Amador ledger., 1908-09-11
AMERICA TO BECOME
A DREARY DESERT
Unless Reckless Waste of Forests and Mines
is Stopped.

/
after many years spent in its study,
leads in all human knowledge as tC
It's history, is possibilities and its
destiny. Coming later, Pinchot has
revealed the locked secrets and trea
sures of the forests.
The Value of Water.
Water is the beginning of all value,
and, paradoxical as it may seem, is
very largely the substance of 1t. Nc.
Gee is the water prophet of America,
proclaiming its power and sovereignty
and voicing its warnings through the
present to posterity. Trees are the
pillars of its throne, and Pinchot is
their Interpreter. The conservation
commission, therefore, has imperative
need for both men.
"What is meant by the conservation
of natural resources?" asked.
'That the waste and improper use of
water, forests, minerals and land be
stopped. Considering land to be the
greatest of all values the first settlers
chopped down their trees that they
might plant their fields in corn, wheat
and fodder for their stock. Then
came the discovery of coal and iron
and another base of value was added
to our resources. So we became a
nation of farmers and manufacturers.
We tore open the earth for minerals
and stripped the land of its forests
that we might obtain lumber.
We Now Realize Our Danger.
81 suppose we would have laughed
had we been told that we were also
developing the greatest desert in his
tory. We failed to perceive that il
we wasted all the wealth about us
little by little we should be checked
until there came a pause, and then a
slow but ever increasing descent into
poverty and absolute barrenness.
Happily, we now realize our danger,
and let me add, none too soon. Un-
less there is change of methods and
adequate protection the Southern
Appalachian region, which comprises
the rich country from Maryland to
Northern Alabama, will soon be dead
agriculturhlIy.
Chow do forests prevent floods?"
asked.
"When there Is a rain on, the prair-
les the water falls directly on the
ground and runs away in tiny
trenches, carrying considerable of
the top soil with it. In the forests,
however, rain does not fall directly
on the ground, but on the foliage and
limbs of the trees. So the water runs
down the trunks, drips from the
leaves, or is turned into spray. The
mulch of decayed vegetable matter
on the ground takes up the rain as it
falls and holds it like sponge.
There is no violence, you see, as on
the prairies. Ihe water slowly seeps
into the earth to re-appear in natural
springs or to trickIe into the neigh
boring streams, thus regulating the
uniformity of their flow. Such
streams never dry up or overrun their
| banks.
"Settlers east of the Mississippi
River nearly always built their cabins
near a spring or a stream of clear
water. AS the surrounding forests
we're cut away the springs disappear
ed and the streams became torrents
in the spring and autumn and vanish
ed altogether in summer. Floods are
not the natural operations of nature.
Man came in with his Ak to get al
the soil and to build houses ano
towns, and, natures equilibrium be
ing disturbed, there we're seasons ot
riot in water; now too much, anc
again none Whatever.
Mississippi Floods Can BE Stopped.
1.-The floods in the Mississippi cal
he stopped entirely So can tht
floods of every other river in tht
country. Trees are NATURES one anC
only preventive. We see the visible
destruction OF flood, towns inun
dated and farms swept bare of builC
ings and crops, but the invisible de
structon IS infinitely worse. Tn
waste Of water is by all odds tn
greatest question of the age. w
waste 1t because we fail to understand
its value and its uses. Water ha
given to every city lot in the countr
and to every acre of agriculture
land 80 per cent of their marke
value. Yet if there is too much waite
the land is practically worthless. S
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