Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-08-17

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But, by all that's fair above,
| Now, how are you fixed for money?
You're sweet as dream of love.
You're sweet as plate Of honey.
The Destruction of our Forests.
iOf a desolation which is recorded far
back OF the days of Roman or even of
Grecian glory, we read that "a man was
famous according as he had lifted up axes
upon the thick trees" In the DAYS when
American forests were considered practi
cally limltless, our fathers were far too
famous for lifting up axes upon the thick
trees, and the resultant destruction is
even now upon us, like the Philsstines
upon Sampson. This destruction comes
to US in many forms, most of which are.
in fact, rapidly and terribly cumulative.
Here is beautiful stream of wa
ter, for example, which was great
element of wealth to the re-
gion through which it flowed. It
might not only have continued to be 50.
but to have gained in usefulness instead
OF being dead or surely and swiftly pass
ing away. The numberless little hol-
lows on the hills where the springs
which grew into rivulets to feed it have
been stripped OF the moisture-economiz-
ing verdure with which the Creator clo-
thed them, and so the springs are dry,
and the rills no longer murmur their
once glad songs of labor as they hasten
down the valleys to turn the mill-wheels
OF mechanical industry. In this one
matter OF destruction of hydraulic pow
er with which we have been already
smittsn, hundreds of millions Of dollars Of
damage has been and is the actual result.
That this drying up of the streams is
attributable not only chiefly to deforest-
ing, but almost solely to it. common
sense--which is, in fact, the very essence
of both fact and philosophy -must make
plain to every candid mind. Rain feeds
the springs. To feed them economically.
1t should be gentle and frequent, not
violent and at long intervals. Intelligent
forest engineering would require that
such portion of hills be clothed with a
mantle OF green trees as by It's cooling in
tiuence it would more frequently so con-
tract the aerial sponge as to give us
showers at short intervals. This is the
case in forest-clothed, beautiful Britain
The reverse is true is tree-stripped Spain
whose people have become as pro-
verbal for their hatred OF trees
as their country has for Ste
rlllty OF soil and sleeping streams There,
and on eastward all through the Orient,
a relentlessly brilliant sky and an appall-
ing absence OF verdure will teach one as
nothing else can how beautiful are clouds
that weep, and, in its proper time, how
delicious drizzling rainy day. These
detorested Eastern lands are as lannon's
for seasons Of binding storms and val
leys torn by terrible torrents, as thew 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 interests, al
so, by furnishing vast ana innumerable
beds OF fallen leaves and moss, which act
on the earth lixe "a huge everything sponge.
to check the sudden rush of the rain-f
into the valleys and down into the streams.
Very rapidly in recent years are mourn
tut instances multiplying in which these
manufacturing streams are transformed
by freshets from spirits of blessing-to
give homes and food and clothing to fhons-
ands who live in hamlets, by turning the
machinery which helps them by their labor
to help themselves demons of destruc-
ton.
Forests also promote such steadiness
OF How OF the streams as to make them
sources of national wealth in giving en-
ployment to skilled labor, by preventing
the rapid evaporation of moisture. Prob,
ably more than half the water that falls
on deforested region in dry season is
Whlsked OFT by evaporation Just at the
time when it is most needed to strength
en- the depleted mlll-streams. The steam
engine, to be of any practical use as a
motlve power, must have its &C
ton controlled by the conservative in
t1uence of the balance-wheel. Otherwise
it's wheels would whirl at one time with
a fury which would result only in des-
truction, and then they would move too
slowly to be of service. Thus the forest
by Increasing the frequency of gentle
rains, and so decreasing the volume and
the length of intervals between showers.
by regulating their too sudden plunge in,
to streams, is the regulator provided by
nature for their control in the service Of
man.
All over the manufacturing portion of
our country we may find instances where
large amounts Of capital have been in
vested to develop and make available our
once magnificent and almost numberless
hydraulic powers. Trusting to what
seemed certainty Of employment for
themselves and their families, thousands
OF skilled laborers have in MANY cases
conhdingly made their homes at point
where the stream seemed abundantly pow
erful and permanent. Then, as the sum
mers came and went, the river seemed to
sicken, and grow more and more feeble.
till there would be week or two in each
year in which the spindles and the looms
would be silent.
AS the time went on these periods of
idleness have heightened into months. in
which the labor struggle for bread and
clothing, for means to pay for the hum.
bic little home or debts incurred in sick
ness, was compelled to be suspended.