Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-12
AGRICULTURAL.
MATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
TIE aRECoRD UNION"
Forest Destruction and culture-A Eensa-
ton Among the Pork Dealers
Cultivation Of the olive.

ton Among the Pork Dealers
Cultivation Of the olive.
Much has been written by the best think
ers Of the past and present on the import
ancs of keeping up the forests of the
world either by the encouragement of
natural growth of timber in forests
or by the artificial culture of such
timber in plantations. The influence of such
forests on climate and consequent produc-
tions of a country have been the theme of
many a writer on natural economy in all
ages. These writers have but recorded the
lessons of nature in these respects. The
prevalence OF forests and the lack of them
have had much to do with the fertility and
the barrenness not only of States or sections
of country but Of whole continents
The vigor, intelligence and even the pros
perity Of the people of all countries have
always been more or less dependent on the
prevalence of forests or the lack of them.
Without timber a country, however naturally
fertile the soil, must necessarily be-
come in time desert, for without
forests, the rainfall cannot be kept up to a
necessary annual quantity to perpstuate the
growth of lesser regulation. When a little
over century ago the Government OF the
United States was formed on the Atlantic
Slope. the continent of North America was
almost one vast forest from ocean to ocean,
and from the Isthmus of Darien to Hudson
bay on the east nj B. hiring straits on the west
The United States occupies the great center
Of this continent and embraces by far the
best AGRICULTURAL portion of the same. From
the Rocky mountains to the Atlantic, and
from the gulf to the lakes, one hundred years
ago was one vast stretch of woods containing
nearly every variety of timber Of value in
the world. This vast region IS to-day but
comparatively settled. The great industries
of railroad, bridge, warehouse, wharf,
factory and bulkhead building have but
fairly begun, and yet throughout all
this vast country the forests that
formerly covered the land have almost en-
tirely disappeared. The builders of all these
necessary improvements are under the neces-
sity of penetrating the extreme Northwest for
the material with which to carry them TOR.
ward. Even the manufacturers of agricult-
ural implements, including wagons and car
riages, are compelled to seek their hard
lumber in the extreme Northwest of the coun-
y
of a second quality. The numbering business
of the Northwest has become vast and reg
ularlY systemstized national industry, and
the forests of that region are disappearing as
the standing grain in wheat field disappears
before California header. But few years
hence and the great lumber harvest of the
country will have been completed, and there
will be no more forests to be felled
by the lumberman's ak. Twenty years
encompass the depletion of the pine forests
of the Northwest at the present rate of ex-
haustion In view of this fact it is impor-
tant to inquire what the Government is doing
to encourage forest culture, and what the
people are doing of their own motion in the
same direction. The only answer that can
be given to this inquiry is, almost nothing at
all. And what is to be the effect of this
stripping of the whole country of the native
forests and substituting nothing in their
stead The deserts of Africa and the barren
countries of southern Europe are suggestions
of the future of our at present most produc
tive sections. The cyclones and hurricanes
that every now and then sweep through the
great western valleys east of the Rocky
mountains, laying waste cities, towns and
country improvements and counting their hu-
man victims by the hundreds, may be regarded
rs but the tell-tale admOnitions of the future of
that vast region. People wonder that the eli
mate of our country is constantly changing, and
vet they go on from year to year producing
the direct cause of those changes, never heed
ing the warning voice of those who forewara
them, and aever needing the practical lessons
of time and hard experience. la our own
State we are not>without examples of the
dangers that await the continued destruction
of the forests on the mountains above u.s. So
naked of timber and so deprived of the e0ual-
izing effects of the forest shade upon the eli
mate are these mountains becoming that each
year the SHOWS of the Sierras and the rains
OF the foothills and valleys below come rush.
ing through the low lands, bringing destruc-
ton of property and loss of life with them.
Thirty years ago the Sierras were covered by
Al almost unbroken forest of stately pines,
that completely shaded their rugged surfaces
Then it was no uncommon thing for the
SHOWS of the winter to remain IN
melted till they were twenty feet deep
on the level. Then they came down gradu-
ally, keeping the rivers full TO their banks
TIL June or July, but producing no great
Hoods to lay waste the country. How has it
been of late years? To-day there is scarcely
any snow on the mountains. It melted al
most as rapidly az it touched the naked soil,
and as consequence all the water of the
vast watershed above US came rushing down
the gorges and joined with that that fell lower
down and filled the whole country fuller than
had ever been known before. Thus every
section of our country is already reaping the
reward Of the unwise destruction of our for
ests and the whole people are being warned
OF the consequences of these acts. Shall we
take heed of these warnings, or shall we still
60 on from bad TO worse till it is too late for
redemption.