How poorly we understand the use of these water supplies is evidenced yearly by destructive
freshets and tioods, with the accompanying washing of soil, followed by droughts, low waters, and
deterioration of agricultural lands. It is claimed that annually in the Unitecl States about 200
square miles of fertile soil are washed into brooks and rivers, a loss of soil capital which can not
be repaired for centuries. At the same time millions of dollars are appropriated yearly in the ri vei'
and harbor bills to dig out the lost farms from the rivers, and many thousands of dollars' worth of
crops and other property are destroyed by floods and overflows; not to count the large loss from
droughts which this country suflfers yearly in one part or the other, and which, undoubtedly, could
be largely avoided, if we knew how to manage the available water supplies.
The regulation, proper distribution, and utilization of the rain waters in humid as well as in
arid regions — water management — is to be the great i^roblem of succ^essful agriculture in the
future.
One of the most powerful means for such water management lies in the proper distribution
and maintenance of forest areas. Nay, we can say that the most successful water management is
not possible without forest management.
THE FOREST WATERS THE FARM.
