The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-04
OUR FOREST POLICY.
Uncle Sam is waking to Realize De-
 struetiOm of the Woods.

struetiOn of the Woods.
 Boston Herald.
 We have come to the end of that dream of the inexhaustibleness of the supply of farms and forests. Now, at immense expense, Uncle Sam is en- gased m g storing the water that falls fertility in, regions of barrenness in or- der that tillabie land may be provided for those who will make 1t fruitful. that our forest policy has been waste ful of resources almost beyond possi- bility of calculation. The lesson which learned that the destruction of the for. ests Is a policy that tends to the lm- poverishment of the people Is now borne in upon us with force. We are ural science that the mountain forests are not only one important source of the fertility. of the plains, but the guarantee Of its continuance, and the most perfect security against freshets that i'll the beds of rivers with earth and cause destructive overflow of their banks, wasting the labor bestowed on roads and structures and crops.
 Ages have been required for the slow gathering on mountain sides of the thin soil which supports the growth of forests that in turn add an Increment to the soil. When the forests are cut away this double growth ceases. It Is common opinion that a new growth of trees will at once begin and flour of shade, exposed to the sun and winds its binding network of living roots de- caying. the soil is washed by the fl pods from the rocks. leaving them bare, Wherever, as has been the case over square miles, fires have followed the lumberman's work, and often have far overpassed the extent of 1t. the seeds of vegetable life are destroyed. Irrem- ediable barrenness succeeds. No long CT does a spongy mold absorb the rain and hold 1t, to be slowly drained away. The torrents of the storm flow down the mountain sides unchecked and fr- resistible, doing vast damage hundreds of miles away.
 The most extensive. diversified, and valuable forest in the United States east of the Mississippi river, Is that of the Southern Appalachian ranges, coy- ertng an area estimated to be 4,O0O 900 acres, acres, in @ @wirginia, West Virginia. Ken> South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Here are the sources of great rivers that how southeaaterly into the Allan tic. southerly into the Gulf of Mexico. and winding through Western V3r- ginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, con stitute the feeders of the Ohio, a main tributary of the Mississippi which aI- 80 has its outlet in the gulf. It is cer- tain that the denudation of these ranges of their noble virginai forest in which are 1S7 different varieties of
 
 government experts, including the fin- est virgtnal hardwood groves on the continent. would. in the judgment of scientific men, affect all these States with serious and continuing losses losses Yet this work of devastation is going on with increasing rapidity, and in a few years will be practically complete. unless 1t is arrested by the appropria- ton of these mountain masses as a government reservation, a step which the States concerned are ready to support and aid.
 It Is estimated by the Committee of the United States Senate an Forest Reservations that during the last wear floods In the rivers of the Piedmont ginia and Eastern Tennessee swept away buildings, farms. bridges and woods exceeding in value the sum of ssiisS.Ogv9:Ooo. sis. and that a large part of the forests about the river sources had been preserved and protected. The Secretary of Agriculture, in report to the President, says that more good soil Is now washed from these cleared mountain side fields during Q heavy rain than during centuries under a cleared lands are not permanently available for farms. Their soil is rap idly carried of. What becomes of it? It makes unnavigable and useless for commercial purposes hundreds of miles Of formerly navigable rivers. It goes to i'll up harbOrs that must be contin- ually dredged at large cost to be avail able Tor shipping. The waterfall over about 100 inches in the year. Under natural conditions 1t was drained or slowly; under artificial conditions 1t rushes In deluges through the streams to the sea, Q source of harm instead of benefit.
 This is much the most important topic affecting the prosperity of the Eastern and most populous section of the country. Whatever difficulties are In the way a means to surmount them should be found This protection is tenn of the Mississippi river. the dredg- ing of our ocean ports, and tue con- struetion of breakwaters for their poo lection. It is of much more immedI- | ton than the great augmentation of the navy that is being pressed with what appears to be quite unnecessary l urgency.