Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1872-05-23
Are We Threatened with n Ma
tisnal Water Famine

The intelligence which reaches us from
various parts of the world seems to invest
this question with present and paramount
Importance. In a recent article We CON-
meuted on the exceptional and phenome-
nal cold of the past winter, and showed
that it might, perhaps, be attributable to
the periodic return of what eminent mete-
orvlogists have called .fhe cold waye''
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
physicists, predicted last year such an
event, and sought to expsain it on broad
cosmical principles. Whether correct or
not in :heir reasonings there can be no
doubt now that the prediction was veri-
fed in fact. = The diminution of our an
nual heat supply derived from solar, .ra-
diation, it is easy to see, Will be marked
by dIminutIon in the amount Of water
e,'aporated from the billows of the ocean
and delivered to the winds to be trans
ported over the great continental masses
of the globe for their irrigation and re,
freshment The rainfall statistics and
returns for the present year, SO far as re-
ceiyed, appear to bear out the natural
inference from the above facts, and give
us timely warning to be prepared for
great scarcity of water dueing the coming
summer. We already know, by expert
ence, that the rain of the season have fall
len short of their usual abundance this
spring in the United States, although The
considerable. The returns from England,
carefully collacted by Mr. Glaisher, give
general average of only. twenty-five
inches for the past year, while the proper
mean rail-fall 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 territory, and should be
carefully noted. liz 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 Wind
ward West Indies the official figures for
last December show deficiency greater
than has been known in the twenty-four
years proceedings; 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
month of Jannaay. 1872, the returns are
still more discouraging, the average falling
short of that for the same months of the
twenty- five preceding years by thirty-ive
per cent or more than one.third. Il
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 rcmem-
bering the climatic deterioration usually
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 precious water supply distilled from
the clouds. 1t tmuy not now be too late
to warm agriculturists to prepare for any
by the construction of the soil: |
But the warning is certainly opportune |
and of vital importance in all the cities /
and towns of the land to economic the |
water, that in case of blighting droughts
and epidemic disease the terrors of water |
famine may net have to be endured. The
action of Congress in providing
ior or encouraging the planting and pre-
'ervation of trees on the public lands is
;tep in the right direction. The danger
low apprehended by this means, by the
Early sinking of artesian wells and other
precautions, may be materially averted
ind lessened.-N. Y. Herald. /
f. q