had supplied it abundant power, but
which had been stopped altogether for
want of its motor after the trees were
stripped from its banks. The influence
Of the forest on the springs says Hum
mel is strikingly shown at Hebron.
The woods on the hills surrounding the
town are cut In regular succession every
twentieth year. AS these cuttings APP
proach a certain point the springs yield
less water, some OF them none at all but
as the young growth shoots up they flow
more and more freely, and at length bub-
BILE up again in their original abundance. 7"
Page Mtrty-too, Phystscte Geographic.
The Wolf Spring, in the Commune OF
Soubrcy, has twice disappeared and twice
come to life again from the same causes
during the last ninety years. That ii Is
by nature first-class fountain is proved
by the fact that during over forty consecu.
tive years Of that ninety it was famous as
t" the best in the Clos du Doubs." When, as
people, we wake up on this subject we
shall hear less of the crash and the shrek
resulting from dams and dykes being over,
strained by frcshets; less reports of hun.
dreds and of thousands, even of skilled la
borers, with whom life is a struggle for
bread, being thrown out of employment
because the rivers sleep
In the north Of Wales spring OF won.
drous power and purity wells up from the
earth. In an edifice which Is erected Over
1t are numberless crutches and canes
which. nave been brought there and left by
CTlppitss WHO supcIstluouSly Dcilevc VIZ
fountain has healed them. In less than .
quarter oil score of miles of Its course ~
ii dances away to the sea 1t turns machin
cry which gives employment to over ., 0O(
skilled toilers. In the latter Office, by
helping people to help htemselees, tits in
I" fact many times more than doing VIVA
the lame and the halt T" fancy" II has done
for them II has also furnished type O
what the All Father intends the genius o
Hydraulics to be to His children. Let III
care for the forest guard He has given III
for Its protection. The forests are to til,
streams what the balance-wheel is to til,
steam-engine.