Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-03-15

cur in any part Of our own country.
We do not argue that they will, or
that the loss of the forests there has
occasioned this particular result,
but we do know that lands which
were once fertile and sustained such
populous cities as Ninevah and
Babylon are now arid and sterile,
and though our petroleum may new
er overflow the surface to saturate
the soil of our oil districts with its
bituminous properties, and thus
render it barren, yet it is undoubt-
eddy true, that many Of our alkaline
lands-which constitute large por-
ton of what is regarded as nearly
desert-betwcen the Mississippi and
the Western coast, if covered with
forests would not possess that aka
line character which they now do.
The alkali would be taken up by the
trees and assimilated to the consti-
tuition of their wood and relieve the
soil in some measure Of it's supera-
bundancc, and thus restore the land
to comparative security. But to re-
turn to the East. So conscious
have the German people become Of
the necessity Of the presence Of for
ests, in order to the successful cul-
tivation of their fruits, and espec-
tally the vine, which invariably fails
when robbed of their genial inhu-
cnce, that their government has re-
sorted to stringent measures for the
protection and increased area of
their wooded lands. So much so,
that in some parts, it's said, no per-
son is permitted to fell tree with
out first showing that he has planted
another; and it is an invariable Gus
tom in some districts that man is
not permitted to marry until he can
furnish q certificate that he has
planted certain number Of walnut
trees.
The French, also, have begun to
learn from that severe schoolmaster,
experience, the lesson which their
countryman, Bespard Pallissy, en-
| dcavored to inculcatc three hundred
years ago. Pallissy is regarded as
one of the brightest lights of his
age; far in advance Of the times in
! which he lived. He was a potter
by trade, employed in the Tuillerics
to prepare the vessels of the French
court, where he discovered that ex-
quisite art Of pottery gliding which
gave Immortality to his name as an
artist. But he was no less phi
losopher than an artist, and strenu-
| ously expostulated with his people
for their folly in destroying their
woods. Mr.. Geo. p. Marsh, in his
admirable work, "Man and Nature"
speaks Of some of Pallissy's efforts
in this direction. In answer to
some of the paltry excuses of the
church officials, Pallissy says: 81
cannot enough detest this thing, and
call 1t not an error, bit q curse
and a calamity to all France; for
when forests shall be cut, all arts
will cease and they who practice
them will be driven out to eat
grass with Nebuchadnezzar and the
beasts of the field. l have divers
times thought to set down in wri-
ting the arts which will perish
when there will be no more wood,
but when had written great num-
Der, l did perceive that there could
be no end to my writing, and hav-
ing diligently considered, l found
there cas not any which could be
followed without wood. = = = Truly,
| l could we'll allegc to thee 4 thou
sand reasons, but it's SO cheap a
philosophy that the very chamber
wenches, if they do but think. may
see that without wood it is not pos
slble to exercise any manner of hui
man art or cunning"
Thus pleaded Pallissy; but his
words were unheeded, and the de-
struction of the forests went on
He lived in too early an age, his
doctrines were uncomfortable, and he
died in the bastile, for his religion,
in 1889. But like the Grecians,
who erected monument to their
philosopher-though his own gencr-
alton destroyed him-so the French
are now seeking to rear again the
monumental forests which their
own martyrs pleadings in the six
teenth century could not save.
1--WE ought to learn from the ex-
pcrience Of other nations," says the
Rev. Frederick Starr, in the agri-
cultural report for 1865, great and
terrible lessons, without insisting
upon suffering the same disasters
ourselves. The history of the world
presents to us fearful record re-
speeding the destruction OF the for
ests. Palestine and Syria, Egypt
and Italy, France and Spain, have
seen some of their most populous
regions turned into forsaken wilder
nesses, and their most fertile lands
into arid, sandy deserts. The dan
ger to our land is near at hand;-
nearer 6y.f"H thirty gears than the
most intelligent suppose. Wcnecd
immediate action both for proven
ton and restoration" And Mr..
Marsh, in the work above alluded
to, thus admonishcs us: "There are
parts of Asia Minor, of Northern
Africa, of Greece, and even Of AL
pine Europe, where the operation
of causes set in action by man has
brought the face of the earth to a
desolation almost as complete as
that of the moon; and though with
in that brief space Of time men call
the Historical PERIOD they arc
known to have been covered with
luxuriant woods, verdant pastures
and fertile meadows. They are now
too deteriorated to be reclaimable
by man, nor can they become again
fitted for human use except through
great geological changes, or other
mysterious influences or agencies of
which we have no present knowl-
edge and over which we have no
prospective control. The earth is
fast becoming an unfit home for its
noblcst inhabitants, and another era
Of equal human crime and human
| IS 1:1,n .,