Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1875-01-07
fHE RUTLAND HERALD.
AMERICAN FORESTS.

AM ERECAN foRES -
Comnlaints have reached us for sew
eral weeks past from different parts OF
the country of the scarcity OF water.
The water in Lake Champlain is four
teen inches lower than it has ever been
known to be before. This means says
the Springfield Union that 1.-THE for
eats of Vermont and northern New
York have been thinned off to an extent
very seriously to interfere with the
water supply in the basin OF the lake,
the connection between the water sup
ply and the presence of forests being
one of the best known facts of meteor
ology." In Whites Natural History OF
Selborne, a book full of interesting facts
about swallows and moles, about bats
and crlckets and ancient tortoises and
big trees and early flowers and wonder
full overhows and high winds, the alem-
bic power of trees is quite fully describ-
ed. "No one says Mr.. White who has
not attended to such matters, can mag
inc how much water one tree will distill
in a nights time, by Condensing the
yapor which trickles down the twigs
and boughs, so as to make the ground
below quite in float" In some of the
smaller West India islands there are no
rivers. The people are supplied with
water merely by the dripping of some
large tall trees, which standing in the
bosom of the mountains, keen their
heads constantly enveloped with fogs
and clouds from which they dispense
their kindly, never ceasing moisture,
aud so render those districts habitable
by condensation alone. 1t is well
known that trees perspire and condense
and check evaporation so much that
woods are always moist. 1t is no wonder
therefore that they contribute so much
to pools and streams. That trees are
great promoters of lakes and rivers,
says this writer, "appears from well
known fact in North America for since
the woods aud.forests have been grubbed
and cleared all bodies of water are much
diminished; so that some streams that
were very considerable a century ago,
will not now drive common mill"
Dr. Hales, in his vegetable statistics,
says that "the moister the earth is, the
more dew falls on it in a night, and
more than a double quantity of dew falls
on an equal surface of moist earth"
Water, by its GOODNESS, is enabled to as
simulate large quantity of moisture
nightly by condensation, and the air,
when loaded with fogs and vapors, and
even with copious dews, can furnish a
very considerable and never-failing re-
source. Some statistics of the American
lumber trade which have been collected
in memorial to Congress against the
Canadian reciprocity treaty, to show
the extent of this business and the dam
age it would receive from competition
with Canada lumber ought, as the paper
10 which we have referred says, ''to tell
Just the other way, ard by awakening
the public to an appreciation of
the rapidity with which our for
ests are being cleared, should
lead as to welcome anything calculated
to diminish the demand upon them"
In ten years not less than 100000
acres of land in the United States have
been cut or burned down, while the in
crease of our timber lands from planting
is between 10000 and 20, 900 acres only,
mere trile in comparison. The growth
of young timber amounts annually to
about the same total. Twenty-Five Am
erican cities nN->N------- E - = 49,
5000 TO 10000 acres of wood a year.
One hundred and fifty thousand acres
are annually demanded to furnish rail-
road ties. An army of 100000 men are
constantly waging war on our forests,
this being the number engaged in the
lumber business, with capital of $144,-
900, 900 invested in it, and the annual
production of timber reaches value of
1910, 100000 Of this amount Maine,
New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Minnesota and Wisconsin produces one
half, Pennsylvania leading.
Such figures as these, as our exchange
says, ''are calculated to convince us that |
we can afford to lose no time in inaugu-
rating State and national system for
protecting our timber lands and replen-
ishing them by assiduous planting" We |
hope that the New York State Legisla-
ture will carry out the plan which has
already been brought before it, of re-
serving as public park a portion of the
Adirondack region. This plan has been
quite fully discussed, and there is no
doubt that it is a wise measure of public
economy. The head waters of the Hud-
son are in this region, and if this stream
is to be preserved as a public highway of 4
the region where it takes
its rise must not be stripped of trees.