Polynesian., 1863-01-03
Ghe polpllesian.
Man and the Forest.

Turning our attention. lastly, to the human race,
we see that nations in the lowest stage of develop
ment sometimes closely connected with the
forests. In the colder lands, where the trees ordi
narily bear edible, or at least no well favored
or nourishng fruits, it is the game which chiefly
furnishes the inhabitants with food and clothing !;
these races then appear chiefly as hunters, such
the aborigines of North America. In the torrid
zone, on the contrary, races in the same stage of
culture live principally upon the fruits of the trees
or the pth of the trunks like some of the tribes of
Brazil some of the inhabitants of the Indian Arch
ipelago, and several races of negroes. South
America even affords an example of race who,
almost, like monkeys, live upon the trees; whose
existence, in fact, is to great extent bound to
certain specie of tree. These are the GCarauni,
at the mouth of the Orinoco, who live by and upon
the Mauritia plant. When the ground is flooded,
mats woven from the leafstalks of those palms are
suspended between the trunks these mats are cov-
cred with clay, that fires can be made upon them,
and here the Guarauni sleep, and pass great por-
ton of their lives. The trunk furnishes fecula
the juice palm wine; and the fruits are well fla
vored. mealy at first, and afterwards sweet. Nom
adic races on the other hand, generally avoid for
ests extensive grazing plains, fertile Valleys or
the slopes of mountains, affording rich pasture
land, the best fitted for the migratory life which
they lead, and for the support of their domestic
animals. As race rises to agriculture, it
the way Of the spade and plow, and the wood gives
less booty than the field, the garden or the vine-
yard. The Forest therefore, falls beneath the AK,
fire consumes the fallen trunks and branches, and
the ashes manure the soil, giving for some years
extraordinarily rich harvest, especially in the
dense tropical primeval forests. When, after the
lapse of some years, the fertility decreases, a new
portion of the wood is felled and burnt and thus
man proceeds unsparingly with the destruction of
the forests. Sometimes the confagration spreads
further than was intended, and the destruction is
thus increased. This is the course pursued by the
peasants of Norway and Sweden, also by the
cOonists of North America, of Brazil, Mexico, the
Cape, Java, and in every place where agriculture
first appears or commences its first constant and
uninterrupted extension. With the increase of
population this destruction of the forests is contn
ued for it brings with it increased consumption of
the products of the forest; wood ls required for
houses, furniture, wagons, and other implements,
for bridges, posts for fences fuel for cooking, and
where the climate is cold, for warming the dwell
ings. The consumption of wood increases further
with industry, with navigation, and trade. Mining
operations require timber, both for the works and
for fuel to smelt the metals and ores artisans and
manufacturers use large quantities of the products
of forests; dams against rivers and require
their share but, above all, navigation. The trunks
of millions of trees are used up in ships and masts
in order to connect the highlands and inland dis
trctS with the coasts and the coasts with each
other, even beyond the In this way civiliza
ton into hostile contact with the forests and
thus, under like circumstances, the country in
which civilization is oldest possesses the fewest
woods. Hence forests are more sparingly met
with in the countries of the Mediterranean than
northward of the Alps, and more sparingly in the
center than in the north of Europe, so far as the
climate is not an obstacle TO the growth of timber
Have not, then, our descendants to expect great
deficiency of timber-a deficiency which may read
lily become disastrous Many public economists
and phllanthropists have assumed this to be the
case, and many do still assume it they depict the
future destitutiOR of timber in the darkest colors
they loudly complain of the telling of wood, and
they demand that Government should prevent in
time the rulnous consequences, by limiting the free
use of wooded estates. Yet even as | have striven
tn demonstrate the groundlessness of the idea of
the danger which is feared of alteration of climate
by the diminuton of forests in temperate countries
hope also to be able IN some measure to scatter
the dark cloud, which so many imagine they see
hanging over future generations, in regard to the
product of forests. That which is true of so many
other Inconvenience following in the train of civil
lizatiOn holds also in this. 1t has it's cure in a
great measure, in itself-Ihe Earth, Plants and
Man, By j. +. Sch0uIc.