The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-11-08
Iorestry.

spoken but real demand of the time, wisel,
publishes an eightpagc report of the debate
Of the Sanhedrim Of high priests and elder.
of Science, lately convened at Portland
There is none of more vital importance thar
1.-THE paper of Professor Franklin Hough o.
ALBANY, on Forest Culture.
II is matter Of general knowledge thai
vast reaches Of land once luXuriantly fertile
are, to-day, waste deserts. Great tracts OF
| Persia, Syria, and Greece, for example, the
gardens of antiquity, now lie arid and desc
| late under kindless skies. But if curse
have fallen on these regions, as superstition
holds, it is curse Of mans stupidity and
greed, not of Gods anger. They are deserts
because great droughts bake and calcine
| them And these droughts betall because the
whole land is disfOrested.
When the mountains of the East were
clothed with trees from base TO summit and
groves of oak and willow sheltered the little
streams, grain fields and orchards, olive and
! fir abounded and hillside vineyards rIpcned
lalmost on the topmost rock. Husbandmen
UroSpered Cities grew and multiplied Day
| and night the trees cyhaled fertility, shelter.
| ing the little vines and roOtlcts at their feet
| that held the soil together, and hid innumer-
! able tiny reservoir of water; shading the
brooks from the ierceness Of the southern
sun, drawing the moisture for their own roots
through natural aqueducts from lar-of
springs; tossing into the heated air from cv-
cry living leaf a yaporous GOODNESS to be re
distilled into lifc-9lying rain.
"As man destroyed his shelter" SAYS Mr.
Iiough, the desert crept on him step by
step, and destroyed his works" Without
the protection of the trees all the luyuriant
underground persisted Then, when the rains
fell, they soaked through the powdery soil to
swell tie rushing streams, making an instant
deugc to be followed by hopeless drought
Crops died. Husbandmen starved or beg
ged Cites crumbled in ruin As the rain
fall dwindled more and more, famincs, came :;
fever and pestilcnCe followed famine CLEAN.
ing what human harvest that evil reaper had
left.
Terrible a. is this retributon, however,
those ancient barbarian5 were no, much gull.
tier than are we modern GOths. The average
American holds that the p:Cvidcntial destiny
of tree is to be cut Gown. The pioneers
AK would almost lind lis way alone to the
woods, there, automatically, 10 hew and hack
till the most innocent sapling fell. Every
summer tourist shudders to recall the endless
miles Of parched road Histeriug in the sun,
the staring schOol-house at tic crossroads
seeming to crackle with heat, the bare farm.
houses Wllt-lOl III lHttT dIuS,
which everywhere distinguish his dear, his
native land And il some late relenting
woodman spare his tree, or if the forests of
hslf-barrcn wastes escape the AK, Is there
not the rushing locomotive ever ready TO
drop It's fatal spark into the tindcry under.
brashs
While this destruction sweeps on. swift
paced, under the name of land improvement
or of accident, almost no PREPARATION is made
Orr temperate climate and vast territory will
long defy the famine and pestilence which
we ignorantly invite. But they cannot post
pone the -tcrfity which even now threatens
vast sections.
Moon Flu nKs.-Thosc IN use in Nevada
are great curosiiics Many of them cost
from $4,000 ~ $4,000 They are built upon
certain grade, and pass over and wind
around many hills in their coarse To the val.
leys or other places where the wood and lum.
Der carried down may be reached Icy teams
or sidctracks from the railroad. The fumes
are built 50 large that timbcr> sixteen inches
sgaarc and H. many feet in length may b.
hoated down them. Down a properly con
slrnCted flumc these large timber, are iloatcd
by quite a small head OF water; and not a
single stick, but Il long procession OF sticks,
Wood and lamber are carried oil by the same
means rs fast rs thrown into the fumes, and
dumped mikes away in I'm almost incredibly
SlpTi linn