Checking the Waste

M >> Mary Huston Gregory >> Checking the Waste

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Not individuals only, but states and the national government as well,
should provide forests for the future, and this is the greatest duty of
all, for much of the most important work can only be done by a power
that can control the entire watershed at the head-waters of a
river-system.

For example, the Appalachian Mountains are the source of hundreds of
streams which flow east, west and south, and pass through many states.
These mountains were originally covered with a heavy forest growth, but
they belong largely to private companies who are cutting the forests at
a rapid rate.

The effect of this is seen in bare hillsides, washed by mountain
torrents which are causing disastrous floods on the lowlands, filling up
the streams, and carrying away much of the most fertile soil of some of
the southeastern states, and in the drying up of the small tributaries.

This can not be remedied by single companies nor by the states that
suffer most. The only remedy is for the government to buy the land at
the head-waters of the rivers and reforest it. The same conditions on a
smaller scale are to be found in every mountainous region where the
forests are cut away.

The United States owns a large amount of forest but not nearly enough to
insure a supply of wood for the future. The public forest lands are
nearly all in the West. They consist of national forests, national
parks, Indian and military reservations and land open to entry as timber
claims. In all they contain nearly 100,000,000 acres, or about half as
much as is contained in farmers' wood-lots and about one-fourth as much
as the amount owned by large lumber companies.

The United States, on its public domain, is setting about a careful
system of cutting and replanting. This system is known as forestry. It
has been worked out by some of the more advanced nations of Europe who
saw that destruction was coming on them through the cutting away of
their forests. Now forestry is practised by every nation except Turkey
and China. The principles have been well proved and the results of
scientific care of the forests are known to be even more sure than in
farming or live-stock raising.

The Department of Agriculture will send complete directions for planting
trees in rows at proper distances, will tell what kinds are best suited
to each region and condition, how to make them grow rapidly, and when to
cut. All these things should be thoroughly understood by every land
owner, large or small, but at present forestry is practised on only one
per cent. of all land in this country, owned by private persons or
companies, though it is practised on seventy per cent. of all public
lands.

The countries that show the best results in forestry are some of the
German states, particularly Prussia and Saxony, and France. In Prussia
the rate of production is three times as great as it was seventy-five
years ago. There is three times as much saw timber in a tree as there
was at that time, and the money returns from an average acre of forest
are now nearly ten times what they were sixty years ago. In Saxony the
state forests are receiving two dollars and thirty cents per acre a year
above all expenses from forests on land not fitted for agriculture, and
the profit is increasing every year.

France and Germany together spend $11,000,000 a year on their public
forests and receive from them an income of $30,000,000, or nearly three
times as much, while the United States spends for its public forests
more than ten times as much as it receives.

Many of our states are taking an active interest in forestry and are
buying tracts of land of low value for state forests. New York is taking
the lead in the work of planting forests, but even here the amount done
is much less than it should be. The state forester says that one million
trees are planted each year while twenty millions should be planted.

The National Conservation Commission reported that the entire United
States should plant an area larger than the states of Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and West Virginia, in order to supply our future needs, but that
we have actually planted an area less than the state of Rhode Island.

This, then, is the lesson we should learn in regard to our forests: To
guard against waste in cutting and use, fire, and insects, and to plant
trees until our future supply of timber is assured, till the head-waters
of our streams are protected and our waste lands made into valuable
forest tracts; till every farm has its wood-lot, and every community its
fruit and shade. It is a work in which every one of us may take some
part and from which good results are certain to come.

ORCHARDS

Another phase of tree-culture that does not, strictly speaking, come
under the head of forestry, but which should be considered here, is the
cultivation of orchards, either for home use or for commercial purposes.

In a few sections, fruit is the most valuable of all crops. Oranges in
Florida and California, peaches in some of the southern states, and
apples in the northwest, are more profitable than any field crops, and
their cultivation is made the subject of careful scientific study. But
there are many other states where the raising of fruit in commercial
quantities is almost altogether neglected, and to which almost all fruit
is shipped from other sections. This is particularly true in the rich
corn and wheat producing states of the Mississippi Valley.

The early settlers each planted an orchard for home use, and these
produced the finest quality of fruit in abundance; but usually, after
being planted, the trees were left to take care of themselves, while the
farmer's time and attention were given to his fields of grain.

As time passed, plant diseases and insect pests increased, winds broke
down many of the unpruned trees, frosts often blighted the entire crop
of fruit, and the uncultivated, sod-choked trees produced fruit that was
less in quantity and poorer in quality each year.

In recent years the highest grade of apples have all been shipped from
the West. These are grown on irrigated land; a high price being paid
both for the land itself and for the water-privilege, and the orchards
are seldom more than ten acres in extent. Wind and frost may cause as
much damage here as in the eastern states and plant diseases and insect
enemies are equally liable to injure the crop.

But here orcharding is carried on in a scientific manner. The small size
of the orchard makes it possible for the owner properly to care for
every tree, and each one must be made a source of profit. Every
condition that tends to affect the crop is carefully studied, and the
remedy found and applied.

There is no reason why the same care and labor should not produce
equally good results with far less expense in the well-watered regions
of the eastern and central part of the United States. The neglected
orchard will prove a failure anywhere, as surely as will a neglected
garden, and success will come only by giving to fruit the same
intelligent care that would be bestowed upon any other crop.

The cultivation of apples should receive particular attention in the
north central states, because they have great food value, are not
perishable, can be shipped long distances, and the demand, both at home
and abroad, is always greater than the supply. The home orchard,
however, should contain many kinds of fruit, and the same general rules
in regard to the care of the orchard apply to all of them.

First, the orchard should not be located on land that is fitted to
produce the best farm crops, but it must not be too steep and hilly to
be cultivated. A sunny sloping hillside is best suited to orchard crops.

In most cases little fertilization is needed except the planting of
clover or some other leguminous crop. If corn be planted in young
orchards, as is often the case, potash should be used as a fertilizer
after the crop is gathered, since both corn and fruit trees draw very
heavily on the potash in the soil.

Old orchards sometimes need a single application of a general fertilizer
containing all the principal soil elements. All fertilizers should be
applied not merely around the base of the trunk, but as far from it as
the tree spreads its branches in all directions.

The trees should be carefully pruned and special attention paid to
trimming the tops low to prevent damage from winds, and also to make
spraying easy.

The soil should be deeply cultivated the first few years in order to
make the roots strike deep into the ground, and afterward the soil
should receive some surface cultivation every year.

When there is danger of frost after the trees have bloomed, brushwood
fires are lighted and a dense smoke is raised over the orchard by
burning pots of crude oil. This smoke is helpful in preventing the
formation of frost, and will often be the means of saving the crop.

The other great causes of failure to grow large quantities of perfect
fruit, if the varieties are well chosen, are plant diseases and damage
by insects. The methods of their control are given in the chapter on
Insects, and include principally the disposal of all decayed fruit, the
raking up and burning of all leaves in infected orchards, arsenical and
lime sprays, and, above all, such attention to pruning and cultivation
as will keep the trees in good condition.

Lastly, the keeping of bees in the orchard will pay well, not only for
the honey they produce, but because they assist greatly in carrying the
pollen from flower to flower, and so increasing the crop of fruit.

REFERENCES

Forests. Report National Conservation Commission.

Forest Conservation, Papers and Discussions, Report Governor's
Conference.

Arbor Day, Forest Service Department of Agriculture Circular, 96.

Tree Planting on Rural School Grounds. Forest Service Department of
Agriculture Circular, 134.

Practical Assistance to Tree Planters. Forest Service Department of
Agriculture Circular, 22.

How to Transplant Forest Trees. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 61.

Forest Planting on Coal Lands. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 41.

Forestry in the Public Schools. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 130.

Primer of Forestry. (Pinchot). Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 173.

The Use of the National Forests. (Pinchot.)

What Forestry Has Done. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 140.

Forest Preservation and National Prosperity. Forest Service Department
of Agriculture Circular, 35.

Forest Planting and Farm Management. Forest Service Department of
Agriculture Circular, 228.

Facts and Figures Regarding our Forest Resources. Forest Service
Department of Agriculture Circular, 11.

Drain Upon the Forests. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 129.

The Waning Hardwood Supply. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 129.

Timber Supply of the United States. Forest Service Department of
Agriculture Circular, 116.

Forestry and the Lumber Supply. Forest Service Department of Agriculture
Circular, 97.

How to Cultivate and Care for Forests in Semi-arid Regions.

Forest Service Department of Agriculture Circular, 54.

Paper-making Materials and their Conservation. Bureau of Chemistry, 41.

CHAPTER IV

WATER

Water is an absolute necessity to man, as much as the air he breathes or
the food he eats. Water comes to us in the form of rain or snow. We
usually think of it as unlimited, but we must come to think of it as a
resource that can be abused and wasted or made useful and profitable as
is the soil itself.

The amount of water is fixed and passes in an endless round from cloud
to river or land and back to the clouds again. The average yearly
rainfall of the United States is estimated at thirty inches, about forty
inches in the eastern half, an average of eighteen inches in the western
part, and in many places not more than ten or twelve inches. One inch of
rain would amount to nearly one hundred and one tons per acre, or on a
roof twenty feet long by twenty feet wide, one inch of rain would be two
hundred and fifty gallons. With a rainfall of forty inches, this would
amount to 10,000 gallons in a year, or an average, over every bit of
land twenty feet square, of twenty-seven gallons for every day in the
year. This is about the quantity that falls in the eastern part of the
United States.

It varies slightly from year to year, but there is no more--there is no
possible way of adding to it, though we may lessen it by allowing it to
rush out to sea, giving no service to the land. As the land waters
diminish the rainfall also grows less.

This two hundred trillions cubic feet of water which falls on our land
every year constitutes our entire water resource, is the source of all
our rivers and streams, of the moisture in the air, of our rains and
snows, and our water for plant and animal growth.

To understand how much this is, we may say that it is about equal to ten
times the amount of water that flows through the Mississippi River
system. The water of the Mississippi and its branches is nearly half of
all the water in the United States that flows through waterways to the
sea. This water that flows through our streams is sometimes called the
run-off. The run-off is increasing every year as we cut our forests and
cultivate our land. It is used for navigation, irrigation and power, but
the increase is not an advantage for these purposes as might be
supposed, because it comes in disastrous floods, tearing away dams,
ruining power sites, and not only preventing navigation during the flood
season, but by filling up the rivers and changing the channels, making
navigation difficult and dangerous throughout the year. The run-off is
controlled to some extent and may be brought under almost as complete
control as may be desired.

As much as the water of five or six Mississippis, or a little more than
half of our supply, is evaporated to moisten and temper the air, to fall
as rain or snow, or to form dews. This is sometimes called the fly-off,
and except for some changes caused by management of the land, is
entirely beyond control.

A part of the remainder sinks into the soil below the surface. A large
portion of this helps to cause the slow rock-decay that forms the soil,
and which is known as ground water. It is estimated that within the
first hundred feet below the surface of the earth there is a quantity of
water that has seeped down; and that would form, if it were collected, a
vast reservoir sixteen or seventeen feet in depth spreading over all the
3,000,000 square miles of the area of our country. This is equal to
about seven years' rainfall and is a very important part of our water
resources. In many places it forms into underground streams or lakes. It
feeds all the springs and many of the lakes. Our wells are dug or
drilled into this underground water system. It carries away the excess
of salts and mineral matter from the soil, the trees strike their roots
deep into the earth and draw from it, and last and most important of
all, that which sinks immediately below the surface supplies all our
plant growth. So that it is this last portion, that which sinks below
the ground, and which is sometimes termed the cut-off, amounting to
about one-tenth of all our water resource, or about the quantity that
flows through the Mississippi River system, that forms the really
important part.

On this depends all that makes a land habitable, the water for drinking
purposes and for plant and animal growth. On it depends the rate of
production of every acre of farm and forest land and the life of every
animal. Every full-grown man of one hundred and fifty pounds takes into
his system not less than a ton of water each year, and every bushel of
corn requires for its making fifteen or twenty tons of water.

Of the importance of this Professor Chamberlain says: "The key to the
problem of soil conservation lies in due control of the water that falls
on every acre. This water is an asset of great value. It should be
counted by every land owner as a possible value, saved if turned where
it will do good, lost if permitted to run away, doubly lost if it also
carries away the soil and does destructive work below."

The uses of rainfall are given thus:

A due portion should go through the soil to its bottom to promote rock
decay. Some of it should go into the underdrainage to carry away harmful
matter, another portion goes up to the surface carrying solutions needed
by the plants. A portion goes into the plants to nourish them, and still
another part runs off the surface, carrying away the worn-out parts of
the soil.

Crops can use to advantage all the rain that falls during the growing
season; and in most cases crops are all the better for all the water
that can be carried over from the winter. There are many local
exceptions, but in general crops are best when the soil can be made to
absorb as much of the rainfall and snowfall as possible. This also
causes the least possible amount of wash from the land.

Doctor N. J. McGee says: "Scarcely anywhere in the United States is the
rainfall excessive, that is, greater than is needed by growing plants,
living animals and men. Nearly everywhere it falls below this standard.
In the western part the average rainfall is only about eighteen inches;
in the extreme eastern part the fall averages forty-eight inches. In the
western part much of the land is unable to produce crops at all except
when artificially watered. The eastern part might produce more abundant
crops, develop greater industries and support a larger population with a
rainfall of sixty inches than it is able to do with a rainfall of
forty-eight inches." As may readily be seen, the fly-off can be
controlled only in a very small degree, by conserving the moisture that
is in the soil, and so preventing it from evaporating too rapidly.

The cut-off can be controlled to a considerable extent through forestry
and scientific farming and it is very important that the supply should
be as carefully conserved as possible.

But it is in the run-off that the great waste of water occurs, and also
that great saving is possible. It has been found by careful estimate
that from eighty-five per cent. to ninety-five per cent. of the water
that flows to the sea is wasted in freshets or destructive floods.

We are not accustomed to think of the water as wasted, since it seems
beyond our control, but as we are taking a careful account of stock, and
seeing how our forests, our fuels and our minerals are disappearing, and
our soil being carried out to sea by the rushing waters, it is well to
consider, also, whether this great resource may not be so used as to
benefit mankind in many ways and at the same time lessen the drain on
other resources.

The water of streams may be divided as to use into four great classes.
The most important is that used by cities for general supply, for
household and drinking purposes; next, that which is used for navigation
and the running of boats to carry commerce; third, that which is used
for artificial watering or irrigation, and lastly, that which is used
for power in manufacturing.

In the past, when water has been used it has seldom been employed for
more than one of these purposes, but as we come to understand more the
nature, value and possibilities of this great resource, we shall learn
to make the money spent for one of these lines of activity supply
several other needs.

As we study each of these separately we shall see this interrelation
among them.

The cities of the United States have expended $250,000,000 in waterworks
and nearly as much more in land for reservoirs, and for canals for
conveying the water from these reservoirs to the cities. The better
managed systems protect the drained lands from erosion by planting
forests or grass and the water is completely controlled, so that all the
water, even the storm overflow, is saved. There is very little waste in
these city water systems until it comes to the consumer, where, except
when it is sold through meters, the waste is often great.

The failure to provide the greatest good lies in the fact that the
water systems have been used for water supply only and have not been
made profitable in other ways. The drainage basins should be heavily
planted with trees, which will in time yield a large return, or with
hay, which can be marketed each year. Whenever possible, the canals
carrying the water supply should also be used to furnish power.

The city of Los Angeles, when it had a population of only 150,000,
undertook to provide pure water from a point two hundred and fifty miles
distant. To do so it must take on itself a debt of $23,000,000, a large
sum for a city ten times its size. Yet the people were ready to assume
this great burden to insure an unending supply of pure water, for they
realized that without it their city could not continue to grow. It was
not until the plans for piping water to the city were almost completed
that the value of the water-power along the route was realized. It has
been disposed of at a rate that pays ten per cent. interest on the debt
each year, and has made what seemed a dangerous risk, a profitable
business arrangement. All these other uses of water which are
profitable, help to lower the price of water to the users.

The matter of supreme importance in the water supply, however, is not
whether the water is cheap, but whether it is pure. If refuse from
factories is allowed to drain into a stream, the water becomes loaded
with poisonous chemicals, acids, or minerals. If city sewage or
barn-yards are allowed to drain into it, the germs of typhoid and other
fevers enter the water supply. To insure the purity of water supply from
a stream, no factory waste, city sewage or country refuse should be
allowed to enter any part of the stream. In addition to this it should
be carefully filtered.

The disposal of waste is a serious problem, and the easiest way is to
divert it into the nearest water course and trust to the old maxim,
"Running water purifies itself."

This, while true as a general fact, has so many exceptions that it is
not safe to trust to it. The Sanitary District Canal of Chicago has
proved positively that even the most heavily germ-laden water becomes
pure by running many miles at a regulated speed through the open
country, but the conditions are altogether different from those of an
ordinary river. First, in a river, sewage may enter at any point
down-stream to add to the germs already present in the water, while
nothing is allowed to enter the Drainage Canal after it leaves the city.
Second, some germs live for several days and may be carried many miles.
Only a microscopic test can prove whether water contains such germs.
Usually such tests are not made and water is used without people knowing
whether it is pure or not, but the water of the Sanitary Canal is tested
at many points to determine its purity. Each hour and each mile of its
journey it grows purer. This proves that although running water does
purify itself, a stream that is drained into all along its course is not
a fit source of water supply.

Factory refuse, instead of being allowed to pollute the waters, should
be turned to good use by extracting the chemicals, which form valuable
by-products. All farm waste should be taken to a remote part of the
farm, placed in an open shed or vat with cement floor and screened from
flies to form a compost heap for fertilizers for the farm. This will
amply repay the extra trouble and expense by increasing the farm crops.
The sooner such refuse, especially manure, is returned to the land, the
more valuable it is as a fertilizer.

In cities the sewage should be disposed of in such a way as to yield a
profit to the city, and also promote the health of the people. The
sewage of a city of 100,000 people is supposed to be worth, in Germany,
about $900,000 a year for fertilizer on account of the phosphorus it
contains. The city of Berlin operates large sewage farms, using as
laborers men condemned to the workhouse. The expense for land and sewer
system was $13,000,000, but it pays for the money invested, with $60,000
yearly profit over all expenses.

On the other hand the cost of impure water to the city of Pittsburg was
reckoned at $3,850,000, and in the city of Albany, New York, the annual
loss was estimated at $475,000.

In the early settlement of our country all towns were built on streams,
and the ones which grew and flourished were all on rivers large enough
to carry commerce by boat. After the invention of steamboats, daily
packet lines were run on all the principal rivers.

Albert Gallatin planned a complete system of improved waterways,
including many canals, that was intended to establish a great commercial
route. Many canals were built and put into actual operation and dozens
of others had been planned, when the building of railways began. This
new system of transportation at once became popular. Not only were no
more canals dug and no more steamboat lines built, but many of those
actually in operation were abandoned.

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