The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-05-13

A GENERAL WATER FAMINE.-The New York
Herald asks the question: care we threatened
with a national water famine?" 1t continues
The intelligence which reaches us from vari-
Gus parts of the world seems to invest this
question with present and paramount impOr-
lance. In a recent article we commented on
the exceptional and phenomenal cold of the
past winter, and showed that it might, perhaps,
be attributable to the periodic return of what
eminent meteorologsts have called ''the cold
wave" through which our planet is supposed to
pass once in every ten or fifteen years The
Astronomer Royal of Scotland, in common
with other able and cautious physicians pre-
dicted last year such an event. and sought to
explain it on broad cosmical principles. Wheth-
er correct or not in their reasonings, there can
be no doubt now that the prediction was veri-
fled in fact The diminution of our annual
heat supply, derived from solar radiation it is
easy to see, will be marked by dminution in
the amount of water evaporated from the bill
lows of the ocean and delivered to the winds to
be transported over the great continental masses
of the globe for their irrigation and refresh
ment. The rainfall statistics and returns for
the present year, SO far as received appear to
bear out the natural inference from the above
facts, and give us timely warmly to be prepared
for great scarcity of water during the coming
summer. We already 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 two
inches for the past year, while the popular
mean rainfall of England is thirty inches, The
deficiency of eight inches of the usual fall may
be roughly estimated at over million gallons
of water for every square mile of British terri
tory, and should be carefully noted. In the
tropics where the atmospheric machinery takes
up the greatest amount of moisture from the
sea for terrestrial distribution, we find similar
results. From the returns of the Windward
West Indies the official figures for last Decem-
Der show deficiency greater than has been
known in the twenty-four years preceding; and
the average of the year 1871 was twenty-eight
per cent, or more than one-fourth below that
OF the preceding twenty-four years. For the
more discouraging, the average falling short of
that for the same month of the twenty-five pre-
ceding years by thirty five per cent, or more
than -one-third.- z- ~ a
Taking these facts in connection with the
widespread and terrible ravages of the great
Northwestern fires and forest confagrations,
which denuded SO many districts of country
last fall, and remembering the climatic dete-
rioration usually observed to follow the clear
ing 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
precious water supply distilled from the clouds.
1t may not now be too late to warn agricultur-
lists to prepare for any, emergency by the con-
ooHuCton VI pOHuS anu reSerVOlrS IOr uile lrflSa-
ton of the soil. But the warning is certainly
opportune and of vital importance in all the
cities and towns of the land to economize the
water, that in case of blighting droughts and
epidemic disease the terrors Of water famine
may not have to be endured. The proposed
action of Congress in providing for or encour-
aging the planting and preservation of trees on
the public lands is a step in the right direction
The danger now apprehended by this means
by the early sinking of artesian wells and other
precautions, may be materially averted and
lessened