Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-01
Farm and Household.


The Destruction OF our Forests
of desoation which is recorded far back
of the days of Roman or even of Grecian
glory, we read that "a man was famous ac-
cording as he had lifted up axes upon the
thick trees" In the days when American for
ests were considered practically limitless, our
fathers were far too famous for lifting up axes
upon the thick trees, and the resultant de-
struction is even now upon u.s. like the Philis-
tines upon Samson. This destruction comes
upon us in many forms, most Of which are, in
fact rapidly and terribly cumulative. Here
is a beautiful stream of water, for example,
which was a great element of wealth TO the
region through which it flowed. 1t might not
only have continued to be SO, but to have
gained in usefulness instead of being either
dead or surely and swiftly passing away. The
numberless little holOws on the hills where
were the springs which grew into rivulets to
feed it have been stripped of the moisture
economizing verdure with which the Creator
clothed them, and so the springs are dry, and
the rills no longer murmur their once glad
songs of labor as they hastened down the
valleys to turn the mill-wheels of mechanical
industry. In this one matter of destruction
of hydraulic power with which we have al
ready been smitton, hundreds of millions Of
dollars of annual damage has been and is the
actual result. That this drying up of the
streams is attributable not only chiefly to de-
foresting, but almost solely to it, common
sense-which is, in fact, the very essence of
both fact and philosophy make plain to
every candid mind Rain feeds the springs
To feed them economically, it should be gen
tie and frequent not violent and at long in
tervals Intelligent forest engineering would
require that such portion of hills be clothed
with mantle of green trees, as by its cooling
influence it would more frequently so contract
the aerial sponge as to give us showers at
short intervals. This is the case in forest
clothed, beautiful Britain. The reverse Is true
in tree-stripped Spain, whose people have be-
come as proverbial for their hatred Of trees as
their country has for sterility of soil and
sleeping streams. There, and all eastward
through the Orient a relentlessly brilliant sky
and an appalling absence of verdure will teach
one rs nothing else can how beautiful are
clouds that weep, and, in its proper time, how
delicious a drizzling rainy day. These de
forested Eastern lands are as famous for sea-
SONS of binding storms, and valleys torn by
terrible torrents ms they are for the reverse.
They will soon find their counterpart in all
these characteristics in America, unless we
rouse ourselves with will to understand and
to master these evils Forests promote streams
available for our precious manufacturing in
terests also by furnishing vast and almost in
Vulnerable beds of fallen leaves and of moss.
which act on the earth like huge everything
sponge, to check the sudden rush of the rain
fall into the valleys and down into the streams.
Very rapidly in recent years are mournful in
stances multiplying in which these manufac-
turing streams are transformed by freshets
from spirits of hlessing-to give homes and
food and clothing to thousands who live in the
hAmlets by turning the machinery which
helps them by their labor to help themselves
to demons of destruction. Forests also
promote such steadiness of flow of the streams
as to make them sources of national wealth in
giving employment to skilled labor, by pre-
venting the rapid evaporation of moisture.
Probably more than half the winter that falls
on deforested region in dry season is
whisked of by evaporation Just when it is
most needed to strengthen the depleted mill
streams The steam-engine, to be of any
practical use as a motive power, must have
its action controlled by the conservative in
huence of the balance-wheel. Otherwise its
wheels would whirl at one time with a fury
which would result only in destruction, and
then they would move too slowly to be of SER
vice Thus the forest, by increasing the fire.
quency of gentle rains, and so decreasing the
volume and the length of intervals between
showers, also by regulating their too sudden
plunge into the streams, is the great regulator
provided by nature for their control in the
portions of our country we may find instances
where large amounts of capital have been in
vested TO develop and make available our one,
magnificent and almost numberless hydraulic
powers. Trusting to what seemed a certainty
of employment for themselves and their fam
lilies, thousands of skilled laborers have il
many cases contidingly made their homes a
point where the stream seemed abundant,
powerful and permanent. Then, as the sum
mers came and went, the river seemed t.
sicken and grow more and more feeble, til
there would be a week or two each year il
which the spindles and the looms would b,
silent. As time went on these periods of idle
ness have heightened into months, in which
the labor struggle for bread and clothing, TO
means to pay for the humble little home O
debts incurred in sickness, was compelled I,
he suspended. The cause of all this was thu
the sources of the rivers life had been de
Stroyed or injured by the ignorance, cupidit,
or recklessness of men who lifted up axes OF
the thick trees" far up the mountains, wher
the mill, streams had their birth -Harper'
far A3JO3lsf