PROTECTION AGAINST FLOODS. The yearly destruction caused by river floods, the protection of levees and natural river hanks and artificial embankments against erosion from various causes, demand the best attention of those who may be subject to inundation, or to the abrasion of natural and artificial hanks through the action of water. Every person having banks of rivers to protect, or levees to be held intact, road overseers and railway com panies who have property to be protected against encroachment, are especially interested in this matter. Encroachments by whatever cause must be promptly met by counteracting meaus. It is an important subject for discus sion before every horticultural body, and by all whose interests lie in protecting lines of trans portation., The higher civilization of to-day must meet results brought about by the cutting away of forest growths in the past. The mis chief already accomplished can never be Nlly met. On the contrary, it will go on increasing from year to year so long as the remaining hills and forests are denuded by their owners. There are yet enormous areas to be cut away. In a Government like ours it does not seem practic able that legislation should undertake the regen eration of our forests. Individuals must be shown that their interests lie in this preservation or regeneration. Every declivity, rocky ridge, hillside and mountain liable to wash will pay better in'trees and grass than in any other crop.
It is easy of demonstration. The price of tim ber and lumber is yearly increasing. It will continue so to be. A wild forest contains twenty trees of little commercial value, to one of general utility. The planted grove or forest contains just such species as are planted and required' and just where they are wanted. The remedy is in planting valuable trees when others are cut away, to leave enough underbrush on hillsides for nurses to planted trees, and to cause the water to percolate through the soil rather than to allow it to run over the surface; or else to plant new forests and cultivate them to increase their size as rapidly as possible. Along all such natural obstructions to the passage of water, osier willows, strong-rooted grasses, and trees having fibrous, interlacing roots, should be planted. These will gradually catch the debris. The collections will thus be more or less held, so the water in passing by must percolate more or less slowly. Thus it will be taken up into the soil below. The aggregate temporary water surface thus secured will be enormous in check ing sudden floods. Artificial reservoirs to hold surplus water to be given off gradually in sum mer will also be of great value. These, how ever, must, as a rule, be undertaken by the General Government for this reason: Their effects reach far beyond the boundary of indi vidual States. Nevertheless, the profits would be ample in isolated cases, to individuals, in assisting the water power in time of drought, Levees should especially be protected by the planting of osier and other fibrous-rooted wil lows, and strong-rooted grasses, in addition to the more artificial means of protection. This will be found the cheapest means of preventing erosion of the banks, and especially valuable on the silt levees of the lower Mississippi, using varieties found •most natural to the climate and situation. The South is especially rich in grasses tenacious to the soil, and these means should in no respect be neglected. In a majority
of cases they will check the tearing out by water breaks, and give time to apply ratans that other wise would be futile. If to the various means which would naturally suggest themselves to the competent engineer having charge of works in the several localities, in addition to those sug gested, could be added a system for closing all ditches to enable them to hold in check their utmost capacity, snoir as the temporary closing of sloughs, gulches and ravines, as might be found practicable, it would solve, measurably at least, the recurrence of terribly destructive floods, except at comparatively rare 'intervals. The suggestions, as given, are the natural reme dies to be employed, as embodying those least destructive to private interests. Only in the closing temporarily of ditches, sloughs and gulches could damage ensue, and here only through a false view of the case. The flooding of lands along these water courses for a short time hi the spring, being chiefly grass lands, would be a benefit in nine cases out of ten. Grass lands may be flooded for forty-eight hours at a time at any season during their ear lier growth, arid often with benefit. When vegetation is dormant this flooding may be extended to a week or ten days. The same rule will hold good where there are no crops, and except winter wheat, rye, barley and oats, no crop would be injured by flooding with back water in the spring. Railway and other raised embankments may also be perfectly protected from washing by planting them as to their sides with osier and other dwarf willows and tenacious grasses. Where they are subject also to the wash of water at times this means will be found invaluable The objection to these growths, that " they obstruct the repair of tracks," is invalid, since the planting need not extend high enough to thus interfere. The real difficulty has been that the work has been entrusted to laborers whose ignorance has led them tO suppose the planting would reduce their days of service. The other objection, that they must yearly be cut, to prevent obstruc tion to the sight, is scarcely worth notic ing. The same scythe employed in cutting other brush and grass will here suffice, unless the labor be unduly neglected. The yearly decrease in our timber and lumber supplies has long since called for substitutes in building. Brick, stone and iron have, in a great measure sa far, and' better and more economically supplied the want in outside work, and espe cially in cities. The increasing scarcity of finishing lumber, and that for ties and other railroad work, vehicles, furniture and various manufactures, has caused forest growths to be carefully examined from Maine to Georgia, and from the Alleghanies to Indiana—the last great remaining timber belt east of the Sierra Ne vadas. - Prices have doubled and trebled in respect to many species of timber within the last ten years. The time has now come when the man who plants timber, in suitable situa tions, will as surely reap profit as in any other direction in agriculture. Abundant crops of wheat, corn and other cereals may glut the markets of the world; a glut of merchantable lumber can never come. It is wanted every day and everywhere. Before the crop can be ma tured of trees planted now, still further advance in price will be reached, and thus the cutivator will receive compound interest on his invest ment. (See also Moisture, Rain and Vapor.)