The Newtown bee., 1879-08-13
The Destruction of Americau Forests.

Of desolation which is recorded far | back of the days of Roman or even of | Grecian glory, we re that '' man was
 famous according as he had lifted up
 axes upon the thick trees" In the days when American forests were considered practically limitless, our fathers were
 far too famous for lifting up axes upon
 the thick trees, and the resultant destruc- tlon IS even now upon us, like the Pal lstlnes upon Samson. This destruction
 comes upon us in many forms, most of
 which are, in fact, rapidly and terribly
 cumulative. Here is beautiful stream of water. for example, which was a
 great element of wealth to the region | through which it flowed. It might not
 only have continued to be so, but to have gained in usefulness instead of being
 dead or surely and swiftly passing away. The numberless little hollows on the hills where were the springs which grew into rivulets to feed it have been stripped of the moisture-economizin | 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 been already smitten, hundreds of millions of dollars of annual damage has been and is the actual re- suit. That this drying up of the streams is attributable not only chiefly to defor esting, but almost solely to it, common sense-which is. in fact, the very essence
 of both fact and philosophy-must make the springs. To feed them economically,
 it should be gentle and frequent, not violent and at long intervals. Intelli- | gent forest engineering would require
 that such portion of hills be clothed
 with a mantle of green trees as by its cooling influence it would more ire quently so contract the aerial sponge as
 to give us us showers at short in
 tervals; This is the case in forest
 c.othed, beautiful Britain. The re-
 verse is true in tree-tipped Spain.
 whose people have become as pro-
 verbal for their hatred of trees as their
 country has for sterility of soil and sleep | ing streams. There, and on eastward i all through the Orient, relentlessly 1 brilliant sky and an appallins absence of
 verdure will teach one as nothing else
 cal. how beautiful are clouds that weep,
 and, in its proper time. how delicious a ! drizzling rainy day. The deforested | Eastern lands are as famous for seasons
 of binding storms, and valleys torn by ! terrible torrents. as they are for the re- i verse. They will soon find their counter part in all these characteristics in America, unless we rouse ourselves with i a will to understand and to master these i evils. Forests promote streams avail
 able for our precious manufacturing i'm 1 terests, also, by furnishing vast and al-
 most innumerable beds of fallen leaves and of moss, which act on the earth 1 like huge overlying sponge, to check
 the sudden rush of the rainfall into the
 valleys and down into the streams. l Very rapidl in recent years are mourn full instances multiplying in which these
 manufacturing streams are transformed l by freshets from spirits of blessings-to l give homes and food and clothing % ! 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 1 promote such steadiness of flow of the l streams as to make them sources of
 national wealth in giving employment ! to skilled labor, by preventing the rapid
 evaporation of moisture. Probably
 more than half the water that falls on
 a deforested region in a dry season is ! whisked off by evaporation just at the | time when it is most needed to strengthen
 the depleted mill-streams. The steam
 engine to be of any practical use as
 motive power. must have its action con | trolled by the conservative influence of
 
 would whirl at one time with fury
 which would result only in destruction, | and then they would move too slowly to | be of service. Thus the forest, by in
 creasing the frequency of gentle rains. and so decreasing the volume and the 1 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 1 the service of man. All over the manu- 1 featuring portions of our country we
 may find instances where large amounts
 of capital have been invested to develop
 and make available our once magnificent
 and almost numberless hydraulic i powers. Trusting to what seemed 6
 certainty of employment for themselves and their families, thousands of skilled laborers have in many eases confidingly
 made their homes at a point where the
 stream seemed abundantly powerful and permanent. Then, as the summers came and went, the river seemed to 1 sicken, and grow more and more feeble, till there would be week or two each year in which the spindles and the looms
 would be silent. As 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 humble little home, or debts incurred in sickness. was compelled to be sus- pended. The cause of all this was that the sources of the rivers life had been
 destroyed or injured by the ignorance.
 cupidity, or recklessness of men who
 lifted up the axe on the thick trees" far up the mountains. where the mill streams had their birth--G. v. .FofoeH. tn Harper's 1fagazins.