in
late years, because of the destruction of the forest cover in the
Appalachian Mountains. Buildings and bridges are frequently carried
away, and gravel and boulders are washed over the rich bottom lands.

In the mountains of far-away Italy the soil is poor, and so are the
people. They have cut down nearly all the trees and for hundreds of
years the brush and grass have been eaten so closely by the sheep and
goats that few roots remain to hold the soil. It does not need to rain
heavily there to cause the rivers to become muddy and swollen. The soil
which once covered the slopes has been carried to the bays, and now
there is land where ships floated two thousand years ago.

[Illustration: _U. S. Forest Service_
Terraces of rock built by natives of China to aid in holding the soil.]

In Spain so much of the best soil has been lost that the people now do
not raise enough food to support themselves, and much has to be imported
from other lands.

France is a rich country still, in spite of the cutting of so much of
the forest and the careless pasturing of the mountain slopes. The people
are industrious and hard working and thus make a living in spite of the
loss which they are suffering.

The Montenegrins are among the bravest people of Europe, but their land
is barren and they enjoy few luxuries. Their country consists largely of
limestone mountains, from which they have been cutting the trees for
hundreds of years. There is but little soil and that is to be found in
the hollows of the rocks. This soil is so precious that every bit, be it
ever so small, is carefully cultivated.

In the mountains of Palestine and Syria the people have so completely
destroyed the trees and grasses which Nature once planted there that it
is difficult for them to raise enough to live upon. The rivers are muddy
after every rain, and even the water from the melting snows picks up
some of the soil and flows away with a dirty, yellow color.

When we reach China and Korea, we find that there the people have been
most severely punished for their carelessness. The mountain sides have
been torn by the rains and deeply gullied. The once smooth slopes upon
which grew trees and grasses are now a mass of sharp ridges and deep
hollows of bare earth. The water falling upon these mountains runs off
in torrents, carrying even large boulders as it does in our Western
deserts. Here and there the natives have built terraces of rock to aid
in holding