The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-04-25
Forests and Floods.


| Many sersons assume that q great
flood Contradicts the theory that
cutting away forests causes excep-
tionally low water in the denuded
country.
The truth is, the destruction of the
woods weans water courses to run
extraordinarily low and high, accord
| ing 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
1 illustrate the theory we urge upon
the attention of the people.
The reasons are perfectly distinct,
mass of mountains on the Ale
gheny, Monongahela or Kanawha
Let us suppose them clothed with
trees from foot to crown, and with
underbrush and moses, with beds
of half-decayed leaves, resting upon
soil that represents deposits ofleaves
and vegetable growth for thousands
of years. Each mountain is an
enormous sponge. The rain may
fall for days, and the greater part is
absorbed, saturating the soil, the
grass, the leaves, lingering in the
bushes and the trees. The half-de-
cayed logs viii hold barrels ofwater,
and for weeks after a heavy rain the
moisture is trickling away in thous-
ands of flush springs.
Cut away the trees-the under
brush 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 torrents
at once.
Take a thousand mountains at
the head-water of the Ohio and re-
duce them to barrenuess, and it
| follows that the river is lower in drip
weather and higher In wet weather,
and more and more subject to ex-
tremes of high and low water.
Disastrous as the food is to-day
unprecedented as it is-intelligennt
people must be aware that very
Slight changes in the atmospheric
phenomena of the last fortnight
would have given US q still more
formidable river. The rise that is so
wonderful comes from three rain
storms-extending over 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 destruction of forests, and
made more destructive by a system
of levees that are equally false and
futile. The experience of Hungary
and Northern Italy is especially in
structive.
The preservation of mountains
from destruction; that is, from be-
coming utterly barren-a desolatioE
of rocks-is duty that public safety
demands.
TIE greater part of Switzerland
would have been uninhabitable long
ago it it had not been for the system
attic cultivation and preservation OF
forests. There are many mountain
sides in Switzerland that are won
derfully supported by trees and
shrubbery, cared for with full APP
probation of their importance.
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 hill
side must be cared for. as well.
There is a way for pl0wing them
that is conservative-aHd when there
is a tendency TO wash they should be
supported by grasses. Here the ro-
tation of crops comes In, the preser-
vation of brooks by the cultivation
of willows. the restoration 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
wears. Cincinnati Commercial Ga
-pfte