Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-14

peateily. For several years past an annual
report on Forestry has been compiled Tin the
usual clumsy, slipshod way) and pub
lished at Government expense. But
though these reports have been eloquent
of the necessity for action, and though
during the administration of President
Hayes, the Secretary of the Interior
Carl Schurz) made constant efforts to secure
remedial measures, Congress has really ap-
peared TO have the interests of the timber
thieves more at heart than those OF
the people, Yet the subject is a
very serious one, and in many ways.
In the first place the employment Of wood
in all kinds of manufactures is increasing
continually. Now this being SO, the rapid
consumption Of the available timber must
fiaaliy bring all these manufactures into
trouble, and compel either their abandon
ment for lack of material, or the importa-
tion of foreign timber But in truth it will
not do to rely greatly upon importation,
for other countries have been quite as reck-
less as the United States iu this matter,
and many Of them have recently adopted
legislation of the most stringent character
for the conservation and reproduction Of
their forests. This is the case in Germany.
France, Spain, Italy, and Norway and
Sweden. The magnificent forests of Nor.
way have been almost destroyed, and now
expectation must be checked In Russia
Austria and Hungary the same experience
OF reckless denudation has been mad, and
in fact it is evident that all the world must
before long begin to husband the timber
resources of the globe, or prepare for dis
astrous consequences.
The failure Of our timber supply for fuel
and manufactures and architectural pur-
roses would be calamitous. But the re-
suits of the destruction of the forests are
certain to be much more extensive and
much more mischievous than this consider
alton alone suggests. For we must antici-
pate marked climatic changes from the
denudation of the mountain ranges and the
stripping Of the plains. Already in the
level reaches of such States as Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, the conse.
quences of the entire removal of the timber
are becoming apparent in the increase Of
hurricanes and cyclones. The winds,
sweeping over the level plains without
check Of any kind, acquire force which
is destructive to everything in their path.
In fact they act under such circumstances
very much as the streams act when their
upper waters have been stripped of all tim
Der shelter, and their watersheds are con-
verted into naked slopes. What happens
then we are finding out in this State. The
deuudation OF the Sierra has already be.
gun to establish torrential action in some
of our rivers. The snow which falls on
the sides of the ravines which have been
stripped of their timber, melts or slides
down at the first warm rain, and precipi.
tates enormous bodies of water into the
river channels. Thus the winter floods
come down more rapidly and suddenly
than ever and thus the danger of destruc.
tive inundation in the valleys is annually
increased.
The destruction of timber in the Sierra
is proceeding in the usual reckless fashion.
| On the Nevada side it has been carried to
greater extremes. The vicinity of Lake
Tahoe, for instance, has been almost cleared
OF timber, and as one result the winters
are said TO be mo1e severe there than form
erly. Unless this rapid destruction of the
| forests is checked it will not be long before
our rivers assume torrential character,
and when the winter SHOWS are no longer
| held on the hanks of the mountains by
the trees, and no longer prevented from
too rapid melting, the flood waters will
come down with suddenness and volume
beyond the power of any levees to with
stand, and foundations of the most serious
kind must follow. For it is not the auan-
tity OF water that makes food dangerous
It is the suddenness of its descent The
natural channels which if given time could
safely convey away fall equal to twenty
nohes of rain, will faib to cope with one-
fourth of that quantity if it is thrown all
at once into the rivers. And it is this sud-
denness of descent that the denudation
of o,,r fo-aots +ando 70 inora,sa T., E.o,oo
it has been found necessary to enact the
most severe laws for the protection and
reproduction of the forests. In the de-
partments of the Ardeche and the Drome
the stripping of the mountains had pro-
duced such torrents that in the Ardeche
one-third of the department, embracing
so, 200 acres, was rendered uncultivable
and uninhabitable, while in 1856 the floods
almost ruined several large towns in the
| neighborhood. The problem of "reboise-
ment," as it is called, or wooding, has
in that country and in Germany been most
carefully studied, and made the object of
scientific research for years. We also shall
be compelled to adopt these precautions
and remedies unless we are prepared to see
our forests disappear entirely and it must
also be realized. that when once a noun
tain forest has been destroyed completely,
it is impossible to reproduce it upon its
original site. Torrential action once set
up prevents the planting of new trees. We
trust chat Senator Miller will exert himself
to secure protection for the forests yet
remaining on the flanks of the Sierra.
RAILWAY FORECLOSURES IN 1881.
The Chicago Rait,Cay Age publishes every
year recapitulation of the foreclosures on
railways during the preceding twelve
month. 1t has just issued the list for