The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1885-08-02
MAKING A DESERT.
Consequences of Forest Destruction

| ne American
DR.. Prime, of the New York journal o.
Commerce, in a recent letter describes the
Connecticut River, under the conditions
which have been created by the cutting OF
| the forests, and the Improvement " of the
stream. He says:
| "The Connecticut River, given over TO the
timber. drivers, has BECOME a canal. Reefs
| are blasted out. Bplkheads are built to
turn the current into central channels. The
| melting SHOWS, no longer held back in the
spOngy MOSES OF the forests, and the spring
rains are hurried swiftly down in freshets
which destroy property in the lower country.
The freshets are utilized to bring down every
spring the timber from thousands of acres
where no pine wood will ever grow again.
The summer comes, hot and dry, with low
water in the rivers, which were formerly
full all the summer from the slow drain out
of the dark shades in the upper country.
The natural reservoirs of water are gone,
and all the water comes down with a rush
after every rain. Manufacturing companies
everywhere have found it necessary to make
artificial reservoirs TO take the place of the
lost natural reservoirs. Hills that were
once forest covered are bleak masses of rock,
growing drier year by year. If there was
ever an instance of killing thu goose that
lays golden eggs it is in this method of
treating our northern forests. In hundreds
OF valleys where water was abundant in
former years the water line in the ground is
now below the reach of ordinary wells. The
tendency Is toward that condition which in
century or two will compel resort to irriga-
tion for ordinary agricultural purposes'
The concluding sentence seems a bold one,
and yet 1t may easily prove most clear
sighted prophecy. The meteorological con-
tInU lofa In ft,a III .,f
the soil and the production of crops, have
baen greatly affected in the older parts of
the United States. II is within the intimate
knowledge of all how the swamps have been
drained, the lot wet places dried ont by cnl-
ture how meadows - of forty years ago
have lost that designation, having bscoms
ordinary hay fields; how small runs and
rivulets have entirely disappeared, while
the brooks have shrunk to trihiug proper.
tons, and creeks of former Importance are
now, In every time of drought, only sue
cession of standing poOs Besides this, the
wells-ws speak now particularly Of south
eastern Pennsylvania become 40 nm
certain dependence, and the once valued
springs are so diminished in number and
volume. that cisterns of rain-watsr, ample In
size to supply household usss for many
weeks, have been very generally rssorted to,
and within five years the boring of artesian
wells has become more and more common.
The failure OF small crops, especially garden
vegetables and fruits, the present season,
has been serious, and for them irrigation has
not only been thought of, but in places
where It is exceptionally easy has actually
been put In practice. The gardeners and
fruit culturists may very naturally begin
ina year or two more to provide deep wells
ON the artesian plan, with wind pumps, as
the means of raising water for systematic
and general irrigation of their crops. The
valleys of California long ago showed how
this may be done to advantage, and, curious
as II may seem, We are are apparently not
very far from adopting the same plan In this
part of the country.