This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ...rainfall and to regulate runoff. Such reservoirs are largely ideal and are ordinarily of small relative importance. The investigator will hunt in vain in the forest bed for the stored water which is claimed to regulate and augment the flow of streams. There is no mystery about the actual reservoirs which ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ...rainfall and to regulate runoff. Such reservoirs are largely ideal and are ordinarily of small relative importance. The investigator will hunt in vain in the forest bed for the stored water which is claimed to regulate and augment the flow of streams. There is no mystery about the actual reservoirs which supply the streams of Wisconsin. A visit to the lakes and swamps will show a quantity of water therein contained which is manifest and not to be questioned. An excavation into the drainage will uncover the underground sand and gravel and the water is there in great quantities. Its presence or importance can not be questioned. The surface waters from lakes and ponds, and the ground waters from sands and gravel, are well known resources from which extensive public and private water supplies are often obtained; but the history of water supply engineering fails to furnish one instance where a forested area, as such, has been given any consideration in the selection of a water supply. General Chittenden after a somewhat detailed study of this question arrived at the following general conclusions, which the writer believes to be substantially correct: CoNoLUs1oNs OF GENERAL CHITTENDEN ON Fomzsr INFLUENCES (1) "The bed of humus and debris that develops under forest cover retains precipitation during the summer season, or moderately dry periods at any time of the year, more effectively than do the soil and crops of deforested areas similarly situated. It acts as a reservoir moderating the runoff from showers and Fore-sta and Reservoirs, H. M. Chittenden. Am. Soc. C. E., Sept, 1908. mitigating the severity offreshets, and promotes uniformity of flow at such periods. (2) "The above action fails altogether in periods of prolonged and heavy...
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