Agency Of Water In Changing Tho Character Of Forests

We fmd that water rather than Ore is the most destructive element in obliterating our forests. In ii néw valley among our mountains, a beaver dam, obstructed the flow of a streain ?,nd made a large swanip or meadow quite surrounded with a dense gïOwth of pine and hetnlock. When the same creek was again dammtKl back by coal dirt, it ruined quite a large área of large tiinber; the same thing occurred on a branch of the Swatara as well as the abovo instanoes on the Maheney. We find when the tíres destroy our f orests we soeu have a new growth of a different species of trees, but none where water destroys the forest. May not the same element have caused the treeless prairies ? We are much interested in your treatmeut of this question, as we need tree planting in thecoal regiona, more, perhapsthan inany portion of the United States, or else how can we find cheap support for the roof and roads in the mines, if we have not woodenprops, especial ly pitch pine, our favorite tree for strength and durability.