The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-09
DEFORESTATION AND THE
ANNUAL FLOOD LOSSES
National ProdigaIity in LAUNDERING Now Bring
ing Dire Consequences to the
Entire Country.

a 1aif dozen pig cities IN the upidnuS
OF $50 cities lying below the ''fall
line of eastern rivers between New
England and the Tooth Meridian, 204
with an aggregate population of about
100000 are river towns. All these
cities, through their churches, pray
weekly for deEverance from war, pesti'
lence, fire, flood and famine; and
through the exercise of modern inven-
ton and discovery have proved their
ability to successfully combat all but
one. The flood problem has not been
met and grows bigger every year.
Dwellers in these river towns and in
the valleys have learned to expect a
flood at periods of three, five, or, at
most, ten years The more intelligent,
those who have really awakened to the
gravity of the situation, are asking
government aid in defending themselves
against these floods. They ask for great
storage reservoirs at the headwaters of
| the principal rivers, where the surplus
from thaws and spring rains can be held
and sent down the rivers later, or, in
the West, diverted to the irrigation
projects. They ask for the building of
| levees and cut-offs on flood plains as a
temporary measure, but above all they
are asking for preservation of the
forests on mountain and hill, and a
careful reforesting of all denuded
slopes
The total area of the watershed of
the Mississippi is 1,259,0O0 square
miles, and during great floods it dis
charges 100000 cubic feet of water
every second. 1t carries an alluvial
| deposit that has formed new land from
| forty feet deep at Omaha to 800 feet
deep below New Orleans, covering So,
! 900 square miles, surface the size of
| the state of Montana, with an average
of 10 feet of alluvial soil, and using
material stolen, unchallenged, from hills
and farm lands. The yearly decrease of
the habitable part of the whole earth
is reckoned at $500 square miles. 1t
goes to the seas in the form of silt and
much of it can be charged to man s
carelessness.
Floods come from early spring rains
falling on frozen ground, from the
forming of sudden ice gorges in streams,
from unusual local rainfalls, from land.
slides, and like phenomena, but the
usual ones come from the lack of means
for holding the early spring waters on
the mountain sides. The floods of the
Missouri and Mississippi usually last
longest, sometimes from January to
July, because of the slow advance or
the sun over the widely diversified
headwaters. Those of the Ohio, the
most terrible on the earth s surface
are usually precipitated suddenly by
the releasing of all the SHOWS at once
in the headwaters which lie parallel
to the equator. The water released
forms volume 100 feet high, 600 feet
wide and 800 feet long, to be hurled
suddenly at civilization.
Last spring the loss caused by the
Ohio floods aggregated over 100000
900, about one-ffth of the sum that
Congress would have to appropriate to
purchase the whole Appalachian system
of river headwaters, and establish
enough reservoirs to hold the spring
surplus, and protect billions of dollars
worth of property indefinitely. The
Geological Survey shows that the flow
of 1850 square miles, or thirty-fve
per cent. of the drainage area of the
Monongahela can be stored, and re-
leased in dry weather to increase the
depth of the channel six feet, and in
cidentally protect Pittsburg. Foresta-
tion there and on other watersheds of
the East, would cause a storage of from
four to six inches more water annual
ly. A minimum of 100000 horse pow
err is developed in these headwaters ev. |
cry year, and according to the Geolog. |
lcal Survey, fifty per cent. or more is
for economic uses and would |
bring a rental of SOS, 0O0,0 00 By stor-
ing the spring floods and releasing them |
HppnaninCr ha no -
enormous sums for dredging and i'm |
proving river beds would be saved The
government has spent $30,000,000 i'm
proving the rivers of the Appalachian
system and is spending $4,000. 900 |
more, expecting to increase the 10000.
600 tons of freight shipped annually
over water routes to much greater
amount.
Floods bear direct relation to bust.
ness depression, and the relation to hui
man suffering, property loss and spread
IF disease is vital. During the 1907
'prlng flood, 100000 working people in
were rendered idle for an
average period of a week, and many
we're homeless. The floods of 1S47,
-S52 and 1883 We're followed down the
Valley by cholera and other
'PiueiHIcS. LII the spring OF l9U3, |
100000 acres of land were laid waste
n the West and $4O,O00.000 worth of
property destroyed. In 1901 and again
n 1902, the southern Appalachian dis
rict lost $10,000,000 In 1888, the loss
o Cincinnati alone was $l,500.000 and
he Mississippi Valley suffered to the
xtent of $50,000,000 The flood OF
S97 cost the valley $15,000,00O, while
he flood in the Monongahela Valley
ost Western Pennsylvania 81 900. 600
The lesson of the Old World is be- 1
ore us Southern Europe and Asia are
s skeletons of former selves, for each
alton in turn has given its forests to
lisguided civilizers. Northern Africa,
nee having a climate of our Gulf I
tates, IS now ninety-fve per cent.
-erIIe- Greece is becoming more bar
IN, Sicily is typhus-infested, France
ad been damaged to the extent of IN,
I'D millions before she undertook to
tforest her hills. The Rhone, the Pc,
lie Adige. the Ebro, the Guadalquiver. Y