Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-05-16


last year such an event, and sought to
explain 6 on broad cosmieal principles.
Whether correct or not in their reasonings
there can be no doubt now that the predic-
ton was verified in fact. The diminution
Of our annual heat supply derived from
solar radiation, it is easy to see, viii be
marked by diminution In the amount of
water evaporated from the pillows of the
ocean and delivered to the winds to be
transported over the great continental mass
es Of the globe for their irrigation and re-
freshment. The rainfall statistics and re-
turns for the present year, SO far as received,
appear to bear out the natural inference
from the above facts, and give US timely
warning to be prepared for great scarcity of
water during the coming summer. We al
ready know, by experience, that the rains
of the season have fallen short of their usual
abundance this spring in the United States,
although the condensation of this past week
has been considerable. The returns from
England, carefully collated by
Mr.. Glaisher, give general
average of only twenty-five inches for
the past year, while the proper mean rain
fall of England is thirty inches. The def
cheney of eight inches of the usual fall may
be roughly estimated at over a million gal
Ions Of water of every square mile of British
territory, and should be carefully noted. In
the tropics, where the atmospheric machin-
cry takes up the greatest amount of mois-
ture from the sea for terrestrial distribution,
we find similar results. From the returns
from the Windward West Indies the Off
cial figures for last December show def
cheney greater than has been known in the
twenty-four years preceding; and the aver
age of the year 1871 was twenty-eight per
cent, or more than one-fourth below that
of the preceding "a years. For the month Of
Jan. 1872, the returns are still more dis
couraging the average falling short of that
for the same month of the twenty-five pre-.
ceding years by thirty-fve per cent, or more
than one-third. Taking these facts in con.
nection with the widespread and terrible
ravages of the great Northwestern fires and
forest CONGREGATIONS, which denuded SC
many districts of country last fall, and re-
membering the climatic deterioration usual.
ly observed to follow the clearing Of the
soil and telling of trees, we see good reason
for calling the attention of the whole country
to the most frugal outstanding of the pre-
cious water supply distilled from the clouds
1t may not now be too late to warn agri
culturists to prepare for any emergency by
the construction Of ponds and reservoirs fol-
the irrigation of the soil. But the warning
is certainly opportane and of vital impor
lance in all the cities and towns of the land
to economic the water, that in case o.
blighting droughts and epidemic disease the
terrors of water famine may not have to bt
endured. The proposed action Of Congress:
in providing for or encouraging the planting
and preser, alton of trees on the public
lands is step in the right direction. Tht
danger now apprehended by this means, by
the early sinking of artesian wells and othel
precautions, may be materially averted and
! lessened.