The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-11-09

and as an optical instrument it is per.
feet beyond imitation. 1t is bad
enough when an individual loses both
OF these Instruments; but there is
comfort in the fact, that when one is
gone, the hand of the optician has
made another, which, while it cannot
give sight, yet it can help to restore
marred beauty.--Philadelphia Letter.
Destruction of Forests.
THE ancient Greeks used the word
dendrokopein, literally, "to cut down
the trees,' to denote the utter ruin
and devastation of a country. They
were wise men, for, by the cutting
down of the forests, more than by any
other cause, many of the most densely-
peopled regions of the Old World have
been reduced to deserts. Palestine,
when the Hebrews took possession of
it, was land of rivulets and foun-
tains, being thereby distinguished from
Egypt. which must be watered by
the foot" In the palmy days of the
Nation this territory, not as large as
the State of Massachusetts, supported
in plenty population of at least ), 900
900, where now not more than 25O, 900
find a scanty subsistence. Even the
cOnquests of the Assyrians did not
permanently reduce the population,
densely peopled. But during the wars
which followed the revolt under YES
paSian and Titus, the Romans syS-
tematically cut down, not merely the
fruit trees, but the forests, and in the
course of a few generations the greater
part of the country was reduced to the
almost Waterless desert which it now
is. The channels of the rivuletS still
remain, but they are dry rayines, ex-
cept directly after a rain, when they
become roaring torrents, the only ex-
ceptions being those streams whose
sources lie high up among the wooded
RafbE9etsat gRab9e tsat6fy ST e44hnqna 44hn nargrbaft tflSt Is the s
forests which once clothed the hill
sides have long been destroyed; the
famous fountains of antiquity now
flow only in song, and rivers of histor-
ical renOwn are now but scanty brooks
which a child may ford. The African
shores of the Mediterranean, long the
glanary of the Roman Empire, have,
from the same cause, become not
merely uninhabited, but practically
uninhabitable, by any except nOmads
wandering from one scanty fountain
to another.
The same story is repeated in mod
ern times, down to our own day, and
all over the world. In Ceylon the
forests have been cut down for coffee
plantations, and more than twenty
years ago the loss of springs and foun-
tains have grown to be threatening
evil. When, two centuries ago, the
Spice Islands fell into the hands of the
Dutch, they were clothed with dense
forests of spice-bearing trees. To in
crease the value of the monopoly, the
Dutch set about an indiscriminate de-
struction of the forests, and these
islands were converted into arid des-
erts. Not many years ago the world
was thrilled by the report of the fam
inc in the Cape de Verd Islands. The
soil there is very light and porous,
and requires constant moisture as a
condition of fertility. For many years
the increasing lack of humidity was no
ticed. The river Socorridos, in Madeira,
down which ship-timber was formerly
foated to the sea, gradually dried up
until it became mere rill, whose
waters, except at tloOd-time, could
hardly be seen along its pebbly bed.
The diminution of moisture was found
to have kept equal pace with the de-
struction of the forests on the noun
tain sides, and the Portuguese Gov
ernment made laws prohibiting the
cutting down of trees near springs and
river sources. But wine culture was
profitable, and the laws were power
less against immediate interest. So
the trees were cut down more and
more; the springs failed, the foun-
tains dried up, and drought
and famine followed. Only a
quarter of a century ago the Danish
island of Santa Cruz was a garden of
fertility. The hills were covered with
forests, and trees were everywhere
abundant. A person who had formerly
resided there recently revisited the
island, and found third part of it re-
duced to an utter desert. The plant
ers had barred the island of its forests
the soil was gradually desiccated; even
the short, copious showers had ceased.
The island of Curacao was, within the
memory of living men, one of the
most fertile and well-watered spots on
earth; "but now," says Mr.. Hough,
"whole plantations, with their once
beautiful villas and terraced gardens,
are nothing but an arid waste; and
yet, sixty miles away, on the Spanish
Main, the rankest vegetation covers
the hills, and the burdened clouds
shower down abundant blessings
The United States Commissioner OF
Agriculture in 1871 writes: "In Up
per Egypt the rains which eighty
years ago were abundant, have ceased
since the Arabs cut down the trees
along the valley of the Nile toward
Libya and Arabia. A contrary effect
has been produced in Lower Egyp1
from the extensive planting of thu
Pasha. In Alexandria and Cairo
where rain was formerly rarity, j
has since that period become more fire
uuent. "A. II. Guernsey, in apple
tons Journal for Nouenber.