The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-01-10
The Anti-AGonop0list.
following from Mr.. J. j. Thomas:
ssISaac Pullen. well known nur-

belts of evergreen which had sprung
up from his nursery rows to height
OF twenty-five or thirty feet in ten
years, and he stated that within the
shelter of these screens, his nursery
trees as we'll as farm crops average
fifty per cent. more than on bleak
and exposed places. l have known
an ordinary English thorn hedge,
which had been allowed to run up
twenty feet or more in height, to
shelter and save from winter killing
a crop of wheat as far as its influence
extended, while beyond this the grain
was nearly destroyed
The report continues:
IF tree belts in New Jersey have
been known to increase the prOduc-
ton of the land fifty per cent, and if
one half this increase could be real
lied in Wisconsin, the surplus farm
products of the year 1866 would have
Melted the State the sum of ST. $780,,
900, This sum would have been added
to the wealth of the State with but
very little additional expense. The
estimated value of nine OF the princi-
pal crops: of 1866 was 1880, O0O."
1 regret cannot here find space to
quote the numerous interesting facts
mentioned in this report as to the
clearly defined influence of the de-
struction Of the forests of southern
and eastern Wisconsin upon the crops
and climate of those regions. The
report should be in every farmers
hands. 1 cannot refrain. however,
from quoting the following:
''Such has been the change in the
flow of the Milwaukee river, even
while the area from which it receives
it's supply is but partially cleared,
that the prOprietOrs of most of the
mills and factories have found it nee
cessary to resort to the use Of steam,
at a largely increased yearly cost, to
supply the deficiency of water power
in dry seasons of the year. The Men
omonee river, a small tributary Of
the Milwaukee, has been effected in
the same way and to a still greater
extent, because large proportion of
the water supplying area has been
stripped of its forest trees. Several
Of the mills that formerly found suffi-
cient power on this stream have been
entirely abandoned, others are pro-
PEELED large share Of the time by
steam" ''What has
happened to the Milwaukee river and
to those smaller streams has happen
ed to all the other water courses in
the State, from whose banks thu for
estS have been removed
''In the State of Michigan it has
been found that the winters have
greatly increased in severity within
the last forty years, and that this in
creased severity seems to move along
the forests. Thirty years ago the
peach was one of the most abundant
fruits of that State; at that time frost
injurious to corn at any time-frOm
May to October, was a thing unknown.
Now the peach is an uncertain crop,
and frost often Injuries the corn"
find in one of the newspapers of
the day the following:
"A bill has been introduced ihto the
California Legislature to encourage
the planting of shade trees. 1t is
strange that such legislation is neces-
sary in that land of big trees, but it is
% luOt lAdl lAC NdSlC tAlu uCStl uCtiOll
of timber by the settlers of Califor-
MIA have barred the soil in many places
to the sun and winds for miles. and
changed the cool groves and pleasant
shady spots to dusty plains, as inno-
cent of trees as the Arabian desert.
With the most attractive rnra-
scenery in the world says a San
Francisco journal, we have the drearl
lest roads and the baldiest country
houses and villages of any State in the
Union. For fifteen years a warfare
has been made upon the trees growing
upon the plains and along thorough
fares until few of them are now left. >"
ut was one of the barbarous GUS
toms Of the early settlers to cut down
the trees in the neighborhood of their
houses and whitcwash the stumps, as
a cheap and easy method at once of
clearing the land and marking the
road ; and this wholesale destruction
was carried on with such utter lack
of caution and judgment, that whole
regions are now nearly destitute of
the protection and advantages given
to the soil and to its cultivation by
the presence of forest trees. The
consequences are that the winds have
full sweep and the sun and storms
full play throughout those regions !;
their fruitfulness is impaired and the
health and comfort of the residents
materially diminished. to say nothing
of the desolate and monotonous aspect
of these long reaches of shadeless
roads. bald fields. and staring houses"
Michigan has already taken action
in this matter. In 1867 committee
of the House of Representatives re-
ported to that body on the subject of
forest trees, and stated that last year
the loss on that part of>the State
lying south of the Michigan Central
railroad was estimated at no less than
three-fourshs of the entire wheat
crop From what inquiries they
had been able to make the loss on the
wheat crop alone of that State for the
last four years. is not less than S3D.-
100000. They fear that these vast
losses are but ..the beginning of sor-
row." and ..that the improvidenee
which laid open to their fields the
scourge of God. the southwest wind,
by the wholesale destruction of the
forests, is now only beginning to reap
its fruits, and that these losses can
only be avoided by restoring, in part
at least, the natural boundaries
against the wind