The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-02
BY WILLIAM F. COLLINS
Times Special Writer

CARRYING back over the years
~ that separate my present life
in Indiana from the years 1 spent
along the Mississippi river, 1 find
in my innermost fiber an intense
love for foreSted areas. Steffanson,
born on the great plains of the
Dakotas, felt hedged in and sub
dued by a forest and exhilarated
and alive on the prairie. Forests
affect me as the plains did him,
and I have a deep conviction that
many of the problems Of conserva-
ton can be solved by use of trees.
There exists in Indiana a group
of men imbued with the same con-
viction. Among leaders of this
group stands A. F. Andrews OF the
Farmers Guide, in Huntington In
an excellent article in his magazine
of Aug. /. under the title. Eighteen
Millions Sought for Indiana Flood
Control" he develops the germ of
an idea upon which I beg to elabo-
rate.
This business of flood control is
primarily a business of protecting
watersheds. It is less costly than
digging mammoth ponds or erecting
mountainous levees adjacent to the
outlet of rivers to store up or hold
black a flood already out of con-
troll. Control anything at its source
and you won't be worried with it
at its destination.
MATURE furnished us with Two
IN excellent mediums of flood
control-graSs and trees. In these
we have a good soil cover and good
absorbing sponge. They can be
used at any place along the line of
water runoff, but are most effective
at the starting point.
To illustrate: Their use in south
ern Indiana by the process of ac-
curing forest lands there by the
state will not help Huntington
county at all with her flood prob
lens. while a forest in Huntington
county marginal to her streams
would be of considerable help to
southern Indiana.
As Andrews points out, timber
land absorbs thirty times more water
than grass land to the inch OF
depth: 200 times more water than
freshly plOved ground; and the
factor of comparison with hard
earth. or with land eroded down to
mineral earth, is tremendously
greater.
But grass land erOdes only an
average of eight inches in 1000
years. as against a forest erosion of
half that. according to Missouri
agricultural estimate.
These facts indicate to us that
grass should be used to prevent
erosion. timber to hold back and
store I'D the water, and a comblna-
ton of both used judiciously where
a high slope prevents proper torma-
ton of sod.
WITH this in mind, let us fig
w ure out a rational program
of flood defense rather than flood
control" for Indiana Start now
with one stream, the MiSSiSSineWa,
the Eel, the SaIamonie, or the Tip
pecanoe. Use the next available
forestry money of the state to buy
up the bluffs, the flooded bottoms,
the washed hillsides. the farmed
and unframed stream banks as COM
pletely as possible. and with due
consideration for rights of riparian
owners, so long as these rights do
not interfere with rights of the
state.
Timber or grass the areas obtained.
to create a long. Sinuous state for
est or river forest, following the
main stream and its smaller con-
huences from the source to the out
let. Such excellent bottom lands as
do not contribute largely to the
flood or erosion problem should be
left for agriculture.
Now try to visualize what pro-
gram of this nature will mean to
our three most interested citizens.
Mr.. Taxpayer. Mr. Business Man
and Mr.. Outdoor Man.
MIR. TAXPAYER, 1t will save
WI you several million dollars
year for new bridges to take the
place of old ones washed out as a
result of land being plowed to the
waters edge. Several more millions