The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-05-17

become slowly, but surely, engulfeC
oy the sand drifts Of the Sahara, was
once equal to Mexico in fertility, and
far surpassed it in cultivation, as well
IN regard to the soil aS to the minds
OF the inh2bitantants. As late a. go,
q good while after the rise of ths
Mohammedan Power, the country
now known as TripoiI, and distinct
J from the Sahara only through the ele-
walton OF its mountains, was the seat
OF eighty-hve Christian Bishops, and
had population OF six millions, oil
which number three quarters OF 8 per
cent. are now left. The climate
which, according to authentic descrip'
ton, must once nave resembled that
OF our Southern Alleghsnles, is now
so nearly intolerable that even the in
humanity Of an African despot for
bears to exact open air labor from c
A NJ. to P. 81. Steamboats, that
pass near the Tripolitsn coast in sum-
mer, on their way from Genoa to
Cairo, have to keep up = continual
shower OF artificial rain, to save their
deck-hands from being overcome by
the furnace air that breatnes from the
barren hills OF the opposite coast.
All this change is due to the insane
destruction Of forests. An animal
fsyed, or tree stripped Of its bark
does not perish more surely than q
land deprived of its treas. The Med
iterranean, once q forest lake of para
disc, is now q dead sea, surrounded by
dusty and burning coasts, often for
hundreds of miles without vestige OF
organic life. The Turks and Span.
iards especially have made themselves
guilty OF objectionable Outrages on
the fertility their subject countries.
| What dreary waste they have made
OF the mountain gardens of Syria, the
paradise of the GuadAlquivir and the
country that once was the promised
land Regions that formerly were
equal to our Tennessee and Western
Virginia in general fertility, are now
more barren than the Staked Plains,
or the pays del nlUeTtO, the land Of
death, in Southern Arizona
BY the destruction OF woods alone
the general value OF earth TO mankind
has been reduced at least one-third.
Lands that now entail OuIy misery or
their cultivators, were once the gar
den spots of our planet. On the
plateau OF Sidi BelbeZ, in the very
center of Sahara, Niebuhr traced the
course of former rivers and creeks by
the dspressions in the soil and the
shape Of the smoOSh-washed pebbles.
He also found tree stumps, now al
most petrified, and covered by a six
foot stratum OF burning sand.
"And so the astounding truth dswns
upon u.s." he says, "that this desert
may have once been 3 region OF
groves and fountains, and the abode
OF happy millions. Is there any other
crime against the physical laws of
God which calls down 3 more terrible
vengeance than that of stripping Our
Mother Earth of her sylvan covering
The hand of man has produced this
desert, and, / verify believe, every
other desert on this globe. Earth
was Eden once, and we have con-
verted the garden into sand waste.
The burning sun of the desert Is the
angel with the flaming sword, who
stands between US and paradise"
It seems certain, then, that climate
can be manufactured. Here and there
the hand OF man has reversed the
process, aud turned q sand waste into
garden-in Utah and Upper Egypt,
for instance. According to Baker
Pashaw, F. r. s., the region between
Karnak and Soudan enjoys now q
yearly rainfall OF sixteen inches,
where nine inches were the maxi
mum in 1920, the change being due to
the persistent tree culture of the
KhedIves, who have planted six
millions of palm trees and a million
and half of willows on the table
land of Wady Halfa alone. Not only
these tree plantations, but also the
adjoining districts have been bene-
flied, currant-bushes and wild null
berries having sprung up where they
never grew before, and the summer
heat in the Upper Valley OF the Nile
is not nearly so oppressive as it was
within the memory OF men now liv-
ing. Utah, too, has been meta
mOrphosed by the same means. The
Ulntah Mountains are now full of
springs, where fifty years ago only an
occasional cloud-burst furnished wa
ter to the parched canOns, and the
Green River did not deserve the name
the disciples of Joe Smith lined its
banks with peAch-trees and syca-
mOres. The hospital steward of Fort
Bridger reports that during the last
fifteen years the annual rainfall has
more than doubled twenty inches
now where the observations of a
scientific Lieutenant Of Cavalry
showed only nine Inches and a half
in 1858. The great Salt Lake is slow
IL rising, and old MormOns speak OF
Dairages, formerly produced by the
Oft afr hFat
now never seen.
Our country is in need of such
people, for the commercial value of
the great Southwest could be en-
haneed much quicker by reconstruct
ing the climate than by any other re-
constructions whatever. Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada
do not produce the agricultural equiv
alent of the single State OF Kentucky,
merely from want OF moist atmOs-
phere. Even California can compete
with the east only in the valley Of the
San joaquin and on the narrow strip
of soil between the Contra Costa
range and the Pacific. All her east,
southeast and south is as barren as
New Mexico whether through sn
original oversight of the Creator, or
through the crimes OF prehistoric Ma
tions, qTien sd6e ? Certain it is that
only one-third OF North America at
the time of It's discovery was fit by
favor Of climate for the production OF
paying crops and healthy men /; the
other two-thirds were either too cold
or too dry. America above the fiftieth
degree of northern latitude is too cold
q. TocNo,Aor. and Nn-uvawfanu
and between California and the Mis- |
souri, too dry even for barley culture. |
The better we get acquainted with |
the "Great West" the more it be-
comes evident that America was dis |
covered and settled right side first. |
The region between the Mississippi |
and the Atlantic, though only one
third of the United States territory, |
is now at least fifty times more |
valuable than the country west of the 4
great river. Timber and climate |
make the difference. In Ohio we |
have an annual average of forty-two /
inches of rain to eighteen in Cali
fornia and seven in Arizona. The /
valley OF the Ohio and its tributaries
contains a population equal to that Of
all British North America, and more
than equal 10 the niue Great Western
States from Colorado to the Pacific.
East America, SIS We mi Rht call the
land between Maine and Texas, has
doubled its population
every twenty-five years, and in a nun
dred years from now many OF our
older States will be able TO cope with
3 European power single-banded.
The climate of this region surely
makes it fltter for the production Of
manhood than any other portion OF
the great continent, Chill aud Cali
fornia not excepted, for between Ban
gOr and New Orleans there Is not q
square mile of land that has q right to
grumble about want OF rain, IL the
5ufferIngs OF the Old World are con-
sitered. In Southern Alabama Gnd
Central Georgia, where cotton culture
has made sad inroads upon the virgin
forests, weeks and even = month may /
pass without genuine rain shower
but never entire summers, as in Cali
'ornIa and Asia Minor.
As to the question OF comparative
it might be doubted il
New England il not q trifle too cold L