New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-04-04
FORESTS AND FLOODS.
The Destruction of tbs Former the Cause Of
the Latter.

Many persons assume that great
flood contradicts the theory that cutting
away forests causes exceptionally low
water in the denudcd country.
The truth y, the destruction Of the
woods means water courses to run ex-
traordinarily low and high, according to
the season.
In 1881 we had the lowest water ever
known in the Ohio, and to-day we have
the highest water ever known. These
extremes equally illustrate the theory
we urge upon the attention OF the peo-
pie.
The reasons are perfectly distinct.
a mass OF mountains on the Allegheny,
Monongahela or Kanawha. Let us sup
pose them clothed with trees from foot
to crown, and with undcrbrush and
MOSES, with beds of half-dccaycd leaves,
resting upon soil that represents depos-
it's Of leaves and vegetable growth for
thousands Of years. Each mountain is
An enormous sponge. The rain may fall
for days, and the greater part is ab-
sorbed. saturating the soil, the grass,
the leaves, lingering in the bushes and
the trees. The half-decayed logs will
hold barrels Of water, and for weeks
after a heavy rain the moisture is trick
ling away in thousands of flush springs.
Cut away the trees-the underbrush
perishes, the moss is dried up, the soil
washed away and the rocks are exposed.
The rains descend, and the mountains
shed the water like the roofs OF houses.
All that falls makes its way into the tor
rents at once.
Take thousand mountains at the
head-waters of the Ohio and reduce
them to barrenness, and it follows that
the river is lower in dry weather and
higher in wet weather, and more and
more subject to extremes OF high and
low water.
| Disastrous as the food is to-day
unprecedented as it is-intelligent peo-
pie must be aware that very slight
changes in the atmospheric phenomena
Of the last fortnight would have given
us still more formidable river. The
rise that is so wonderful comes from
three transforms extending over a
week-and the sudden frost after the
second rain prevented the advance of
the waters from being much more rapid
than it has been.
Europe is suffering more from floods
than in former generations. They are
the clearly traced results of the destruc-
ton of forests, and made more destruc-
tive by system of levees that are
equally false and futile. The experience
of Hungary and Northern Italy is es-
pecially instructive.
The preservation of mountains from
destruction; that is, from becoming ut
terly barren-a desolation of rocks-is
a duty that public safety demands.
The greater part of Switzerland
would have been uninhabitable long ago
if it had not been for the systematic cul-
tivation and preservation of forests.
There are many mountain sides in
Switzerland that are wonderfully sup
ported by trees and shrubbery, cared for
with full appreciation Of their i'm
fportance.
The wasteful, reckless cutting of trees,
and carelessness. or worse, in burning
away wood lands, must stop, for it is a
public mischief. Forest culture in the
mountains is needed; and the whole
trouble is not in the higher lands. The
hillsides must be cared for, as well.
There is way Of blowing them that is
conservative-and when there is ten.
dency to wash they should be supported
by grasses. Here the rotation of crops
comes in, the preservation of brooks BY
the cultivation of willows, the restora.
ton Of land that is growing ragged
under the rains by the native forest
trees, or, If the case is bad, trees Of
quick growth. A magnificent forest Of
black locust can be raised from the
sprouts in from fifteen to twenty Gears
Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.