New Britain herald., 1915-07-29
HARM TO FOREST
 SPELLS FARM RUIN
Regions in This Country Where Wooded Tracts Help RuralitieS

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 Washington. July zs.--In regions where timber is the most important natural resource permanent forests managed with view to sustained timber production are absolutely es- sential to the continuance of agriepJ- ture, according to an article in the Department sof.s|AgrieuItuFe just pub lished. The result of exploiting tho timber without thought of the future is the final l'disappearancc of numbering operations and therefore the with drawal of an important local market fer farm products. In addition. forsst fires often ravage the. cut-over lands and thus preclude the development of a new local market by the resumption of numbering; for after fire there Is no chance for a new crop of trees, Market Disappears With Workers.
 From region where productive timberland has been converted into barren waste, the farmers usually havo to move out. There are parts of tho United States in which cultivation ef the soil has ended with the cessation of local numbering, or at least shortly afterward, because with the with- drawaf of the woods-worleers went tho farmers market for meats, vegetables. hay, and grain There are other regions where the stability of local agriculture is absolutely bound up with forest protection. This is strik- ingly true in, parts of the Appalacniap mountains of the east; it is no less if1ny nf al vegions of the west
 Forest Homestead Act.
 A few years ago. continues the ar- ticle, more than hundred farmers in Montana petitioned against the then proposed elimination of their section from the Kootenai National Forest Its elimination. they knew, from the history of adjacent land outside the forest, would mean that it would at once be taken up by timber specula- tors and lumber companies to be held for years without development. They knew also that if this came about neighbors could not be obtained or roads ond schools be developed in the country as rapidly as if the land se- mained under government control, by which the portions really more suit
 
 purposes would in time be entered by Homestead act,
 Watersheds Need Projection.
 In 1911, an association of Colorado farmers, who irrigated .their farms with water from the North Platte riverk sent an urgent request to Che government to restrict timber cutting on the North Platte watershed. s9 that as far as possible. high spring freshets could be prevented and more water made available for irrigation during the summer months, when the crops were most in need. They said that they relied upon the national forest, within which the watershed lay, to ens1xe a steady flow of water for their croRs.
 Obtain Wood and Water.
 The national. forests, says the ar ticle, besides being the American far mer's most valuable source Of wooA which is the chief building material for rurol purposes. are also his most valuable source of water. both for fr- rigation and domestic use. In thn west, they afford him d protected grazing range for his stock; they ard the best insurance against flood daIn- age to his fields, his buildings. hid bridges. his roads and the fertility ot his soil. The national forests cover the hisher portions of the Rocky Mountain ranges, the Cascades. the Pacific coast ranges, and large past of the forested coast and islands df Alaska; some of the hilly rceions ih Montana and in the Dakotas, Okls+ homa, and Arkansas. and limited areas in Minnesota, Michigan. Florida and Porto Rico Tn addition. land IS now being purchased for national for ests in the Wi'ite Mountains of New England and in tho southern Appa- lachians Tn regions so widely seats tered, agricultural and forest copdi- tions necessarily differ to great del gree, bringing about correspondinr differences in the effect of the national forests on the agricultural interests of the various localities. Wherever az riculture can be practiced, howevcr. the farmer is directly beneftted bv the existence of national forests and by their proper management