Connecticut western news., 1910-03-24
THE INFLUENCE OF
 FORESTS ON FLOODS
REPORT BY PROF. WILLIS L. MOORE
Chief of the United States Weather Bureau Asserts That DeforestatiOn Has No Effect in the Matter of Climate, Floods or Droughts.

Has No Effect in the Matter of
 Climate, Floods or Droughts.
 About year ago when Professor Willis L. Moore was before the Com mittee on Agriculture of the House of
 representatives,, in 1909, to explain the estimates for the Weather Bureau, a discussion arose as to the influence of forests on climate and on the run-off of water. Professor Moore stated that he was then making some studies on the subject which might lead to some definite conclusions, and he was re- quested by the chairman of the com mittee to continue these studies and make a report when they were concluded. | This has been done, and the report submitted by Professor Moore under the title of "The Influence of Forests on Climate and on Floods"
 Space forbids more than n short sum- mary of the report, bat enough to show that Professor Moore disagrees with nearly all other writers on the subject regarding the injury caused by defores5. ation. In the beginning he acknowledges a change of opinion due to an exhaustive study of the subject in the following words: ..
 It has frequently been stated that forests control the flow of streams, both ill high-water stages and low-water stages, and that the climate is so materially affected by the cutting away of the forests that droughts have lnTselv increased aud that the wellheing Gf 1 future generations Is seriously meIaced. It is my purpose to present facts and figures that do not support these views, some of which. especially those that pertain to the flow of streams, were held by me up to few years ago-until careful study of our own and other records and of the incidents of history caused me to modify my opinions. I shall endeavor not be dogmatic. but rather to present the reasons for the conclusions that now entertain, with, so tar as may be, statistical and historical evidence to sustain them, And I re. serve the right to change or still further modify my views if the presentation of new facts and figures render such a course logical, and do not consider that I shall stultify myself in SO doing.
 There are so many reasons why forests should be protected by the state and the nation and economically conserved in the interests of the whole people that it is doing an injury to a good cause to at- tempt to bring to it's support the false reasoning and mistaken conclusions of enthusiasts, no matter how we'll mean ing they may be or how devoted to high and lofty purposes.
 Conservation of national economy, just as conservation of private resources is personal economy. There shonld be neither wasteful uses of resources nor that greatest waste of all, total disuse of them, but that economical use which ln the end will have yielded the great est good to the greatest number.
 Preservation of the forests, cutting wisely, but never more than they re- produce, enables us to draw from 8 per petual supply certain quantity of material for build ings, for furniture, and for fuel. But of course the for ested landNields not 8 handful of wheat nor of corn and makes but a wretched substitute for the pasture upon which to feed mllch COWS and beef cattle. These conflicting interests, the plead ing of the poor mans children for bre ad and meat and the cry of the country for the lumber that only 0 woodland can furnish would, if there were no other interests to modity the result, somewhere find an ineYitable balance. But just as the body is more important than its raiment, so, too, is it's food more important than its shelte-; and therefore in every country the general tendency, with growth of population, is to convert forest lands into cultivated fields, and this tendency should not be that deforestation has augmented thoughts and floods, and I believe that it can not be so shown; believe that forests should be preserved for them selves alone, or not at all.
 MT Moore treats of all the phases of the subject; effect of forests on climate, on run-off and absorption, erosion, etc, and illustrates the various points of his argument with maps, diagrams and tables, and ends with the following conclusions:
 CD Any marked climatic changes that may have taken place are of wide extent and are not local, are appreciable only when measured in geologic periods,