The Portland daily press., 1873-08-23
THE PRESS.
MORNING, AUGUST 2s,1s73
The Preservation Of Forests.


the preservation of forests and the proper
measures of government relating thereto, is of
peculiar interest to the people of Maine, con-
sidering the denuation Of forest lands which
is continually going on:
The presence of stately ruins in solitary
deserts is conclusive proof that great clI-
matte changes have taken place within the
period OF human history in many eastern
countries once highly cultivated and densey
peopled, but now an arid waste. Although
the records of geology teach that great vi
cissitudes of climate, from the torrid condi- |
tions of the coal period to those which pro-
duced the glaciers of the drift, may have in
turn occurred in the same region, we have no
reason to believe that any mate ial changes |
have been brought about by astronomical |
or othei natural causes within the historical |
period. We can only account for the changes |
that have occurred since the sunburnt and
sterile plains where these traces of mans
first civilization are found were clothed with
luxuriant vegetation, except to ascribe
them to the imprudent acts of man in des-
troying the trees and plants which once
clothed the surface and sheltered it from the
sun and the winds. As this shelter was re-
moved the desert approached, gaining new
power as its area increased, until it swept
over vast regions once populous and fertile,
and left only the ruins of former mag
nificence. In more temperate climates
the effect is less striking, yet it IS suffi-
GENTLY apparent everywhere, and through
out our whole country and especially in
the hilly and once wooded or the level and
swampy regions of the Eastern and Northern
States, the failure of springs and wells, the
drying up of brooks which once supplied am
pie hydraulic power through the summer,
and the increasing difhculty of securing
water for canal navigation and wholesome
water for cities are becoming every day some
thing more than a subject of casual remark.
They are destined to become theme of care
full scientific and practical inquiry to ascer-
tain how these growing evils may be checked
and how the lost advantages may be regained.
We regard the oce an itself as the source
whence the moisture precipitated in rains is
mainly derived. Its area changes not; the
as varied within the fixed limits by therevou-
tion of theS Searth's axis in its revolution
around the sun, there are no astronomical
| or other causes that should sensibly change
! the annual amount of general evaporation
from the surface of the ocean from year to
year or from ageto age. The vapors raised
from the sea are distributed by the winds
/! over the land, and descend as rains where
mountain ranges, crests, and other causes
favor condensation. 1t is probable that the
Gulf of Mexico furnishes more yapor for rain
| than the Atlantic Ocean flor the United
States of course) its influence being felt
| throughout and beyond the great basin OF
! the Mississippi and its tributaries.
In work, which 1 recently prepared for
| the regents of the university of the State of
| New York, l was able to collect from all
sources and from various periods, in some
stations for almost half a century, about 1000
4 wears of rain, and all records within the State
1 Of New York, and in volume published
l within the last year by the Smithso oman In
4 stitute, there is much more extended series
| for the whole country. These extensive Sc
| ries are not enough to determine with auy
| show of accuracy the secular changes, If
any, that may be going on in the amoa..t- of
precipitation of rain and snow-but although
they reveal great irregularities in series of
years at any given locality, they do not justify
us in supposing that in the general average
| OF periods the amount is sen>ibly increasing
or diminishing, although they do show in
some cases greater tendency 10 drought for a
series of years together, and often a more
| unequal distribution of rain throughout the
! years.
This growing tendency to floods and
u 4 L. III a
| clearing up of woodlands by which the rains
| quickly find their way into the streams, often
swelling them into destructive floods instead
| of rushing into the earth to re-appear as
| springs. Aside from the direct effect of shell
! ter and shade. afforded by trees the evapora-
/ ton of rain drops that fall upon the leaves,
! and the chemical action of the leaves
themselves, have a marked influence upon
| the humidity and temperature of the air be-
meath and around them. The contrast in
| very dry season between an open and sun
| burt pasture and one intersperced with stumps
| of trees must have been noticed by every
| careful obs erver and the actual relative pro-
| fits OF farms entirely without trees, and
those liberallv shaded, everything else being
| equal, will show, at least, in grazing districts,
| the advantage of the latter in the value of
| their annual products. The fact that furniture
in houses too much shaded will mould is ia
| mliar and suggestive instance of the humid in
| fluence of trees and the aggregate results of
| woodland shade, may well explain the fullness
| of streams and springs in the forest which dry
up and disappear where it is removed.
The economic value of timber and our alb
soldte dependence on it for innumerable uses.
| in manufactures and the arts, the rapidly in
| creasing demand for it in railroad construc-
struction, and the positive necessity for Its
| use in the affairs of common life, even were
It's use as fuel largely supplanted by the in
PRODUCTION of mineral coal are too obvious for
suggestion. 1t is this necessity, rather than
! consideration of climate or of water supply,
1 that has led in several countries of Eulope to
! systems of management and regulation OF ma
I tioaal forest as measure OF governmental
i, policy and public econop y-such systems
| haze been devised to greater or less extent
| i'm Russia, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Italy,
| Fr.<nce, Denmark, and Sweden, and more re-
| Gently in British India. The extent OF State
forest in France is about 3,130,000 acres to
which may be added,5 1926, 900 acres belong
ing to commons, corporations, hospitals and
| other public institutions, making the whole
extent of forest under the management of the
forest administration S,435.000 acres, or,
about 13, ,226 square miles. They are dis rib
| uted widely over the country, large proper
| ton being in the departments ofthe last leg
| islation in France, having in view the preser-
| walton of forest, chiefly dates from the ord
i
the cutting of forest belonging to the States.
| The clause was inserted by the statesman
| Colbert, ''that in all the forests of the States
4 oaks should not be felled unless ripe, that is
able to prosper another thirty years." The
i yresent French forest code was established in
lS27, it entrusts the care public forests to the
I ministry of finance under a director general
assisted by two administrations, one charged
with the management of forest and the sale
of products, aud the other with the police of
the forest and forest laws. In the depart
| ments there are thirtv-two conservators, each
| in charge of one or more departments, ac.
cording to the extent of forest in each. The
immediate supervision is intrusted to gdrdes
generedur, who live near, and personally su-
perintend the work of forest guards, the lat.
ter live in the fore st, and act as police over
certain range. They personally observe the
operations and report all the infractions of
the laws-no timber is cut until marked
and most of the saw mills are owned by the
government and rented to the wood mer-
chants. The system bas been extended to
Algeria where several rainy days have been
added to July and August by forest culture.
These details might be extended, but they
would not have practical application with us,
t.oo,,,so o,,r CT af,,s as q general rule, own no