The weekly Arizona miner., 1870-01-08
Forests and Rain.

From the San Ffancisco Morning Call
 The heavens above sympathizc with the earth beneath. That Is, the air and what it holds have certain afflnitics with what the earth produces. The air has very little to bestow upon a sandy, unproductive desert lt Is simply an embrace of hot sand and hot air, no vegetation and no rain. A well wooded country Is certain to attract rains or snovs Cut away the forests, leave the plains and the hills barren of trees, and they will lose their rain supplies. Witness the Andes and their western descents. It Is question whether orig inaly the lack of rain caused the absence of trees or the reverse. But it is quite certain that the cultivation of land, the production of trees and hcrbage, will bring rain to previously the most desert and thirsty wastes. And experience shows that the destruction Of forests and vegetation large extents of country is quite certain to be fol- lowed by very sensible abatement in the annual supply of moisture. In some parts of the United States lNew England, for instance), there does not ial one-hat the depth of snow during tbe Winter as descended there, according to history and tradition, one and two centuries ago. All of which ought to teach the people of this coast lesson-one that every man that has any patriotic or humane regard for the country nud it's future should learn and obey. There has been a wnaton destruction of forests this coast and it Is tlnued. When we first came 10 this city, the grand heads of the venerable old redwood forests could be seen ringing the crests Of the Contra Costa and Alameda hills. They have disappeared as eifectually and entirely have the native lndi ans, who have left only the shells and burned or l1elr fOTIOer ra0elerl1s 10 tell 1S they once lived here. If this process of forest de- structiOn continues, unless u be offset by cutiya ton of other trees and shrubs, We may anticipate the time when this coast will be like that of Chilli Peru, and Lower California, almost rainless, as portions of Arizona have become and unpeopled, although once containing a large population and great cities. At present, fortunately, the bulk of California is in condition fit for cultivation, with good promise of good crops. The cultiya- tor is under no necessity for redeeming 1t from the blight Of eternal drouth and desolation. There are portions of it, however that are in that con dition. The sand plains between the coast range of mountains and the Colorado River, arc deso- late and forbidding enough. Butquite likely con- siderable portions of them will yet bear wonder fui crops. For they can be redeemed. The trees and grass along New River" as it is called, a rayine which during part of the year, is filled by the high water of the Colorado, and flows from it toward the mountains-for those plains of sand descend from the Colorado toward the west ern hills-show plainly enough by their luxuriant growth that only water is needed 10 redeem that barren desert There was plan and a proposi- ton to do this years ago, but the Commissioner of the Land Office got 1t into his head that that vast desert of sand contained Immensely valuable mines, and so he reported against Congress grant ing the privilege. The result is continuance of useless sand, Of service to nobody. Yet such DOT tions of that sand desert susceptible of be- ing watered are capable of producing any semi tropical and many tropical plants, in great abun- dance for the climate is itself almost tropical. There is an illustration of this capacity of sand for production and it's effects, in the town Of Is- malia and its surrounding country, lately come into note from the fact of its location on the line of the Suez Canal. The flcts connected with it, as stated by English journal so interesting, and applicable to the condition of our own Colo rado Desert, that we quote tbem
 "Ismalia, town of six thousand inhabitants, was, but few years since, dry, sandy desert, on which rain never known to fall. All Is now transformed. The old dried-up basin oi Lake Timsah has been again filled with water from the Nile by fresh water canal. Trees, shrubs and plants grow rapidly wherever the soil is irrigated, and the artificial oasis widens fast Accompanying this extraordinary transformation of the aspect Of the place, there has been cor responding change in the climate. At the pres ent time Ismalia, during eight months in the year Is probably the healthiest spot in northern Egypt The mean temperature from June to September Is ninety-four degrees F., the four following months seventy-four degrees, and the four Win ter months forty-fve degrees. Until two years ago, rain was unknown, but in twelve months ending in April last there were actually fourteen days which rain fell, and lately there fell tre- mendous shower of rain, phenomenon which the oldest Arab had never previously witnessed Rain ceases to fall on county deprived of its forests, or only falls in violent storms. Here we see rain returning to the desert on restoring the trees.