The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1878-04-11
Inauauca Of Trees On Climates.


In considering the influence of trees
upon the climate and rainfall Of the
Pacific coast, we first encounter the
impossibility of finding any records
of the climate and rainfall Of ancient
times. Beyond the mere fragments
handed down by the early Spanish dis
coverers, the records do not extend
beyond quarter of century. time
too short to be of value in determln-
ing change of climate.
Looking first at Arizona, we see ex-
tensive ruins of aqueducts and cities,
showing the former presence of a large
agricultural population. That Ari-
zona, and, indeed, the whole Pacific
coast, has been peopled by one race or
another, from remote antiquity, does
not admit of doubt. Some portions,
as Central Arizona, were densely set
tled-Westcrn Arizona is now, for the
most part, sandy desert, destitute of
trees, with but few inches of rain
during. the year, and burned by blaz-
ing sun. By what means, then, did
Arizona once sustain her large popu
lation, and why is this country now a
desert? Arizona had once an album
dance of rain, and that within the gem
eral historical era and the present ge-
illogical epoch. Now the rains have
ceased, and these are the reasons why:
The moisture that now falls in scan
ty summer showers upon Arizona,
comes from the same monsoon that
blows up the Mississippi valley it
crosses Texas and New Mexico, losing
most of its moisture in passing over
high mountains, and by the time it
reaches Arizona its humidity is sc
greatly lessened that very little of its
remaining moisture can be condensed,
and the surface of Arizona does not
offer the necessary conditions for con-
densation. When the rain fell in an
cient times the surface of the terrific
ry was covered with forests; the air
and earth were cool, and the moisture
of the warm rain clouds was easily
cooled and precipitated. But the an
cient people through ignorance,
through selfishness, through domestic
use, and through wars, slowly destroy
ed their forests. The result was most |
disastrous to them. Soon the summer
rains ceased to descend, the hot and |
bare earth increased the dryness Of the
air. Only the winter rains then fell.
To raise crops the people were obliged
to resort TO irrigation, and the remains
of great reservoirs and canals attest
their struggle for existence. More
trees were destroyed, and less rain fell
in winter, and soon not enough to fill
the reservoirs against the summer
drouths. Then began the extermina-
ton of the inhabitants; no fruits or
grains matured, the blazing sun parch-
ed the ground, and the sands of the
desert slowly crept over tie once
smiling valleys. Most OF the people
starved, few fed to foreign lands,
and the remainder managed to subsist
upon the mountains till exterminated
by the Indians. The spoliation of the
forests, the robbery of that part of ma
ture which alone can make country
fertile and inhabitable, was the cause
Of their destruction, and not the Indi-
ans. Nature, just and kind and benef- /
icent when understood and obeyed, ,
permits no attractions of her laws, bnt |
drives from their country, or sweeps I
out of existence as unworthy of her {
continued favors, nations who commit s
the objectionable sin of destroying
her living ferests.-Samael P,wneN in
Rayus Pacific Press.