The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-07-19

the utne Oh DoueSllSait there nad been
no rain for seventeen years. In the
whole country from Lachau to Lima
rain is Oh scarce as tees. In France, In
the District of LIE Bocage in Vendee
while the forests we're yet untouched
there was supernlity Of moisture in
meadows and fields, aid the roads were
never dry. In 1903 f,c entire cxtirpa-
ton of woods began, land now rain sci
dom falls. The field are baked and
hard i'll summ1, the grass upon the
meadow is poo, and the roads arc dry
and dusty. Thee facts, collated by the
author of the aticle alluded to, arc all
corroborated by the accounts from the
prairies of Texa and the West in our
own country. ! the Smithsonian Re-
port in 1865, il an article from the
French, there isan account Of the Eu-
pirates which, ahough rendered for the
purpose of showig the diminished vol
umc OF streams Ter destruction OF for
ests, so clearly shws their decreasing in
huence upon the ,infall proper, that
will add to it wha consider already an
ample list of Satisfactory testimony.
lie says that Stlbo informs us that il
was necessary to axe great precautions
to prevent the coutry Of Babylonia from
being submerged. Tbe Euphrates, which
begins to swell the close of spring,
when the SHOWS aelt on the mountains
of Armenia, oyerows at the beginning
Of summer, and Wuld necessarily form
vast accumulations fwater OH the cul-
tivated lands, were not the supcrhux
turned aside by mans of trenches and
canals.
This state of things exist 10 longer.
M. Oppest, who som'years ago travelled
through Babylonia, rports that the vol
umc of water conycyd by the Euphrates
is much less than in asst ages; that in
undations no longer occur; that the
canals arc dry, the mfshes exhausted by
the great heats Of sumner, and that the
country has ceased .; be insalubrious.
This retreat Of waters,say lc in conclu-
sion, can only be attributed, rs he found
means to satisfy himstfSto tho clearing
away Of the forests on tho mountains of
Armenia.
Now, these forests nt being present to
rctard the melting of Il, snow in the first
instance, nor to obstruttand absorb the
torrents in their desceI to the river. it
should, Of course, sho, higher frcshcts
occasionally, not only because of the
greater amount of waite, thrown in sud.
denly, but also by reaon of the filling
up of the bed by the mud and sands
brought down by then > Therefore. n
decrease in the altitud' Of the frcshcts
must be attributed to 4 iilure of rainfall
at its sources, caused h the clearing cc
| forests.
THE FORESTS AS sTcBEEoUSEs OF MOIs-
TUlRs
Forests are promoter of general mois-
ture by maintaining ah eonstaI,cv or
! streams, which, in the. passage 10 the
sea, serve as canals of is9ation not only
to the lands lying aloy their courses
but by supplying the amosphcre with
dews for some distance uIon the hills
The usefulness Of wood in storing up
waters having peen demestrated. see
no objection b considering them the
sources of spriBs; for then is not cot
ton field negrofn the Soutt, whether he
has occupied aecat in the legislature or
not, who does lot know thEsprings are
ruined by cleafng away contiguous for
ests; SpTingsRre the sources Of brooks;
brooks of crecss creeks Of rivers. The
clearing awaySf forests, then, must affect
IN the most diect way the supply of these
! exceedingly lhnlerous canals which 80
| much mitigaQ the severity Of drought,
as is amply slRwn by the heavy fogs and
immense dcpssits of dcws that are so
often seen al9g their courses, as yell as
by the more luxuriant appearance of
crops and geyral vegetation.
If authorit}s wero needed here ICould
adduce mores han could be givcnnprove
any other prposition in this article; but
as have in sy minds eye small creek
near me, updl which have hunted and
fished for twfnty years, and have noted
the diminutid of its waters as the forests
were follod aFund its sources, and have,
with Others, lAnarked the establishing
of its volumdince these lands were re-
stocked with lines and old field p!ums, l
shall not nowdraw upon foreign coun-
tries, but di4iiss the subject with this
single plantapn illustration.
INCREASE INfHE ATTITUDE OF FRESH
ETS.
It is also t3e that the clearing of for
ests increased the altitude of freshets.
This results,h ,hs before noted, from two
causes; and , matter Of observation
certainly wi9 all who have noted the
streams of tt South. / will give only
cne illustratbn of this, althcug there
are very NIFTY more at my command
Wateree CAk, q stream of my OWE
county, ant of sufficient magnitude to
change the Iamo Of the Catawba into
that of Waeiee River after its junction.
Thirty to fcty years ago the clear, fresh
waters Of bis creek teemedaiwith the
finest fish, nd were never failing. It iE
now ordinaDy muddy and insignificant
stream, wit0ut even the presence OF the
little minIaw, being frequently dry for
weeks at ! time; so dry that friend,
who plantnpon its banks, probably ten
miles fronits source, informs me that he
saw, durig the summer of 1866, morning
glories, witch had sprung up in its bed,
wither aa die for want of water. And
yet at tlS point after heavy rains. it not
unfrequdtly shows depth of twenty
feet in ihe channel, whilst it's rushing
waters fe spread from hill &c Eli, Gduvas-
::atiug cops and sweeping away acres of
the finst planting lands of the country,
which lappening along the thousands of
valley that intersect the South, has ad-
ded nllions of bushels Of breadstuffs to
our anual importations, for il was upon
the Aperior moisture of the lowlands
that he country has been dependent GER
tain for its superior gSain crops for
mari years past. It is not necessary to
purle the subject further. 1t was
enogh to have shown that drought was
upa' the increase: that forests were cal
cuted to mitigate its severity, and that
tbte had been great destruction of them.
fhis, whatever might be the indica-
tits of the plnviometer in isolated places,
wlld authorize the assertion that so far
asagriculture was affected, there had
len virtually. if not actually. q dininu-