Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-03-01
Forest Destruction, Floods and OroUfh.
Nashville American.


The barrenness of many regions
of the globe is attributed TO the
destruction of the forest growth
from time to time by the former in
habitants OF those regions. Some
writers are declaring that the earth
is undergoing gradual process OF
desiccatiOn under this practice OF
timber waste, and even predicting,
though very far in the future, that
our planet will finally dry up and
become as barren of moisture as its
gIoomy-surfaced satellite, the moon.
The arid and tenantieSS deserts oil
our western territory were evident
ly once inhabited by an Intelligent
race, as the relics of the cliff build
ers show, but, with the present
dearth of water in these regions, 1T
would be impossible to inhabit them
now. Thousands upon thousands
of square miles of vegetation has
disappeared from the barrens OF
Arizona. In Mediterranean coun-
tries, from Greece to Gibraltar, the
slopes are washing away in a hope
less decline. In this country as in
Europe the clearing away of lands
and the enormous consumption of
timber, we are told is gradually re-
ducing the natural irrigation Of the
soil, while the phenomenon of
winter floods begins to repeat itself
in America. DIR. Oswald illustrates
it thus: "Cover a table with d
thick stratum of spOngy moss and
pour on a gallon Of water. The wa
ter will OOze through and trickle
down the table, but very slowly,
drop by drop, and that process of
liberation will continue for a long
time; four hours after the table will
still be dripping wet. Then remove
the moss and empty the same gallon
pot on the center of the table. This
time the deluge will pour down in
a quick rush, and four hours later
the table will be as dry as if moth
ing had happened. with the same
difference of result a rain-shower
acts on a wooded and treeless cOun-
try. The forest, with its network
OF moss and roots, absorbs nine
tenths of the moisture, and yields
it only slowly in brooks and per-
.ennial springs. A naked hill per-
mits it to pour down in rapid deluge,
brooks swell to torrents and rivers
to seas but in the summer time
those same rivers shrink to shall
low creeks; their head-waters in
the treeless mountains have run
dry"
The shrinking of our water cours-
es is an observed fact all over the
country. 1t is attributed to the
clearing away of the forest growth.
In Pennsylvania alone the "clear-
ings" of the last ten census years
(I87O-S0) amount TO the mOnstl Gus
total of 1925, 900 acres, in West Vir-
ginia to 300, 200 acres, and nearly as
much in Kentucky and Tennessee.
The track of the East Tennessee &
Virginia railroad will soon be
marked by long stretch of barren
hills. Those lumber yards of pine
and walnut timber which the Gin
cinnati Southern Tugs home on
every freight train comes from the
upper tributaries of the Kentucky
river and the outlying coves of the
Cumberland valley, which had
thus far escaped the destroyer.
Hundreds of acres are often Thought
up" cleared" and "grubbed" in
single month, and the sOng-birds
returning from their winter trip to
the tropics find pile of scorched
stumps as the only memento of a
stately forest. The springs fail.
Last summer the Alabama river be-
came iOrdable where the oldest set
tier had rarely seen less than six
feet of water.
Thus our water supply is being
diminished at the season when it is
most needed for agriculture, and
the floods come in the winter now
with increasing volume, involving
the loss of millions of property, I'M
til it is becoming quite serious
question. 1t will require not only
the cessation of the winter waste of
forest growth, but the replanting of
trees in many parts of the country.
The subject is just now engaging
the attention of the press of the
country, and the time may not be
far off before the Government will
have to interpose some method of
forest preservation, if not to provide
palliatives against the ruin that is
threatened,