Hon. Warren Higley, of New York city, and President of the American Forestry Congress, said in his address before the Congress at Boston: "There is an abundant evidence of the effects of cutting off the forests. In Central New York, streams that thirty or forty years ago kept the ponds well filled for the saw-mill and grist-mill, and furnished a never-failing supply of running water for the farm, are now dry in summer, with the exception of here and there a stagnant pool; the dam is decayed and washed away, the mills gone, and the once picturesque scene is changed to that of desolation. Yet, with the warm rains of spring and the melting snows, the streams overflow their banks, the swift waters carry away fences, bridges and embankments. Spring opens later. The young cattle were wont to be turned into the wood-sheltered pasture about the first of April; now they are kept shut up until the middle of May. Peach orchards that were sure to be loaded every year with luscious fruit have almost disappeared, and the crop is the exception rather than the rule. The extremes of heat and cold are greater, and droughts in summer and floods in springtime are more frequent and more destructive. Trace the stream to its source and the cause of these things is apparent. The old Tamarack swamp, that used to supply the boys and girls with aromatic gum, and in which the creek had its source, has all been cut away. The thickly wooded black-ash swamps, through which the stream ran in its course to the lake, have been cleared, and their marshy areas have given place to cultivated fields and pastures. The cutting away the forests from the headwaters and the banks of the stream accounts for the changes I have noted, and this picture, I doubt not, is a very familiar one in the New England and Middle States. It is not difficult for men who know the effects of cutting the timber from small areas around the headwaters of the smaller streams to understand why summer navigation in the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Ohio has become difficult and at times impossible where it was easy and constant a few years ago; or why the Hudson or the Connecticut are much lower in summer and higher in spring than in former years. The partial deforesting of the Adirondack region has materially affected the flow of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Black, and other rivers, and sufficiently demonstrated the fact that were this great water-shed of New York stripped of its forest covering, the Empire State would lose her

prestige and New York city her rank as the first commercial city of the New World."

Information gathered by this Commission from the forest preserve goes to show the diminution of springs and streams in that region. Mr. C. B. Tillinghast writes that there has been "a falling off in the flow of certain streams and a noticeable change in the character of the timber along the brooks within a few years."

Mr. Morton S. Parmelee, of Malone, Franklin county, speaking from his own observation for the past ten years in that vicinity, sayз that some of the brooks and springs have dried up, and adds: "Whether the flow of the rivers is materially lessened is hard to state positively. It seems to me that our river (the Salmon), on which we run two gang saw-mills and a planing-mill, shrinks yearly, though now and then there is a wet season like 1886, which upsets the record. There is this to be said about the Salmon river: We own most of the land around its headwaters and we jealously guard the stream and its tributaries, not allowing the alders on its bank to be cut, or any timber except the large and dead spruces." Mr. John C. Birdseye, Jr., of Onondaga county, informs us that the streams of that county, where he lived as a boy, have visibly failed within his memory, although he is still a young man only twenty-five years of age. There was, at Conkling's Falls, a grist and saw-mill which, he says, in his boyhood had a plentiful supply of water. Then it gradually diminished. At first a spasmodic flow was marked; heavy freshets in spring, then low water in summer, until the water failed and it was necessary to run the mills by steam. So at Pratt's Falls, a few years ago, the flow of water was abundant. The story was repeated there; violent freshets in spring followed by the usual failure, until now, in summer, hardly a pailful runs over the falls. In this latter case there was formerly a swamp, some five or six miles above the falls, which has been "reclaimed” and all the trees and shrubs cut off. All these changes have occurred within fifteen years.

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The reports of the Superintendent of Public Works, make yearly appeals for the adoption of measures to replenish the constantly diminishing supply of water for our State canals and assert that observation shows the water in the upper Hudson and its tributary streams to be failing. Dr. Hough some years since called attention to the fact that all the streams in Albany county were subject to

extremes of flood and drought, and many now living can remember the ruins of grist and saw mills which once stood near Albany, and whose wheels were supplied with a plentiful and regular flow of water from streams whose beds are now dry, or only serve as channels for torrents which carry off heavy rains or melting snow. Not only in Albany county but in many counties of the State, can be seen cattle driven long distances during the summer to find water on farms whose brooks and springs yielded an ample store within the memory of those now living.

We have already given to our readers (page 15) Mr. Kenwill's letter testifying to his knowledge of springs having dried up that had heretofore never been dry. The report of the United States Forestry Division for 1885 asserts that "hardly anything can be regarded as being better settled, by extended observation, than that the forests are great regulators of the distribution of the water precipitated from the clouds, and consequently of the flow of streams. By their shade and by the obstruction which they offer to sweeping winds they lessen the evaporation which would otherwise carry off speedily from the ground much of the rainfall, while the loose, spongy soil, formed by the accumulation of their fallen leaves, absorbs the water precipitated from the sky or produced by the melting of the winter's snow, and cause it to flow off gradually into the channels of the streams instead of being allowed to flood them at once and produce at times devastating torrents. It is a well-established fact, obvious to all whose observation reaches through any considerable period of time, that with the clearing away of the forests to secure land for agricultural purposes or to convert them into lumber, the lesser streams have diminished in volume and the larger streams, for this reason, have become less navigable, and therefore less available for commerce. Instances might be adduced, without difficulty, of saw-mills and other woodworking establishments which have been erected upon streams flowing through or near forests, with the design of using the material near at hand, where the process of cutting away the trees has so diminished the amount of water that the requisite power has failed, and the owners have been compelled to build new dams and duplicate their machinery so as to use the diminished water supply a second time as the only means of continuing their business. The manufacturers, on many of our streams, have been obliged to thus

duplicate their machinery, or to build reservoirs at great cost, in which to store up the superabundant water of flood-times for use in times of drought, or to supplement their deficient water power by the introduction of the auxiliary power of steam."

In 1881 the State of New Hampshire appointed an able commission to inquire into the extent to which the forests of the State were being destroyed, and the effect produced by their destruction. upon rainfall, ponds and streams. That commission, after protracted and extensive inquiry of several years, made its report, which is one of great value, not only for the people of New Hampshire, but for those of many other States. For the purpose of ascertaining the facts of the case the Commission sent out circulars to the town authorities and to many others, especially of the older inhabitants, asking them whether the amount of water in the streams, ponds and springs in their vicinity had diminished within their memory; and if so whether the removal of woods and forests had anything to do with it. From the replies to these circulars it is very clear that the destruction of the forests has had serious effects.

Among the facts reported the following may be taken as examples of the general testimony. A small stream in the southern part of the State in the town of Richmond, in 1865, furnished power sufficient for four saw-mills nearly all the year. It began to dry up as the cutting of the timber commenced in its vicinity, and the water and the woods have now disappeared together. In the adjoining towns of Fitzwilliam and Rindge the same results have been reached. Well known trout streams, once well stocked, are now dry one-half of the year, the ground having become treeless. In Chesterfield the flow of the streams is reported as more irregular than in early times. The same is true of the streams about Nashua. The Merrimac river, so important for manufacturing purposes, is protected from great variations in its volume from month to month by means of large ponds and dams, but one of the oldest inhabitants of Franklin, who has observed the river for sixty years, thinks its volume has diminished one-fourth in that period. One who has given much attention to the subject is confident that the water in the Contoocook river has decreased one-third, even within twenty years, and that its tributaries have fallen off still more. At Hanover it is said the Connecticut river for many years has been decreasing in volume, and with increasing rapidity the timber from its head

waters has been floating by. In Canaan, sixty-five years ago, there were nine or more mills, abundant water power all the year round, no thought of reservoirs, double dams or precautions against drought. A native of the place, returning after an absence of thirty years, found the hills and rocks bare, the springs choked up and the mills obliged to resort to steam power or lie idle. Even in the northern counties, where the timber is still comparatively abundant, similar testimony is given. In the town of Littleton, three of its oldest citizens testify that the power of the Ammonoosuc at that point has diminished one-third within fifty or sixty years. An intelligent observer at Berlin, on the Androscoggin, says that the water in eight brooks and two ponds in his vicinity has materially diminished within twenty-six years. Six years ago he supplied his stock with water from what was then an unfailing brook, by means of an aqueduct, which furnished 300 gallons per hour. Now that the trees along the stream have been destroyed by the woodman's ax and by forest fires, his water supply is cut short in summer by drought and in winter by frost.

The geological character of New Hampshire is such that it must continue largely a wood and timber-bearing State. Nature herself, say the commissioners, "in the very configuration of the State's surface, and in the character of its soil, absolutely commands that whatever may be the preference of its inhabitants, at least one-half of it shall remain perpetually devoted to the production of wood and timber, and that what nature has unalterably ordained it becomes them to accept." Accepting this ordinance of nature, the wooded area in limited districts has been allowed to increase, and in every instance where the decrease of water power has been checked or averted, the commissioners say that it has been by means of the preservation or restoration of the forests. The regulative power of forests receives important testimony in its favor also from the geological report of the State, from which we have the statement that when in the central and southern portions of the State the hay crop has been cut short by drought, it has been known to be above the average in the northern part even with less rainfall, and for the reason that the forests secure a better distribution of the results of rainfall and melted snow. In short the proper storage and distribution of our water supply are of much greater importance to us than the amount received.