The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-12-14
The Destruction of Forests.

While the first news of the northwestern
fires in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan
suggested the necessity of speedy relief to the
homeless citizens, in greater need of succor
than even the tens Of thousands in Chicago,
it also suggests forebodings of serious climatic
changes. These changes are inevitable if, with
out rcplanting 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 into northern Italy,
and proceeding as far south as Naples, or trav-
cling from old CASTLE down to Cadiz and Maa-
ga or visiting Sicily and Greece, and still further
to the east Palestine and 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 deliber-
ate destruction of forests. In the south of
France the disastrous consequences became 80
evident that the late imperial government SUBJ
mitted the question to the most searching in
quiry, and the unanimous opinion given by
scientific Observers was that the climate of a
country is subjected to serious change the
moment the mountains are shorn OF their
misunderstanding forests. Suffering from pro-
longed droughts and destructive inundatlons, a
country deprived of its woodlands finds its ag-
ricultural interests in constant danger, and
sinks at last to a precarious state OF dependency
on the grain production of other countries.
There is now but one opinion on the subject
of the downfall ofahe nations of the Euphrates
valley. The prolonged droughts enfeebled the
physical and therefore the moral, nature of the
inhabitants When the Romans landed in
Spain the country was inhabited by forty mil
lions 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 q tree has been repanted to
this day. From forty millions, the population
during nineteen hundred years dwindled to nine
millions at the commencement OF the present
century In CASTLE, especially on the plains,
the traveller may not sec tree during whole
davis Journey. Hail-storms, drOughtS, lasting,
without drop of rain, from April till October,
or sudden and destructive inundatlons, are the
consequence. The same thing is observable IN
every land of Southern Europe where the con-
ditons are similar.
We are a prosperous nation now. The entire
failure of any crop throughout the land is un-
known among lis, yet it cannot be denied that
scorching and prolonged droughts, especially
outside the Gulf-strcam influences, are yearly
more frequent These northwestern fires are
an illustration of this fact, having had their
origin in this cause. The sensitive nature of
our leading staple, cotton, should not be for
gotten. A long season of dry weather after the
plant is q foot from the ground will not do 1t
much harm, but continuation of rain and of
occasional inundations may easily reduce a
crop from five millions of bales to three mil
lions. The longer we proceed indiscriminately ly
to destroy forests, without replanting a single
tree, the more capricious the climate becomes
~, tbo R;r Nm pur Pacific
coast, this year, the drought has been such that
more than quarter of the wheat crop is lost.
Taking example in their distress, from the ko-
mans and Moors of Spain, the farmers of that
State propose to obtain irrigation by aqueducts
through the wheat regions. The destruction of
forests in California and Oregon has been on a
gigantic scale during these twenty years, and
the consequences begin to be felt already.
Is it not time that subject of such para
mount Importance should be discussed in Con-
grcss and in the Legislative bodies of every