The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-09-02
About Floods.
Was the recent flood just an accident?
La there q reason for the flood of 1905 being

Was the recent food Just an accident?
Is there q reason for the flood of 1905 being a
greaterflood than that Of 1855?
Are we to expect a greater flood sometime
in the near future?
1t is time for the people of the Piedmont to
sit up and take notice. These floods do not
come by accident. The flood OF last week
would have been impossible 100 years age.
It tells the tale Of denuded forests, OF wasted
hillsides, and naked valleys.
For years the waste has been going on with
even increasing intensity, and now nature
unable to restrain the elements hes
loosened her hold upon the waters and
devastation Is the result.
Years ago q drop Of water fell on a straw or
on q tree, down the stem Of q weed 1t ran un-
til Is struck the spongy grass on the earth
seeking its level 1t percolated through need
% OF pine and rotton leaves and roots. Very
slowly 1t went on Its way ever meeting with
resistance. Now and then a drop disappeared
In q rotton tree root. Deep down In the earth
1t went to replenish the ever wasting springs
and wells. Dead logs soaked up gallons Of
water there, as 30 many sponges. The earth
covered with heritage offered no surface for
erosion and after hours the drops would
emerge Into the valley clear and sparkling ss
when 1t fell above. 1t brought no earth with
II, 1t made no gullies, 1t consumed much time
in making Its trip and when 1t entered the
stream below II was a tiny sparkling rivulet
instead of a seething muddy cataclysm-that
was years ago.
Now, since the forests are cut down and
the hillside devastated when the drop falls
on the cotton or corn bed no straw or roots or
leaves impede its progress but headlong 1t
pitches to the furrow when 1t is met by other
drops and forms q muddy rlll, rs per cent Of
which is earth. The rill is Joined by rills from
thousands OF other furrows and precipitately
they race for the bottoms. In an incredible
short time the water is in the branch or
creek, Joined by waters from all over the
country. Quickly the streams rise and 60
forth on their mission OF destruction.
The Springs are gradually impoverished, the
wells keep recedipg. We think that 1t is
because OF an extraordinary dry year but we
ought 10 know better. In the vacinity Of
Chicago the Wells have receded in some
places as much as fifteen feet. Your well
which you have deepened once already will
have 10 be deepened again In the canse Of 20
years, The water is going because the rains
that fall cannot enter the ground. They fall
anu m66tluB uO dDntI dCllOu, lush Oh Pcil-
nell with little or no percolaten.
Go out after a hard rain, 60 into your plow-
ed ground even, and with a hoe examine the
depth of the water soaked earth. 1t will not
be deep, the water has gone to the branch
to the river, to the Ocean.
China has been denuded of its forests for
hundreds OF years. Today she is subject to
floods and terrible death dealing overtiows.
t-
together because there is no underground
water and no way for 1t TO get there. The
people of China are dependent on the rivers
for drinking water.
This is a gloomy prospect to face but as
sure as we 70 on with our waste OF forests as
we have in the past just as surely will we
reap the reward OF China.
It is time for the People Of Piedmont to sit
up and take notice. Let US work for Forest
Reservation unless we would court destruo-
ton. |