Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-08-21
ALOOK INTO THE FUTURE. VI

Empire to Change Its Course South
ward.
[Prof. Felix X. Oswald, in Cincinnati Enquirerl
! The true basis of national wealth is
not gold, but wood. Forest-destruc-
ton Is the sin that has cost us our
earthly paradise. The ak has turned
the garden lands of the East into hope
less deserts; it has destroyed, rather
than devastated, the fairer half of the
habitable earth, for the ruin is practi-
cally irremediable. There is theoret-
ical possibility Of retaining the barren
lands of the East, but experience has
shown that the difficulties of the task
exceed the present and prospective re-
sources of the human race.
The chances are hundred to one
that the United States will become the
most densely-populated country of the
world before the ingenuity of despair
will enable mankind to reclaim the
Eastern sand-wastes. The great Med
iterranean desert is moving Westward
as fast as our centre of population, and
has reached the east shores of Italy
and Spain. Africa is dying continent.
Australia is steppe with a narrow
border of farming land. The climate
of South America, like that of Hin
dostan, is not compatible with the
habits (or, in palmer language, with the
vices) of the progressive nations. North
America is the land of the future.
The census of A. d. 1900 will show
remarkable change in the distribu-
ton of our population; before the end
of the present decade tseeenter will
begin to move southwark instead of
westward. Two hundred years ago,
when the first settlers of our Atlantic
seaboard were guided by the comparison
OF natural advantages, most of them
preferred the colonies south of Chesa-
peake bay. The pilgrims of the May
flower intended to settle in South Vir-
ginia, but heavy storms drove them
out of their course, and their landing
at Plymouth Rock was purely ac-
cidental. The next twenty years will
modify the results of that accident as
well as the after effects of negro slavery
and political intolerance. Before long
the climatic superiority of the "Pied-
mont region" the terrace land of the
Southern Alleghenies, will begin to
tell. Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee
and the Carolinas will more than double
their population within the next fifteen
years. Various industries will establish
their headquarters in the South. Com
mercial activity in the highest phases
of its present development seems to re-
quire the stimulus of a cold climate,
but the mechanical industries find a
congenial home under the isotherms of
Lyons and Geneva, and will profit
by the cheap labor of the old slave
States. Cotton will be spun where it
grows The coal deposits of Tennessee
and Alabama, the immense water-power
of Northern Georgia, will not be much
longer neglected; and after a few sue
cessfh investments the rivalry of trade
will soon stud the South with manu-
featuring towns. The railroad from
Atlanta to Lynchburg via Spartanburg,
Charlotte and Danyille,a Va, is destined
to rival the "Big City" road from
Niagara to Lake Michigan. These Chi
Cages OF the South will perhaps be
more orthodox than their Northern
rivals conservatism being a concom-
liant of climatic blessings-but they will
not be Sabbatarian cities; under the
latitude of Italy it has never been pop
ular to suppress the outdoor amuse-
ments of the poor.
On the plateau of the Southern Ale
ghenies the summer season is as genial
as IN Southern Switzerland, while its
spring is just late enough to prevent
the premature blossoming of fruit
trees, and thus saves them from the
March frosts. This apple region COM
prises all the Southern mountain
States between the thirty-fourth and
thirty-seventh parallels, and seems to
be equally we'll adapted for pears,
peaches and figs. Immigration and ex-
periments will settle that point, and
then man-food par excellence will cease
to be an article of luxury.
The West, IN the meanwhile, will be-
come the granaary of the world. But
after the wheat area has spread to the
borders of the arid central plateau it
will invade the woodlands of the North
west-Michigan and the timber belt of
the Northern lake region-as well as tn
forests of the Mississippi valley, and
the decrease of aboreal vegetation will
then begin to exert its inevitable eli
matte influence. The total annual rain
fall will decrease, but the confluence of
the winter rains, unchecked by the
misunderstanding network of the
woods, will cause disastrous freshets;
Louisiana and Arkansas will be inun-
dated as regularly as Lower Egypt,
and at the mouth of the Mississippi the
deposits of river sediment will keep
fleet of dredge-boats busy. In mid
summer the upland will be visited by
more frequent droughts; the Rocky
Mountain locust will establish its head
quarters in Southern Missouri and col
onize the cotton States. At the same
time, however, the climate of the Mid
die and Northern States will become
more agreeable, namely, dryer and
mi!der. Excessive clearings have thus
modified the climate of all Southern