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Show THE FORESTRY RESERVES. Not many Americans realize the very great importance of saving the forests that we have and adding to them. Much land, millions of acres for that matter, around the Mediterranean sea that were once fertile are now but wastes of sand. The change came through the clearing of the forests that caught and held the moisture for distribution distribu-tion to keep the life in the earth. We talk, here in the west, of making storage reservoirs to impound the flood waters of the spring, that it may later be gradually let out upon the land to sustain the crops in the late summer. Well, every tree is in itself a storage reservoir. When the rains or snows have fallen the tree becomes a reservoir; it sends its shade down to hold the moisture that there may be no swift running away or evaporation of the moisture at the surface sur-face of the ground; from the ground low shrubs spring up, which further retard the melting of the snows; the deep woods prevent freshets. We predict that before many years the water sheds of the great eastern rivers will be planted thick with trees and thrubs, or the desert will encroach upon the lands along their banks. The nations of Europe Eu-rope are most careful of their forests. They will permit the cutting of only large and old trees. The young trees are carefully cherished, for they have learned that with the destruction of their forests, there follow fierce freshets and droughts. The birds that destroy so many insects also disappear, dis-appear, and lands that were once fertile become arid. We think if every one who owns land would cover a small percentage with trees his profits from the rest would be greater, the value of the whole would be enhanced. |