when snow melts on a barren hillside, a small
amount of the water sinks into the ground, but by far the greater part
of it runs off quickly and swells brooks and streams, thus causing
floods and freshets.

When, however, rain falls on a wooded slope, the action is reversed; a
small portion runs off, while the greater portion sinks into the soft
earth. This is due partly to the fact that the roots of trees by their
constant growth keep the soil loose and open, and form channels, as it
were, along which the water can easily run. It is due also to the
presence on the ground of decaying leaves and twigs, or humus. The
decaying vegetable matter which covers the forest floor acts more or
less as a sponge, and quickly absorbs falling rain and melting snow.
The water which thus passes into the humus and the soil beneath does
not remain there, but slowly seeps downward, and finally after weeks
and months emerges at a lower level as a stream. Brooks and springs
formed in this way are constant feeders of rivers and lakes.

In regions where the land has been deforested, the rivers run low in
season of prolonged drought, because the water which should have
slowly seeped through the soil, and then supplied the rivers for weeks
and months, ran off from the barren slopes in a few days.

Forests not only lessen the danger of floods, but they conserve our
waterways, preventing a dangerous high-water mark in the season of
heavy rains and melting snows, and then preventing a shrinkage in dry
seasons when the only feeders of the rivers are the underground
sources. In the summer of 1911, prolonged drought in North Carolina
lowered the rivers to such an extent that towns dependent upon them
suffered greatly. The city of Charlotte was reduced for a time to a
practically empty reservoir; washing and bathing were eliminated,
machinery dependent upon water-power and steam stood idle, and every
glass of water drunk was carefully reckoned. Thousands of gallons of
water were brought in tanks from neighboring cities, and were emptied
into the empty reservoir from whence it trickled slowly through the
city mains. The lack of water caused not only personal inconvenience
and business paralysis, but it occasioned real danger of disease
through unflushed sewers and insufficiently drained pipes.

The conservation of the forest means the conservation of our
waterways, whether these be used for transportation or as sources of
drinking water.

CH