Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-12-20
THE CHRONICLE.
THE DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS.

AAA NoACSAAU OE
While the first news of the north
western fires in Wisconsin, Minnesota
and Michigan suggested the necessity
of speedy relief to tie homeless cit1-
zens, in greater need of suceor than
even thetens of thousands in Chicago,
it also suggests forebodings of serious
climatic changes. These changes are
inevitable if, without replanting,
forest after forest is swept away by
the blows of the woodman's axe, and
by the Wholesale destruction wrought
by fire.
Any one passing the Alps irto
northern Italy, and proceeding as far
south as Naples. or travelling from old
Castle down to Cadiz and Malaga, or
visiting Sicily and Greece, and still
further to the east, Palestine n the
Euphrates valley, cannot shut his
eyes to the causes which have brought
about the decline of empires. Fore
most among these causes has been the
deliberate destruction of forests. In
the south of France the disastrous
consequences became so evident thai
the late imperial government submit
ted the question 10 the most search
ing inquiry, and the unanimous opin>
ion given by scientific observers was
that the climate of a country is sub
jected to a serious change the mo-
ment the mountains are shorn OF
their misunderstanding forests
Suffering from prolonged droughts
and destructive inundatiOn, a coun-
try deprived ofits woodlands finds its
aurinn Ntuura1 fnfarauF- IN RnnETAnT dam
ger, and sinks at last to a precarious
state of dependency on the grain
production of other countries.
There is now but me opinion on
the subject of the downfall of the ma
tiOns of the Euphrates valley. The
prolonged draughts enfeebled the
physical, and therefore the moral,
of the inhabitants. When the
Romans landed in Spain the country
was inhabited by forty millions of
comparatively prosperous people, the
Iberians. The country was then well
wooded, but during the Roman, and
subsequently during the Gothic and
Arab occupation, the destruction OF
forests was continued in the most
merciless manner, and not a tree has
been replanted 20 this day. From
forty millions, the population during
nineteen hundred years dwindled to
nine millions at the commencement
If the present century! In CASTLE,
specially on the plains, the traveller
nay not see a tree during a whole
journey. Hailstorm, droughts,
without a drop of rain, from
April till October, or sudden and de-
tructive foundations, are the conse-
luence. The same thing is observable
n every land of Southern Europe
where the conditions are similar.
We are a prosperous nation now
The entire failure of any crop through
the land is unknown among US,
ret it cannot be denied that scorch-
ng and prolonged ~droughts, especi
lily outside the Guif-stream infu-
noes, are yearly more frequent
These northwestern fires are an illus
of this fact, having had their
rigin in this cause. The sensitive
of our leading staple, cotton,
not be forgotten. A long seas
n of dry weather after the plant is a
DOT from the ground will not do it
much harm, but a continuation of
ain and of occasional foundations
nay easily reduce q crop from five
Millions of bales to three Millions
he longer we proceed indiscriminate-
Y to destroy forests, without replant-
single tree, the more capricious
be climate becomes from Maine to
be Rio Grande. On our Pacific coast,
his year, the drought has been such
hat more than a quarter Ofthe wheat
rop is lost. Taking example in their
.istress, from the Romans and the
loors of Spain, the farmers of that
tate propose to obtain irrigation by
queducts through the wheat regions.
he destruction of forests in Califor-
ia and Oregon has been on a gigan-
ic scale during these twenty years,
nd the consequences begin to be felt
lready,
Is it not time that a subject of such
importance should be dis
used in Congress and in the legisla-
i've bodies of every State? Is it not
ime that some stringent laws should
e enacted to compel the individuals
nd companies that are destroying our
Majestic American forests, to repeo-
lie the waste places with trees, wher-
yer agriculture does not claim the
Legislative measures should
e taken, too, with the cooperation
I the Canadian authorities, as the
eople of the Dominion are forest
estrOyers like ourselves.