The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-05-26
AGRICULTURE.
OUR FORESTS.
Their Effects Upon the Climate and Fer
tility or q Country.
BY +. ARMANT.

BY +. ARMANT.
With our cities built almost exclusively
| with lumber, with bright future prospect OF
| maritime preponderance such as awaits New
| Orleans, with the brisk and increasing do
mands Of Mexico, Central and South America
for their building supplies, there should be
| no interest more closely protected than that
| Of our forests.
The actual system Of our Land Office reg1l-
| Iations leaves our timbered area at the mercy
of spectators, and the Indifference Of our
people for statistical warnings prevents their
due consideration Of the main question in the
factors Of our wealth.
Our city has to he repaired and extended,
our interior town have to undergo the same
| ratio of Improvement while the newly built
railroads and the developments that follow
will certainly cause the building of large
number of new towns, built of wood as a rule
The foreign-owned fleet that carries away
from our port the countless products of the
Mississippi valley needs our timber, while the
opening Of South American and Mexican
trades with New Orleans will soon destroy
that erroneous policy of u great seaport ex-
the timber with which to build the new fleets
must be taken here; but unless we protect
our forests from ndiscriminate depopulation
as now carried on, we shall have to seek for
our timber and lumber supplies in Canada or
British Columbia, and the prospect is not In
the least encouraging.
II we look into the matter under other
aspects, how can we refrain from n shudder
when we come to think that our agricultural
interests forming the very basis of our thrift
and general resources, are Immediately con-
cerned In the fate OF our forests SO It is,
however, and that connection Is a real vas
salage when we come to clear comprehen-
sion Of it's far-reaching influences.
We must therefore
PROTECT THE FOREST
by all means. There Is no fertility without
adjoining forests, because there is no mos
ture, without forests. In the atmosphere.
Moisture is the first condition Of subsistence
for plants and our southerly exposure compels
us to take considerable pains and precautions
so as to avoid the droughts increasing every
year as our forest area diminishes.
In Africa the oasis expands along the banks
of streams or around the springs, where
verdure Is compact and plentiful, but beyond
those spots the arid desert spreads It's glar-
ing sheet of barren sands to vast and i'm
mense limits.
Palestine was formerly prosperous and fer
tile, and 50 was Biblical Mesopotamia, but
to-day those countries are desertedland sterile,
and no traveller could form an idea Of Chan
SANS fertility In n journey through the actual
Pasialisks Of Acre and Damas. The reason
for the alteration Of those former conditions
ls the lessening of moisture. This Is not due
SO much to a want OF rain as to the rapid rum
ming Of waters on the naked soils surface.
riors against Greece and Egypt, their popula-
ton was no doubt dense and large. such MS
could he sustained only by a fertile country.
To what other cause should we attribute the
subsequent dcSertlOn OF those lands than the
CHANGES IN CLIMATIC CONDITIONS
that have rendered cultivation impossible?
According to Strabo the BabylOnans had
to contend against periodical overfows of the
Euphrates. and to prevent its overlooking the
country by providing canals and sluicns for
the discharge of its surplus waters. Modern
meanwhile teaches US that these
canals are still traced, but that they are dry
and filled with sands and that the Euphrates
does not rise out of its banks any more
Therefore, the volume OF water running over
the actually sterile regions is considerably
less than what 1t formerly WIS. and the i'm
Of mans cultivating crops for his
sustenance there is due to the want of rains.
And this want of rain itself is due to the too
great
CLEARING OF FORESTS.
The lands wherein men first penetrate are
covered with forests. On the other hand, old
settled countries are more or less cleared As
soon as man meets the virgin soil he attacks
the forest 1t must yield him the space of his
fields; 1t must yield his shelter and his fuel.
So long us he diminshes the forest without
destroying ii, he is accomplishing q useful
work; but SO soon as he eXaggeratcs his |
action, as he fells the timber he alters the
climatic conditions, causes a lessening In the
frequency and volume of rains, checks their !
occurrences eventually and produces sterlity
around him.
II any examples are necessary to demon
strate the fact that depopulating of forests |
will lessen the quantity of falling waters, we
will find striking ones in history where we
ind that the disappearance Of the Scamander |
liver in Troada, followed the destruction of .
,he cedar growth of Mount Ida, near which
{ took it's source
Humboldt found In Venezuela in the Ara
qua Valley, that the Lake of Ticarag,la,
since the beginning Of the century, was grad
% less than half its original size, when, in
1922 M. Boussingault found that the lake had
naturally increased in size and covered its
ormerly inhabited banks and fields.
The phenomenon Is explained by the fact
hat the war of Independence had scattered
he population away, checking therefore the
clearing OF surrounding forests; when these,
lfter 1922, recovering their former extent
around the lake, had reinstated in their former
;olume the streams that ran through them
md formed feeders to the lake of Nicaragua.
This other instance of considerable interest
$ suggested by M. Boussingault. I'm the
nigh table lands OF New Grenada stands the
rillage of ubate, near to two lakes that We're
single uninterrupted sheet Of
water "The old Inhabitants says Mr.
"saw the water diminishing
.radually and new banks advancing every
ear. To-day there are wheat fields OF ex-
RENE fertility covering a tract that was com
'letely under water thirty years previously
ioing over the environs Of tbate and consult
ng the local huntsmen and oldest inhabitants,
he mystery will be explained by their an
wer that "a large area OF surrounding forests
ad been felled.'"
HIS INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON MOISTURE
due to the considerable emitting power Of
aves During nighttime the leaves are ,
ubject to a rapid cooling discriminating an
bundant deposit Of dew. In daytime plants
7ill otherwise evaporate certain volume Of
posture under the influence of light; while ,
he same effect will be largely diminished in /
he shade; whence evaporation is very linn
ed in thcketS and dense forests TpmDpra-