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.