The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-02-28
The Destruction of Forests.

Physical laws cannot be outraged
with impunity. 1t is time, says an
eloquent writer in the December num-
her Of the North american Revieae,
to recognize the fact that there aie.'
some sins against which not one of
the Scriptural codes Of the East con-
tains a word Of warning. The de-
struction of forests is such sin, and
its significance is preached by every
desolate country on the surface Of the
globe. Three million square miles of
the best lands which ever united the.
conditions OF human happiness have
perished in the sands and drifts of ar
titicial desrts, and are now more ire
trievablv lost to mankind than the
islands ingulfed by the waves of
Zuyder Zee. Some Of these countries,
like Egypt and Palestine. We're over.
taken by then fate long ago, while
the ruin of others has been compassed
within comparatively V recent periods.
Since the beginning of the 10th CEN
tury the population of four Mediter-
ranean peninsulas has decreased more,
than fifty five millions, and the value
Of their agricultural products by at
least sixty per cent. (even without
making allowance for the increase in
prices(; and tie rate of the decline
from year to year bears an exact pro-
portion to the decrease of the forest
area of every district.
TO the striking facts cited by Mr.,
Oswald in illustration of this state
ment, so far as concerns the Turkish.
provinces in Europe and Asia Minor,
Atghanistan, Persia, Mcssopotamia,
Syria, Greece, Macedonia, the south
ern islands of the Mediterranean. and
the whole of Northern Africa from
Cairo to the western extremity of Mo
rocco, it may be added that tae pro-
portion Of land now covered with
forests throughout Europe is 20 per,
cent, Russia and Sweden furnishing
the greater part. In Russia it is es
timated that 40 per cent. of territory
is covered with woods, and of this,
some 20O,O0O,OOO acres are covered
with pines and other cone-bearing
trees. Sweden and Norway have "a.
per cent, chiefly birch, maple, pine,
fir, and willow. Austria has 20, per
cent, Germany 26, and France II.
Far below these comes Spain, with
it's cork woods and evergreen oak for
ests, covering per cent. of the land,
and Holland and Belgium with the
same proportion. In all countries
the percentage is decreasing rapidly
every year. As far back as 1888
it was calculated that in Great Brit.
ain and Ireland alone timber to the
value of G2,OOG,00O or SlO,OO0,0O0,
was yearly cut down.
1t appears that since the year 1885,
(the date of the first reliable South
American ST statistics) the forest area of
the Western Hemisphere has decreas-
ed at the average yearly rate of u
100000 acres, or about 400 square
miles; and that in the United States
alone this rate has advanced from,
1000 square miles in 1885 to 1000
in 1855, and s,4OO in 1876. Be-
tween 1850 and 1885 the total aggre-
gate of forest felled in South and
Central America Especially in South
eastern Mexico), and in the Eastern,
Southeastern and Southwestern States
of our republic, may be estimated at
from As, 900, 600 to 5O,ooO,0O0 acres,
In other oids, as Mr.. Oswald figures.
it out. we have been wasting the
moisture. supply of the American soil
at the average ratio of seven percent,
for each quarter of a century during
the last one hundred and twenty-five
years. and are now fast approaching
the limit beyond which any further
decrease will affect the climatic phe-
nomena Of the entire continent. The:
inhabitants Of the a!luvial bottom
lands of which, replenished by mex,
haustible rivers. we own about 40, 900
square miles at the mouth OF the
Mississippi and its southern trlbnta.3
ries. and in the swamps OF the Gun
coast, may, like the einhabitants OF the
lower Amazon Valley, violate every
law of agricultural economy to their
hearts content ''they will never ex-
haust the cornucopia Of the river god,
who will continue to lavish his abund-
ance on them, as he has lavished it on
Eoypt. in spite of all they can do to
abuse bis bounty-though these ex-
ceptional privileges may be offset by
the unheaIthiness of their luxuriant
marshes But the vast majority Of
our pnpulation, the dwelers of the
Western plains and the hill countries
of the East and North, enjoy their.
prosperity on which, however easy to
the strict observer, and seemingly
plant to altered conditions, are in re-
atty as inexorable as the laws of
health. The necessity of adopting
in the United States something equiv
alent to the system OF forest laws
which Europe has been forced to rec
ognize as indispensable, is yearly
growing more urgent. And the prac-
tical methods recommended by Mr.,
Oswald for the preservation OF for.
ests merit serious and prompt consid-,
erations on the part OF our people
and their Legislators.
rho lo4oet fan in Paris ia really a