The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1880-11-27
DAILY INTELLIGENCER.
Saturday, Nov. 81. 1880.
INFLUENCE or FORESTS.

Oh ldcts ICbhtibS W thO sOt1s~ ~
tween forests and electricity:
There is no physical fact more in-
contestAbly established by observation
than that forests are protection against
extremes Of the weather. sugh ss sridity
from protracted droughts, or torren.isl
local rains that produce devastating
foods, and besides they assure regular
rains sud their e3uabie distribution.
Spain. before entirely denuded of her
forests, wss the gFsnsry Of the Roman
empire. Now, with her treeless plains,
che does not produce grain enough to
feed her own population. Since the
mountains and plains OF Palestine have
been Invested Of their primitive forests,
the hter rain no longer visits them,
and their productivensss has been re-
duced to minimum. The rivers Of
our own country do not roll nearly 20
large O volume Of water to the ocean
as they did fifty years ego. Bveatbs wa
tors Of the Mississippi are diminishing,
and are not now Whist they were within
the recollection Of many Citizens who
have scarcely passed the meridian Of
life. Thirty yssrssgo Fsvre river YVES
navigsble to Galena for the largest class
OF boats in the u,-riyers trade; today it
is scarcely nsvigable for 9 scow. What
is true of the Mississippi river, 10 true
Of all the rivera, whether east or vest.
to produce this unvsrying result. That
cause mus. be- the same that has ia all
cimss in the past dried mp rivers and
cursed the soil with sridity. IL 10 uni
vcrsally admitted that in Europe. Asia,
and Africa. where once fertile regions
have been smitten with bsrrenness. and
tnrned into inhospltsbie deserts, the
cause has been the denudation Of the
country Of its primitive forests.
The CaEpathisn mountains, in which
Thesis has its sources, are rapidly being
despoiled of their forests; and the
Sierra do AIoaraz and Sierra de Segurs
for century have been entirely nude
of timber. Such catastropbes - those
which have occurred during the present
year would have been i,npossible II the
mountains IN which tbs rivers have
their sources were clothed. as they for
merly were, with dense forests.
But in vlat manner DO forests assure
regular rains. and effect their equsble
distributiou' This question cannot be
answered until We attain 70 q knowledge
of the Interior caase Of atmospheric
phsnomens, and comprehend the laws
by and through which that cause oper>
atss in producing its effects. The So
called scientists have not yet discovered
this Interior Fundamental cause; and,
though many OF its laws in the abstract
are known to them. they have never
dreamed Of applying them for al ex-
PLANTATION OF the operations OF nature.
Every observing farmer has noticed
facts which. il traced up. wonld dis
close both the cause aud its laws OF
cornstalk standing in wet space from
four to six inches In diameter, while
the surrounding soil Ia a. dry a. dust.
He has seen that during the night trees
have gathered moisture enough to battle
their trunks. and that water enough
has trickled down the stem to moisten
the earth around the roots He has
observed that trees rob Of dew and
rain. in dry weather. all crops growing
around them. 80 that they lspgalsh and
die. while plants ut u greater distance
ara but little. il any. affected. Why is
this so. and what explanation can be
given Of the phenomenon ?
The cause 10 tho same that produces
the following phenomena, and hence an
explanation that accounts for one 40
counts for the other. A rain gage
placed upon q church steeple gathers
from Is to 90 per cent. more water 10
every rain that falls than one placed at
the same elevation 30 feet from the
church steeple. A gage placed upon
hill receives moro water than one
placed ct the foot Of the hill A gage
placed upon the sumuit Of Kingfans,
Scotland, . hill 600 feet high, and
neatly perpendicular. gathers upon an
aven 10 Il per cent. more rain than .
siuiisf gage placed at is foot. The
experiments made 10 France for years
with rain Cages placed above trees 600
meters from the edge Of . plain, gath
cred invariably from l5 10 90 per cent.
more water than did the rain Cages
placed at the same elevation above the
plain GOO meters from the edge Of the
forcst. All these phenomena are iden-
tical, and point in the same dire,tion
for their explanation. What is that
explanation FNF
Sir John Herschel saw tho open
secret and if be had been as good 4
meteorological as be was astronomer. he
would have understood il. when be
discovered. while residing at the Cape
Of Good Hopc. that he could not 20 un-
der clump of FIR trees near his house
when the .promontoiy-ss ell high
moahtaiDs dodsily : had formei q cloud
that 0verhung the surrounding land
scape. without snco1nssring Q rain suf>
tioient to web his clothing IL short
time. il he remained under the trees.
This same phenonsnon can be- seen In
the Rockyz Mountains IN The upper
valley Of the South Boulder. near the
base Of the snowy range. Whenever
the snowy rAngs has formed cloud,
however thin aad Rausy. no one can
pass through "a evergreen foscse whose
every limb and twig 10 feeteosed with
. hne greco moss four 10 six feet long.
without having his clothing saturated
by heavy mist. which invariably
falls andsr these conditions. The cause
of the phenomenon cannot be mistaken.
for 1t ia 90 plain as to DO pAlpablc. u
IL electric action bstsecn the trees and
the clouds. The positive electricity on
the clouds that distsnd the vspor 10
neutralized by q stream OF negatively
electrified vapor released from the con-
trol Of repalsian. approach each other,
eoslssce, form droplsss Of rain. and fall
10 the earih.