Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-05-19
THE RUTLAND HERALD
THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1870
The Necessity of Trees

Is a subject of great and vital Importance
to the future welfare of our nation. In
treating this subject, l lay no special claim
to originality, but 1 shall simply state
\ facts, allowing my reader to draw his
4 own conclusions.
Experience has shown that country
/ destitute of forests, as we'll as one densely
l covered, is unfit for civilized people. De-
l priye people of forest products, and they
soon revert to barbarism. Witness the
I lands of Judea and of Egypt. Perhaps
1 there is no exception to the rule, that
Countries covered with dense timber, as
well as those destitute of trees, are inhab-
ted by savages. Garry on the work of
denudation in this country until it is per-
fectly naked, and we shall see barbarism
as ferocious as that of the aboriginal saw
age again set in.
Palestine, land once flowing with
milk and honey so full of native products
rs TO attract the children of Israel from
the highly favored plains of Egypt; a
country which for many ages sustained
numerous, happy and prosperous people,
s now comparatively barren waste its
! productions scarcely sufficient for mis-
II rable population, dwindled to only one
enth of its former population. The most
roful examination of the soil shows no
A aant of the elements of vegetab.- growth
J remains as fertile to day as in the most
Il aiont times, thus showing that we must
ITO the changes in the local condition
.ho climate rather than the exhaustion
the soil for the causes of the wonderful
langes that have taken place and these
| ocal climate changes could only be pro-
lueed by the indiscriminate destruction
Of the forests that originally covered the
whole country"
Egypt and Palestine were once the
granary Of the world, but these countries
have long since lost their proud positions
among the nations of the earth. We now
hold the high positions as grain producers
which they held hnt we are also in
langer of soon losing the position, unless
IN vo profit by thoir example.
III History is full of warnings According
n % a recent report, it appears that "in
\ Sutherland the forests have been destroy
"a at such a rate that they do not now
yield m adequate supply for the present
iuhabitsnts. The higher mountain regi-
ols have heretofore been considered the
store-houses of wood for the most popul-
Gus parts of level Switzerland, and for
foreign countries but the depredations
have been so extensive that many of the
inhabitants are now suffering for the want
of wood, and some of them are compelled
tl convey their fuel from six to twelve
miles up the mountains. II the future
forests, says this report, should not be
better managed, and their too extensive
4 removal stopped, they would soon be en-
4 drely ruined in some parts of these noun
a,a regions, and then there would prevail
such a state of things as already exists in
A.a Minor, Greece, a large portion of
ri Italy, Spain, Southern France, etc. where
a h"s abounded in former times. The
"A decrease Of fertility on the Alps, and es-
~ appearance of the forests in the higher
3regons, the unfavorable changes of the
4 weather during the tim of vegetation,
the frequent and extensive devastations of
Hoods, avalanches, precipitation of rocks,
and large landslides on the sides of the
Mountains, filling up the valleys, are
.hieHy occasioned by the extensive clear
ing of the forests, and the careless
management, or rather the mismanage-
ment of those entrusted with its perform
lnco; and those persons now must ascribe
the largest share Of the misery which has
and will befall them, to their selfshness,
and their disregard for the laws of ma
ture"
Timber protection is absolutely neces-
ary for the successful cultivation of GER
tain crops and fruit trees. Dussard
maintains that the miStral, the dreaded
northwest wind of France, whose chilling
blasts are so fatal to tender vegetation in
4 pring, sis the child of man, the result of
his devastations."
Under the reign of Augustus, the for
e'ts which protected the Cevennes, were
relied or destroyed by fire, en- n10sse. A
vast country, covered with impenetrable
Woods-powerful obstacles to the move
ment and even the formation of hurri-
canes - was suddenly denuded, swept
bare, stripped, and soon after scourge,
hitherto unknown, struck terror over the
land, from Avignon to the Bouohe du
Nhone, and thence to Marseilles, and
along the whole southern maritime from.
tier of France. The people thought this
wind a curse sent of God. They raised
altars to it, and offered sacrifices to ap-
pease its rage.
Professor Rosa, in the Polytechnic
g9H'aal for December, 1861, gives the
Glowing; "To supply the extraordinary
.emand for Italian iron, occasioned by
ne exclusion of English iron, in the time
VI Napoleon /, the furnaces of the vicinity
VI Bergamo were stimulated to great
IYnVity. The ordinary productions of
uarcoal not being sufficient to feed the
rnaces and the forges, the woods were
Hea, the crops cut before their time,
,1U the whole economy Of the forrest was
ranged. AT Piazzatore there was such |
UeVastation of the woods, and conse-
iently such an increased severity of the
'unate,that maize no longer ripened. An