The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1879-11-19
Forests and the water supply.

Public attention has been called this
season, in very forcible manner to the
Inconvenience attending the low Wa
ter in our rivers and the necessity OF
taking steps to secure "a permanently
useful stage of water. In the discus
sion of the subject of river improve
ment by river conventions, there is a
great deal said about the duty of the
people to urge their representatives i'm
Congresstoget appropriations for clean
ing away sand-bars and other Obstruc-
tons, but there is one fact always over
looked, which, il seems to us, is of the
greatest Importance.
Let any river convention undertake
to answer the question, 'sWhy do we
have such low water i'm our rivers at "a
season when they can be made most
useful to commerce:sr The answer 10
that question is to be found further back
than in "a lack of appropriations for
river Improvement. The answer is
that just so long as our forests are wan
tonly destroyed, just so long will the
water supply be ON the decrease, and
once great rivers will, without doubt,
become unnavigable creeks. Scientific
men i'm tins country have long sounded
the note of warning, but it has been I'M
needed, and river conventions continue
10 meet and talk without going to the
root of the difficulty.
a series of observations i'm France dUI-
ring the past few years has shown that
forests increase the quantity of meteor
ic waters, which tall ON the ground and
engender springs which vivify the roots
of the trees. The ground of a forest re-
giOn also receives far more moisture
than an open country and thus secures
IA regular flow of water sources, the
evaporation being largely prevented by
the roof formed of the boughs and
leaves of the trees, while the tempera-
ture is more equal than that of other To-
calities. Fautiat, a sub-inspectOr, Of
forests i'm France, after four years of OBJ
servation in this direction, has recently
shown that il rains more i'm wooded To-
calities than in the open country;
that the air over forests is far more sat
urated with moisture than elsewhere;
that evaporation of moisture is four
times less under the leaves of a forest
than elsewhere, and, i'm fact, that for
ests are the regulators of the flow of
water.
Much the same testimony comes from
Observers in the United States. Prof.
Shales, our State GeOlogist, has demon
strated very completely the injurious
effect of cutting down the timber of
Kentucky without taking measures to
renew the supply, rs is done in Europe.
He takes the ground that, the slopes
being stripped of the timber, the water
will rush down at one stroke into the
rivers and destroy large amounts of
i'm the valley. This stripping,
rs we have shown, will do more than
this. Ii will increase every year the
scarcity of water in our rivers. Instead
of being retained i'm the forests and
flowing with regularity into the river
beds, the water will run directly off.
Prof. Shaler says, with reference to our
forests: 1.-THE mineral region
of Eastern Kentucky has a precious
heritage i'm its forests, ores and Goals.
All the skill of legislation and all the
discretion of private enterprise should
be directed to securing the best products
from these resources, avoiding destruc-
tive waste. This cannot be done ex-
cept by preserving the forests without
great reduction from their present area
Ii the State or the counties thereof still
OWN large tracts of forest timber, il
would clearly be i'm the line of true poll
~ to retain those areas as public do
mains in the interest of coming genera
lions. Throughout Switzerland and
other parts of Europe the communal
forests, rarely large i'm area, are the
most precious Of the public domains.